COMING IN APRIL: FIGHT CARD MMA!

COMING IN APRIL: FIGHT CARD MMA!

Fight Card Publications announces the upcoming April debut of its new series Fight Card MMA, the first of several new expansions of the bestselling Fight Card brand.  Fight Card MMA will take the Fight Card series from the ring to the cage, while delivering ground-and-pound action equal to the exciting fistic pulp action demanded by fans of the monthly Fight Card novels.

Like the original Fight Card novels, the Fight Card MMA tales will be written by many of the best authors working in New Pulp under the series unifying pseudonym, Jack Tunney.

First up in the cage is author Gerard Brennan. His Fight Card MMA: Welcome To The Octagon takes readers deep into the hardscrabble world of Ireland’s burgeoning MMA scene, from dangerous underground battles to the spotlight of the cage.  Brennan has previously won critical acclaim for his hard-hitting novels The Point, Wee Rockets, and Fireproof.  

Published simultaneously, Fight Card: The Kalamazoo Kid comes from top MMA author Jeremy Brown.  Brown’s previous MMA themed novels, Suckerpunch and Hook And Shoot – featuring rising MMA star Aaron Woodshed Wallace – have become the benchmark by which all other MMA themed novels are judged. Fight Card: The Kalamazoo Kid is a tightly plotted tale of revenge where every move inside and outside of the cage can be deadly.

Fight Card MMA: Welcome To The Octagon and Fight Card MMA: The Kalamazoo Kid will debut digitally and in print during the Pulp Ark convention to be held April 26-28-2013, in Springdale, AR.  

Pulp Ark is one of the nation’s leading popular culture conventions, and will be featuring Fight Card co-creator Paul Bishop as a Guest of Honor.  Pulp Ark will also see the digital and print debut of Fight Card: Swamp Walloper, written by Bishop as a sequel to his first Fight Card novel, Fight Card: Felony Fists.

For more information on Fight Card and Fight Card MMA CLICK HERE

For more information on Pulp Ark CLICK HERE

AUTHOR JOHN KENYON JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

AUTHOR JOHN KENYON JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

Fight Card is excited to announce the addition of John Kenyon to the Fight Card Team of two-fisted, hard-punching, writers. John’s Fight Card novelette, Fight Card: Get Hit, Hit Back, will be released in May 2013.

John is a writer and editor who lives in Iowa City. He has published numerous short stories, with some of his best collected in The First Cut from Snubnose Press. In addition, he is the editor of Grift magazine and the accompanying website (www.griftmag.com), where he publishes short fiction, reviews, interviews and essays. He has also edited the anthology Grimm Tales for Untreed Reads. By day, he is executive director of the nonprofit Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization.

JOHN KENYON ON THE WEB
Twitter: @tirbd/ @GriftMag
Grift Magazine: www.griftmag.com
Blog: Things I’d Rather Be Doing ~ http://www.tirbd.com
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ao5ozzo

FIGHT CARD UPDATE

FIGHT CARD UPDATE

Lots of news to cover, so I’m going to get right down to it.  Our January offering Fight Card: Rumble in the Jungle from David Foster got 2013 off to a great start for us.  This is David’s second Fight Card novel (after Fight Card: King Of The Outback) and he really blows the pulp doors off in this tale ... 

Fight Card: Rumble in the Jungle

Hell’s Kitchen, 1953

Brendan O’Toole is on a downward slide. When his wife dies in a freak car accident, he quits his job and hits the bottle hard. Half tanked in the ring, he allows himself to be knocked out, ending his boxing career.

O’Toole, hits rock bottom. After a night of boozing, he is brutally mugged and left for dead. But O’Toole has friends, even if he can’t see it. One of them is Danny Reilly, a barman with a heart of gold. He arranges for O’Toole to join a construction crew set to work on a hotel being built in the Central African jungle nation of Sezanda. It’s O’Toole’s last shot at redemption.

Sezanda, Central Africa, 1954

As things begin to look up for O’Toole, the Sezandan government is overthrown in a military coup. All foreigners are taken prisoner and locked in concentration camps. O’Toole is sent to the worst, HELL CAMP XXI, under the control of a brutal ex-Nazi, Kommandant Krieger. Krieger has a special way of keeping his prisoners under control. In the camp, he has erected a boxing ring. And anyone who steps out of line is forced to face off against his man-mountain, wrecking machine, Crator – a man whose sole purpose is to inflict pain.

Fate has destined Brendan O’Toole to don the gloves one more time, in a fight not just for his life, but his very soul.

 

As always any ‘likes’ or reviews on Amazon, or mentions on Facebook, Twitter, or posts via your blogs are always appreciated ...

Next up is our February release, Fight Card: Against The Ropes from acclaimed New Pulp author Terrence P. McCauley.  In December, Terrence saw his novel Prohibition – featuring Terry Quinn, ex-boxer turned mob enforcer in 1920’s New York – released from top pulp publisher Airship 27. Prior to the release of Prohibition, Terrence pitched the prequel – telling the tale of Terry Quinn’s boxing years – as a Fight Card novel.  While the 1920’s was new ground for Fight Card, the character and writing was so strong, it was immediately a done deal. Fight Card: Against The Ropes is the result.

 

Fight Card: Against The Ropes

 

New York City - 1925

 

The boxing ring was the only world Terry Quinn had ever known. He'd entered the hallowed halls of St. Vincent’s Home for Boys in New York City as a fighter and left as a boxer. Years of training and honing his skills finally paid off as he fought his way to the top. Only one more fight stood between Quinn and shot at the heavyweight championship against Jack Dempsey.  It was the glory he'd been waiting for all his life.

 

But things have never gone easy for Terry Quinn. As he starts training for the biggest fight of his career, a crew of Tammany thugs and fix-it men tell him to throw the fight or face dire consequences. Even before he has a chance to consider their offer, those dire consequences come home to roost when one of his long time corner men turns up dead.

 

The identity of the killer isn't in question. The only question is what is Terry Quinn going to do about it.

 

Against The Ropes is a tough New York tale played out while the Roaring Twenties roared their loudest. Crooked cops, Tammany hacks, has-beens, and even the great Jack Johnson, all play a role in Quinn’s decision – is his quest for justice worth his future, and possibly ... his life.

 

Again any ‘likes’ or reviews on Amazon, or mentions on Facebook, Twitter, or posts via your blogs are always appreciated ...

In other news, our March release will be Fight Card: The Last Round Of Archie Mannis from Joseph Grant.  This will be a different style of Fight Card novel, echoing the biographical pieces done by the great Jack Kofed in many of the sports pulps.

April will see a Fight Card triple combination debut at the 2013 Pulp Ark convention where Fight Card co-creator Paul Bishop (yeah, me) will be the guest of honor.  Pulp Ark will herald the unveiling of the first two novels under the Fight Card MMA banner – Fight Card MMA: Welcome To The Octagon from Gerard Brennan, and Fight Card MMA: The Kalamazoo Kid from Jeremy Brown.  Both Gerard and Jeremy sport extensive critical acclaim for their prior works and have delivered dynamite stories that leap off the page.

The third punch of the combination will be Fight Card: Swamp Walloper – the sequel to Fight Card: Felony Fists – from yours truly, Paul Bishop.  Fight Card: Swamp Walloper will send LAPD cop Pat Flynn and his partner Cornel Tombstone Jones deep into the Louisiana swamps on a mission of two-fisted vengeance – and it won’t take long before they are in the fight of their lives against a sadistic prison warden and a chain gang of swamp rats.

Beyond April, we will see books from John Kenyon (Fight Card: Get Hit, Hit Back), Derrick Ferguson (Fight Card: Brooklyn Beatdown), Tony Hancock (Fight Card: Fight River), Anthony Venutolo (Fight Card: Union Of Snakes), Rory Costello (Fight Card: Flyweight Fury), Bobby Nash (Fight Card: Barefoot Bones), Nick Ahlhelm (Fight Card: MMA: Rosie The Ripper), and returning Fight Card author Kevin Michaels (Fight Card: Can’t Miss Contender) ... Whew!  There is a lot of hard punching Fight Card action on the horizon ... 

As always, artist Keith Birdsong has been doing yeoman work on the covers for our e-books, and David Foster has been very generous in helping to get out our top-notch paperback covers.  Thanks also to Terrence P. McCauley for taking over the Fight Card Twitter feed @FightCardPulps, to Robert Evans for keeping up the Fight Card Linked-In Group (http://tinyurl.com/a3dwcun), and to Jeremy Brown for helping out with the Fight Card website www.fightcardbooks.com/

With the able assistance of David Foster, a new issue of Fight Fictioneers Magazine will also be making an appearance in April and will be promoting all of the Fight Card novels to be published since our last issue as well as the usual assortment of great fight fiction articles.  We are continuing to work on audio versions of our Fight Card titles and hope to have more solid information soon.

Thanks to everyone on the Fight Card Team for getting out the word.  It really is a privilege to work with so many great writers and see through the publication of such great hard-punching stories.

Keep punching ...

 

FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

FIGHT CARD AUTHOR TERRENCE MCCAULEY (WRITING AS JACK TUNNEY) SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON WRITING FIGHT CARD’S FEBRUARY RELEASE ...

I love boxing. Always have – warts and all. 

I can't explain why I love it, exactly. It's not that I ever had any talent for the sport. Oh, I’ve taken and thrown a few punches in my time, but that’s not boxing. I lack a depth of vision that always made sports difficult for me. I could never shag a fly ball properly or gauge the distance between me and a football. And I can't really tell how far away a fist - gloved or not - might be from my face, which made my ability to take a punch come in mighty handy over the years. I was never what you might call a roughneck, but in the course of my life, I had my share of scrapes. 

How many? 

Let’s just say I’ve had enough scrapes to appreciate the skill and commitment it takes to climb into a ring and duke it out over twelve three-minute rounds against another trained professional. To dedicate endless hours to training and pushing yourself to the limit knowing that you're ultimately going to get hit. And, despite all that, you still step between the ropes anyway. 

MMA has its merits, don't get me wrong. It’s faster than boxing, often more brutal and tends to have more blood. It usually makes for great television. But I think boxing has an added gallantry to it that I think MMA lacks.

In boxing, you can’t use your legs or elbows. Head butts are illegal, and so are takedowns. In the ring, unlike the cage, all you have is your fists, your skill and your will against your opponent. I admire that kind of courage. And in today’s mixed up world, I admire that kind of clarity.

Why did I write FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES? The short answer is because Paul Bishop let me. I’ve been a fan of the Fight Card series from the beginning and had wanted to try my hand at writing for the series. I'd already covered Terry Quinn's boxing career in passing in my other book PROHIBITION, which was written several years before the Fight Card series began. But since Quinn’s days in the ring play such an important role in which the character has become at the beginning of PROHIBITION, I’d always dreamed of being able to tell the story of the end of his career in more detail.

When Airship 27 gave PROHIBITON the green light for publication, I thought Fight Card would be the perfect vehicle to tell Quinn’s story.  And, much to my surprise and delight, Paul agreed. The result is FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES.

But what makes the Terry Quinn character so special in the first place? Why devote one book to him, much less two (not to mention all the short stories I’ve written about him)? He’s an ex-heavyweight contender who becomes an enforcer for the mob in 1920s New York. Hardly an original idea. Half of the henchmen in pulpdom and noirdom have boxing backgrounds, if not more. 

While that’s certainly true, I worked hard to make sure Quinn was different than those other characters. Enforcers of pulp fiction are usually portrayed as brutes, guys who were too quick with their fists and too slow with their brains. They’re usually easy pickings for the hero of the story. Or they’re punch-drunk has-beens past their prime and looking for some kind of redemption. One last shot at glory.

In Quinn, I wanted to create a different kind of character who was certainly recognizable, but had more going for him than the reader might expect. Sure, he’s a big, tough, mean, violent guy. That’s what makes him interesting to the reader. But Quinn also has something he doesn’t value very highly: a brain. He thinks of himself as just a pug while everyone around him sees him as much more than that. 

I wanted to create a character who didn’t fit the traditional mold of a thug; one who was tough but not cocky. Who followed orders, but wasn’t ambitious. Who was loyal and had his loyalty reciprocated by Archie Doyle, the man who runs the criminal empire of PROHIBITION and plays a huge role in FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES as well.

I could’ve written Quinn differently. I could’ve made him a war veteran or an ex-cop or just another product of the mean streets of New York City. I made Quinn a boxer because boxers have a capable, professional toughness that writers like, but rarely capture accurately. I wanted a tough guy an audience would be surprised they were cheering for. 

I wanted a character who wouldn’t give me the luxury of the easy plot devices some crime novelists have employed in their stories. You know: the one where the hero walks into a room, gets hit over the head and wakes up tied to a chair. Quinn’s not the kind of character who’s going to let anyone get that close to him. He doesn’t make those kinds of mistakes. He sizes up every situation at his own pace, decides on a course of action and sees it though. He’s not afraid because he’s learned not to be. 

Is he a hero? I don’t know. He’s a protagonist, that’s for sure. Is he a good guy? That’s for you to decide. Is he a bad guy? He’s done bad things and even the worst thing: murder. But does that make him a villain? You tell me.

Quinn is a character that I know the audience might not admire, but he’s a character who I certainly hope you’ll want to read about. He does bad things for mostly the right reasons, even when those reasons are criminal reasons. He’s black and white in a Technicolor world. He views the world with narrow parameters and lives his life accordingly. 

To Quinn, life outside the boxing ring isn’t much different than life in general. He honed his skills through training and sacrifice. He adapted those skills for each specific opponent he faced. He climbed between the ropes and took whatever they threw at him. And he hit back. 

Just like all of us do in our own lives. Every single day. 

FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

New York City - 1925

The boxing ring was the only world Terry Quinn had ever known. He'd entered the hallowed halls of St. Vincent’s Home for Boys in New York City as a fighter and left as a boxer. Years of training and honing his skills finally paid off as he fought his way to the top. Only one more fight stood between Quinn and shot at the heavyweight championship against Jack Dempsey.  It was the glory he'd been waiting for all his life.

But things have never gone easy for Terry Quinn. As he starts training for the biggest fight of his career, a crew of Tammany thugs and fix-it men tell him to throw the fight or face dire consequences. Even before he has a chance to consider their offer, those dire consequences come home to roost when one of his long time corner men turns up dead.

The identity of the killer isn't in question. The only question is what is Terry Quinn going to do about it.

Against The Ropes is a tough New York tale played out while the Roaring Twenties roared their loudest. Crooked cops, Tammany hacks, has-beens, and even the great Jack Johnson, all play a role in Quinn’s decision – is his quest for justice worth his future, and possibly ... his life.

AVAILABLE NOW ~ FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

AVAILABLE NOW ~ FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

The February 2013 Fight Card release, Fight Card: Against The Ropes, comes from acclaimed New Pulp author Terrence P. McCauley (writing as Jack Tunney).  

In December, Terrence saw his novel Prohibition – featuring Terry Quinn, ex-boxer turned mob enforcer in 1920’s New York – released from top pulp publisher Airship 27. Prior to the release of Prohibition, Terrence pitched the prequel – telling the tale of Terry Quinn’s boxing years – as a Fight Card novel.  While the 1920’s was new ground for Fight Card, the character and writing was so strong, it was immediately a done deal. Fight Card: Against The Ropes is the result.

FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

New York City - 1925

The boxing ring was the only world Terry Quinn had ever known. He'd entered the hallowed halls of St. Vincent’s Home for Boys in New York City as a fighter and left as a boxer. Years of training and honing his skills finally paid off as he fought his way to the top. Only one more fight stood between Quinn and shot at the heavyweight championship against Jack Dempsey.  It was the glory he'd been waiting for all his life.

But things have never gone easy for Terry Quinn. As he starts training for the biggest fight of his career, a crew of Tammany thugs and fix-it men tell him to throw the fight or face dire consequences. Even before he has a chance to consider their offer, those dire consequences come home to roost when one of his long time corner men turns up dead.

The identity of the killer isn't in question. The only question is what is Terry Quinn going to do about it.

Against The Ropes is a tough New York tale played out while the Roaring Twenties roared their loudest. Crooked cops, Tammany hacks, has-beens, and even the great Jack Johnson, all play a role in Quinn’s decision – is his quest for justice worth his future, and possibly ... his life.

FIGHT CARD: RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

FIGHT CARD: RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

FIGHT CARD AUTHOR DAVID FOSTER (WRITING AS JACK TUNNEY) GIVES US THE LOWDOWN ON FIGHT CARD’S JANUARY 2013 RELEASE, FIGHT CARD RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE ...

The Fight Card books are a blast to write, so when I finished up my first entry in the series, King of the Outback, I immediately knew I wanted to write another. However, I thought I had gone as far as I could with the characters in that story. That is to say, I couldn't write a direct sequel. So, I had to look for a new tale to tell. 

My first thoughts drifted toward a tale set in the seedy American underworld. But other writers in the Fight Card series – such as Eric Beetner and Heath Lowrance – had already written fantastic books showcasing boxing, intermingled with the American underworld. I knew I couldn't walk down that path, or if I did, all I would be doing was writing a limp pastiche of what had gone before.

So, to move forward, I knew I had to look for other ideas and settings. The first flash of inspiration came on the train to work. I happened to be listening to an audio book of Ian Fleming's Moonraker, and a passage described how James Bond looked to casual observers. Here's the passage.

And what could the casual observer think of him, 'Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVSR', also 'something at the Ministry of Defence', the rather saturnine young man in his middle thirties sitting opposite the Admiral? Something a bit cold and dangerous in that face. Looks pretty fit. May have been attached to Templer in Malaya. Or Nairobi. Mau Mau work. Tough looking customer. Doesn't look the sort of chap one usually sees in Blades. – Moonraker, Ian Fleming (1956) – Page 28 of the Pan paperback (24th printing, 1969)

Mau Mau work. The idea of setting the story during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya peaked my interest. It suited the time frame perfectly, as the Fight Card books are almost all set in the 1950s. And on the surface, the Mau Mau seemed like a ready-made villain. I thought it would be great to drop a boxer, smack dab into the middle of that conflict.

However, the conflict was far too complex and multi-faceted to provide an entertaining framework to build a story around. At least, without spending many thousands of words on lengthy explanations of the conflict – certainly not suitable for a 25,000 word novelette. Also, history has changed the perception of the Mau Mau conflict greatly. What was once considered a violent rebellion is now considered a turning point to Kenyan democratic freedom. So unlike in Fleming's time, the Mau Mau are now the good guys.

Instead, I created the fictitious country of Sezanda, and the villains are not so much the Sezanda Socialist Army (standing in for the Mau Mau), but a group of neo-Nazis who are behind a similar style of rebellion.

I was sad to see the Mau Mau go, but if I continued with the style of story I wanted to write, I would have appeared as a blinkered, ignorant, racist – which was certainly not my intention. I simply wanted a conflict as background, to drop my protagonists into. But that's the thing with any conflict I guess, there is always two sides.

So, I had a setting. Now I needed a hero. 

In King of the Outback, Tommy King is a ready-made hero. Right from the get-go, he has the tools (his fists) and attitude to fight for what's right. In some ways he is a superman, albeit one who bleeds – a lot! This time I wanted the main protagonist to be somewhat more of a reluctant hero.

As it happened, I was watching an old Chuck Norris film, A Force of One (please don't hold that against me). What struck me, was how much more enjoyable it was than many of Chuck's later offerings, in which he would play pretty much a superman. In A Force of One, Chuck, despite his formidable skills, refuses to be drawn into the local police's attempts to track down a karate killer. Chuck does not want to get involved. But of course, after the bad guys mess with Chuck's family (bad move), he does become involved, and when that happens there is a palpable frisson. It is a Hell Yeah! moment. We know Chuck didn't start the fight, but he is damn well going to finish it.

In Rumble in the Jungle, I wanted to use a similar style protagonist. A man who does not want to fight, but has no other option. In the story, that man is Brendan O'Toole, a man who has lost everything and wants to be left alone. But as civil war breaks out in Africa, O'Toole is left with very little choice but to fight.

I am proud of Rumble in the Jungle. I think it serves up the kind of characters and pugilistic action fans of the Fight Card series have come to expect. It contains more action than two full length novels, and hits harder than a Mack truck. But it also brings something new to the series. It is a story of love, loss, redemption and ultimately standing up to tyranny and oppression. I hope you enjoy it.

FIGHT CARD: RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

Hell’s Kitchen, 1953

Brendan O’Toole is on a downward slide. When his wife dies in a freak car accident, he quits his job and hits the bottle hard. Half tanked in the ring, he allows himself to be knocked out, ending his boxing career.

O’Toole, hits rock bottom. After a night of boozing, he is brutally mugged and left for dead. But O’Toole has friends, even if he can’t see it. One of them is Danny Reilly, a barman with a heart of gold. He arranges for O’Toole to join a construction crew set to work on a hotel being built in the Central African jungle nation of Sezanda. It’s O’Toole’s last shot at redemption.

Sezanda, Central Africa, 1954

As things begin to look up for O’Toole, the Sezandan government is overthrown in a military coup. All foreigners are taken prisoner and locked in concentration camps. O’Toole is sent to the worst, HELL CAMP XXI, under the control of a brutal ex-Nazi, Kommandant Krieger. Krieger has a special way of keeping his prisoners under control. In the camp, he has erected a boxing ring. And anyone who steps out of line is forced to face off against his man-mountain, wrecking machine, Crator – a man whose sole purpose is to inflict pain.

Fate has destined Brendan O’Toole to don the gloves one more time, in a fight not just for his life, but his very soul.

AUTHOR BOBBY NASH JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

 

AUTHOR BOBBY NASH JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

Fight Card Publishing is excited to announce celebrated New Pulp author Bobby Nash has joined the line-up of top-notch Fight Card authors.  Bobby tells us, “I’ve been very impressed with the Fight Card books created and edited by Paul Bishop and Mel Odom, and am honored to join the ranks of talented storytellers who are producing some of the best fight fiction ever.”

From his secret lair in the wilds of Bethlehem, Georgia, Bobby Nash writes a little bit of everything including novels (Evil Ways; Deadly Games!; Earthstrike Agenda), comic books (Fuzzy Bunnies From Hell; Demonslayer; Domino Lady vs. The Mummy; Lance Star: Sky Ranger “One Shot”), short prose (A Fistful of Legends; Tales of The Rook; Zombies vs. Robots), novellas (The Ruby Files; Lance Star: Sky Ranger; Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars; The New Adventures of The Eagle), graphic novels (Yin Yang; I Am Googol: The Great Invasion; Bloody Olde Englund), screenplays (Zenoids: “Animal Crackers”, Starship Farragut: “Conspiracy of Innocence”), media tie-ins (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; Green Hornet Case Files; Green Hornet Still at Large; Nightbeat; Honey West), and even a little pulp fiction (Domino Lady; Secret Agent X; The Avenger; The Spider) just for good measure. And he sleeps at least once a week, whether he needs it or not.

Between deadlines, Bobby is a part-time extra in movies and television. He is also the co-host of the Earth Station One and Earth Station Who podcasts (www.esopodcast.com), and writes for the All Pulp (http://allpulp.blogspot.com/) news site. Bobby is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.

Coming in late 2013. Nash’s novel, Fight Card: Barefoot Bones, will tell the story of  fighter known as Barefoot Bones due to his less than stellar beginnings in the deep south where he learned to fight out of necessity. Then came a fateful encounter with Father Tim at St. Vincent's Asylum For Boys in Chicago where he was taught the sweet science of boxing. But it’s a long way from St. Vincent’s to a battlefield in Korea where the stakes have never been higher. The one constant in Bones’ life has been fighting. Lucky for him, he’s good at it.

For more information on Bobby Nash please visit him at www.bobbynash.com, www.facebook.com/AuthorBobbyNash, www.twitter.com/bobbynash, www.lance-star.com, and http://BEN-Books.blogspot.com/ among other places across the web.

COMING NEXT WEEK!

COMING NEXT WEEK!

FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES

New York City - 1925

The boxing ring was the only world Terry Quinn had ever known. He'd entered the hallowed halls of St. Vincent’s Home for Boys in New York City as a fighter and left as a boxer. Years of training and honing his skills finally paid off as he fought his way to the top. Only one more fight stood between Quinn and shot at the heavyweight championship against Jack Dempsey.  It was the glory he'd been waiting for all his life.

But things have never gone easy for Terry Quinn. As he starts training for the biggest fight of his career, a crew of Tammany thugs and fix-it men tell him to throw the fight or face dire consequences. Even before he has a chance to consider their offer, those dire consequences come home to roost when one of his long time corner men turns up dead.

The identity of the killer isn't in question. The only question is what is Terry Quinn going to do about it.

Against The Ropes is a tough New York tale played out while the Roaring Twenties roared their loudest. Crooked cops, Tammany hacks, has-beens, and even the great Jack Johnson, all play a role in Quinn’s decision – is his quest for justice worth his future, and possibly ... his life.