This is a series created and edited by Michael Bracken and Trey Barker and published by Down & Out Books. Each tale is set in Chicago, and somewhere in the story, a taco truck is featured. Not just any taco truck, though. This one is a front for selling illicit weapons. If a person know what the day’s “special” is, s/he can score something dangerous to use while doing something dark…
This series has episodes by Gary Phillips, Michael Bracken, Trey Barker, William Dylan Powell, James A. Hearn, and me.
My own contribution to this series is A Gyro and a Glock (all of the names have a taco item and a weapon in the title). It will be the third episode, released on September 1, 2019.
In it, heroin addict Tim and his best friend Ernie are beset on all sides by badge-heavy cops and predatory dealers. When they get backed into a corner, it seems like there aren’t any options left to them.
Except…. Ernie recently heard about this taco truck…
Author’s Note: This series was born at the 2018 Bouchercon conference, hatched by Michael and Trey in the lobby near the bar. My understanding was that it started as a joke, then moved to a “well, maybe,” and evolved into an actual good idea.
Also of note, the format of the series was modeled after my own series, A Grifter’s Song. Michael and Trey picked my brain at that same bar. It was only fair, since I got the idea of using different authors for each episode and releasing monthly from another project that Gary Phillips proposed (and will hopefully see the light of day…).
“A Gyro and a Glock” also appears in my short story collection, Sugar Got Low. The audio version, narrated by David Temple, is also available as part of that same collection.
