This Rough Old World

In the summer of 1968, Los Angeles is a hotbed of social and political change, but for Tom Ahearn, things have been the same for far too long – and he isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or not. While running his late father’s record store, Tom’s passion is his side-business as a “bedroom detective”. He’s no pervert, but it pays better and offers numerous opportunities to observe the human condition as he catalogs broken relationship after broken relationship, seeking the clues to unravel the mystery behind his own failed marriage. And just as Tom is smack in the middle of the nastiest marital feud he’s ever seen, into Ahearn’s Audio walks Charlie, a hippy of the lowest order, convinced he’s a sinister cabal’s target and terrified of things he’s seen. It’s not Tom’s kind of case, but lured by the prospect of a quick buck, he dives head-first into a world of casual sex, drugs, music and the occult, where he’ll rub shoulders with hopped-up hippies, clash with young Republicans itching for war and face off against a cult of slumming socialites bent on nothing less than completely reshaping the cosmos -- all while unknowingly witnessing the nascence of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious evils.

About the Author

Brandon Barrows is an award-nominated writer of prose, poetry and comic books who lives by a big lake in Vermont with his wife and their feline overlords. Over forty of his prose stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies, as well as collected into the books THE AL-TAR IN THE HILLS (Raven Warren) and THE CASTLE-TOWN TRAGEDY (Dunham's Manor Press). His comics work includes MYTHOS: LOVECRAFT'S WORLDS (Caliber Comics), JACK HAMMER (Action Lab Comics), VOYAGA (Markosia), appearances in HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE and more.

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