Riot Load

An over-the-top premise drives Quertermous’s offbeat second novel featuring medical administrative assistant Dominick Prince (after 2015’s Murder Boy). As Dominick explains, “The woman who saved my ass from jail,” his friend Lindsey Buckingham, “had a weird crush on my wife’s brother the bounty hunter who, before he was murdered by a serial killer obsessed with baseball and my training as a writer, deposited a sperm sample at the cancer center where he was secretly being treated for prostate cancer.” Lindsey is determined to have the baby of that bounty hunter, Titus Wade, and demands that Dominick steal the frozen semen from his workplace, which just happens to be the Detroit State University Cancer Center. He decides to recruit the Carter brothers, fellow employees, for the delicate heist, only to have them demand $100,000 for their help. When the Carters take the wrong sample, the revelation of that donor’s identity leads to more than a few violent deaths. Fans of gonzo noir will find a lot to like. (June)