The Nicotine Chronicles

The most successful entries delve bone-deep into addiction, as characters smoke to smother physical pain, loneliness, and their days … These writers capture the mental gymnastics behind the characters’ bad decisions, and the joy such bad decisions can bring.– “Publishers Weekly”Typically for Akashic–publisher of the terrific Noir series–the stories approach the subject matter from an impressive number of angles … Akashic has yet to produce a dull anthology, and this one is especially good.– “Booklist”

Lee Child was fired and out of work when he hatched a harebrained scheme to write a best-selling novel, thus saving his family from ruin. Killing Floor went on to launch the New York Times #1 best-selling Jack Reacher series with over 100 million books sold in forty-nine languages. Forbes calls it “the strongest brand in publishing.” The series has spawned two feature films and an upcoming Amazon Prime Video series.