The Debt of the Dead

By E. L. Chase

Joe Kowalski should have stayed dead the first time.

The city threw him out, hemorrhaged, bankrupt, and predatory. He is walking with fifty grand in his pocket, a dead woman in his head and too many devils still breathing. The papers say the Russo empire has crumbled. The cops call it justice. Joe knows better. The ledger that burned the city clean left ashes that still reek of blood-and the people behind it are still out there, counting bodies instead of numbers.

Lena's gone, drowned under her own sins, but her ghost still whispers every time Joe lights a cigarette. Carla, the one innocent in the mess, hides somewhere the light doesn't reach. And Marco-Russo's brother, the last vulture circling the bones-has come back to settle the score. He wants Kowalski's head and the money soaked in his brother's blood.

The city doesn't forgive. Neither does Joe.

With a cane in one hand and a wound that won't close in the other, he goes hunting through alleys, pawnshops, and neon graves. Every face could be a setup, every friend another corpse waiting for its turn. The cops have their story, the press has their hero, but Joe only has the truth-and it's the kind that kills slower than bullets.

The Debt of the Dead is a hardboiled noir about guilt, survival, and the thin line between justice and revenge. It's a story written in blood and cigarette smoke, where every heartbeat counts and every promise costs more than it's worth. In this city, truth isn't what you tell-it's what you die for.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FYQN46WV
• ISBN13: 9798272388643
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"