Point Blank is an imprint of

Wildside Press Wildside Press is an independent publishing company in Cabin John, Maryland, United States. It was founded in 1989 by John Betancourt and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both tra ...

, founded in early 2004 by J. T. Lindroos and John Gregory Betancourt. Allan Guthrie and Kathleen Martin have worked with the company from its beginning in various editorial roles. Point Blank publishes mostly hard boiled

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

, both original novels and classic reprints. Its inaugural publication was ''Two-Way Split'', the first novel by Allan Guthrie, followed by novels and short story collections from

James Reasoner James Reasoner (5 June 1953) is an American writer. He is the author of more than 350 novels and many short stories in a career spanning more than thirty years. Reasoner has used at least nineteen pseudonyms, in addition to his own name: Jim Austin ...

James Sallis James Sallis (born December 21, 1944) is an American crime writer who wrote a series of novels featuring the detective character Lew Griffin set in New Orleans, and the 2005 novel '' Drive'', which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same nam ...

, Gary Phillips, O'Neil De Noux,

Ed Lynskey Ed Lynskey is an American poet, critic, and novelist, mostly of crime fiction. He was born in 1956 in Washington, D.C. where he still lives and works. He writes five mystery series, including the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series, the Isabel & A ...

, and many others. Point Blank published the first novels of Allan Guthrie, Donna Moore, Ray Banks, Dave Zeltserman and

Duane Swierczynski Duane Louis Swierczynski (born February 22, 1972) is an American crime writer known for his work in non-fiction books, novels and comic books. Early life Duane Swierczynski was born and raised in Frankford, a neighborhood in lower Northeast Phi ...

. It received high praise from

Ken Bruen Ken Bruen (born 1951) is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction. Biography Education and teaching career Born in Galway, he was educated at Gormanston College, County Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned ...

in its first year. Although based in North America, Point Blank publishes novels from UK authors such as Ray Banks and Donna Moore as well as Australians

Damien Broderick Damien Francis Broderick (born 22 April 1944) is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. His science fiction novel ''The Dreaming Dragons'' (1980) introduced the trope of the generation time machine ...

and

Rory Barnes Rory Barnes (born 1946) is an Australian writer of popular fiction. Although born in London, he has lived most of his life in Australia. Bibliography *''Valencies'' (1983 with Damien Broderick) *''The Bomb-Monger's Daughter'' (1984) *''Water F ...

. Point Blank has released occasional cinema titles, including ''The DVD Savant'' by

Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...

and ''The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking'' by filmmaker Josh Becker.

Prizes and awards

*2007 Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery (winner): ''...Go To Helena Handbasket'' by Donna Moore *2007 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (winner): ''Two-Way Split'' by Allan Guthrie

References

External links

Point Blank Official Web Site

Wildside Press

Book publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 2004 {{Publish-corp-stub