HE'S KILLED MORE MEN THAN HE CAN REMEMBER

BUT CAN HE SAVE A CHILD?

Ishmael Toffee's knife put him behind bars and kept him there for twenty years as a prison gang assassin until he lost his taste for blood. Paroled, he finds himself with no money and no family. And no knife in his hand.

He gets a job as a gardener at the luxurious home of a prominent lawyer and makes an unexpected friend—Cindy, the lawyer’s six-year-old daughter. When Ishmael discovers that Cindy is being raped by her father he must choose: abandon the girl and walk away, or do what he does best . . .

Bonus content: Falling, a previously unpublished short story.

"Roger Smith's writing is astonishing."  

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

PRAISE FOR ISHMAEL TOFFEE

"Roger Smith is unquestionably one of the most bold, powerful authors currently writing fiction. Period. A hard-hitting, gut punch of a novella." BOOK REVIEWS BY ELIZABETH A. WHITE

"A hugely intense but ultimately redemptive novella. Roger Smith is one of my favorite writers working in crime today." PETE DRAGOVICH  - SPINETINGLER MAGAZINE

"Smith injects as much gut-wrenching emotion and as much action into the short form as he does his novels. I've never read anything by him that didn't steal my breath and this story is no exception."

NAOMI JOHNSON - THE DROWNING MACHINE

"If you're looking for hardcore, gazing-into-the-abyss literature, Smith's the man you want to read."

BENOIT LELIEVRE - DEAD END FOLLIES

"One secret to good noir is keeping the beauty and the dread in perfect tension so the reader is attracted and repelled at the same time. Smith does it." PETER ROZOVSKY - DETECTIVES BEYOND BORDERS

"Gripping and disturbing. Another great story from Roger Smith. The bonus short story, Falling, is also a fascinating, dark read." CRIMEFICTIONLOVER.COM

"No other thriller writer is writing such lean and powerful prose. Moving and gritty -- a must read for crime fiction fans." DAVE ZELTSERMAN - SMALL CRIMES & THE HUNTED SERIES

"In Ishmael Toffee you get the range of Roger Smith’s dark view of contemporary South Africa. Falling (a short story included with this novella) is a nice, raw, piece of noirish writing with doomed characters." MACK LUNDY - AFRICA SCREAMS

"Another superb piece of writing from an author who is fast establishing himself as one of the best around. I can’t recommend it highly enough." MARTIN STANLEY  - THE GAMBLERS BLOG

"It will blow you the fuck away." - JEDIDIAH AYRES author of A F*CKLOAD OF SHORTS

"A fantastic piece of fiction which deals with the injustices of poverty, the inequities of the world and the stark realities of life and death." NIGEL BIRD author of DIRTY OLD TOWN & SMOKE

"A brutal but strangely beautiful book. This is a read that'll stomp down hard on your heart." GERARD BRENNAN, author of WEE ROCKETS & FIREPROOF

"Fast-paced, powerful novella delivers with its bloody, blunt  justice."

ED LYNSKEY author of LAKE CHARLES & ASK THE DICE