R.M. Lowery’s novel The Gentle Slope is available now in paperback and on all popular ebook platforms.
Someone murdered sixteen-year-old Grace Sutherland and dumped her body along the riverbank.
The news shocks most in the Midwest town of Stonebridge, but for reporter Jakob Larsen, her death dredges up particularly bad memories. Two years ago, his father was murdered, and police have yet to make an arrest.
Knowing the pain the girl’s family feels, Jakob is determined to find answers for them. Answers his family still doesn’t have. But as Jakob hunts for the truth, he uncovers details that could rip the Sutherland family apart.
The Gentle Slope is the winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Best Suspense Fiction.
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Read R.M. Lowery’s short story “The Road Out,” included in The First Line: Volume 26, Issue 4.
Set in southern New Mexico, “The Road Out” is about a man trying to escape his past—and his many enemies.
Sample from “The Road Out”:
The parking lot was empty. Only three letters in the old neon vacancy sign still flickered. At a glance, it seemed the Bestvalu Motor Inn had been abandoned years ago, but as I drove up to the office, I spotted a woman seated at a desk behind a sheet of bulletproof glass.
The motel was a fleabag, that was apparent even in the dark of night, but it looked like the kind of place where I could get a room without creating a paper trail of my stay, so I got out of my truck and approached the woman.
She spoke few words and wore no expression as she confirmed she had a room available.
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Read R.M. Lowery’s short story “Luxury Goods” in Black Cat Mystery Magazine #15.
Two old-school grifters set their sights on a hapless business traveler in a hotel bar.
Sample from “Luxury Goods”:
He smiled an awkward smile, his teeth straight and bright, likely the result of regular whitening treatments. She smiled back and threw him an easy one, saying, “How about you? Business travel?”
“Yeah. Third time this month I’ve been here.”
The TravisMathew shirt he wore said that he probably liked golf, and the well-fitted dress slacks it was paired with along with the Ted Baker belt indicated a woman probably selected his outfits for him.
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Read R.M. Lowery’s short story “Wednesday Night at Muffy’s,” included in Workers Write! Tales from the Key of C.
A once-great musician with dreams of signing a big record deal wrestles with a decision that might lead him out of his dead-end job, and out of Chicago.
Sample from “Wednesdays at Muffy’s“:
Wednesdays at Muffy’s are the worst. An all-ages night dedicated to new and recently formed bands—mostly groups of wide-eyed teenagers who’ve been playing instruments for just a few months. It’s sort of like an open mic night, except Terry, the club’s owner, pays the bands a small percentage of the door.
Terry never works on Wednesdays, though, which means I’m stuck doing everything: running sound, monitoring the door, making sure the bartender doesn’t sell to anyone without a wristband. If anything goes wrong, it’s on me, and something always goes wrong because Muffy’s is a shitty place that attracts shitty people.
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R.M. Lowery
R.M. Lowery is the award-winning author of the Jakob Larsen Mysteries—The Gentle Slope, We Kill Our Own, and Time Fades Away. His stories have appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Workers Write, The First Line, and others. Rooted in Illinois and raised in Colorado, Lowery splits his time between Colorado and New Mexico with his beautiful wife and their clowder (of cats).
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“Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.”
Karin Slaughter