Whatever Kills the Pain
by C.W. Blackwell
Published July 18, 2025
Print ISBN: 979-8-9912950-7-9; eBook ISBN: 979-8-9912950-8-6
Purchase on BOOKSHOP, BARNES & NOBLE, or AMAZON
In this gritty collection of crime stories, Derringer Award-winning author C.W. Blackwell mourns an America lost to the shadows, exploring a broken economic system that has given rise to rampant inequality, violence, and darkness.
Crackling with energy, emotional depth and unflinching violence, and filled with characters desperate to reclaim what has been unjustly taken, plotting the heist of a lifetime, or grappling with chance encounters that might free them from the bonds of wage exploitation-or send them to early graves, Blackwell fearlessly documents an America sick with greed and hate.
Nearly everyone has an angle, a fight, or a spark of hope, yet some have learned there isn't a cure for every ill, and that sometimes the best medicine is whatever kills the pain.
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WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
“Whatever Kills the Pain is a reckoning. A fearless, clear-eyed commentary on how the religion of bootstraps and trickling, and the gospel of the unattainable American Dream, have fooled us. Blackwell starts fires. He walks the line between literary fiction and noir, but never fails to deliver the hurt, or the truth.”
- Meagan Lucas, author of the Anthony-nominated collection, Here in the Dark
“C.W. Blackwell's achingly real characters battle back against the tide of a world seemingly determined to drown them all, struggling to find slivers of hope and redemption. Whatever Kills the Pain pulses with both empathy and rage, shining a light into the encroaching darkness and daring you to look away.”
- James D.F. Hannah, Shamus-winning author of Behind the Wall of Sleep and Because the Night
“Blackwell’s vision is one of tentacular reach, effortlessly spreading out from Central California with characters as doomed to faulty choices as anywhere in today’s America. Plainly, Whatever Kills the Pain is C.W. Blackwell’s blues for America.”
- Jeff Esterholm, author of The Effects of Urban Renewal on Mid-Century America and Other Crime Stories
“With every story, C.W. Blackwell creates worlds. Worlds of desperation, dead ends, anger, and blood. And worlds of pathos, of humans being human, of life eating souls. Whatever Kills the Pain is a tremendous read.”
- Coy Hall, author of A Séance for Wicked King Death and The Switchblade Svengali
“C.W. Blackwell’s stories grab you by the scruff of the neck and demand complete attention, full emotional involvement. Whatever Kills the Pain is that rare collection where stories build upon one another, exploring different tones and moods, like these color swatches that take you through the rainbow so slowly and smoothly that you remain unaware of the breathtaking journey. Just leaving you slightly dazed by all the beauty at the end.”
- M.E. Proctor, author Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
C.W. Blackwell is an American author from the Central Coast of California. His short stories have appeared with Down and Out Books, Mystery Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Tough Magazine, and Reckon Review. He is a 2x Derringer Award winner and 4x nominee. He won the SuRaa Fiction Award in 2022 and was included as a Distinguished Author in the 2024 Best American Mystery and Suspense collection. His folk horror novella Song of the Red Squire was published in 2022 from Nosetouch Press. His crime fiction novella Hard Mountain Clay was published in January 2023 from Shotgun Honey Books.
Listen to the RHP interview with C.W. Blackwell, available for free on the RHP Patreon