Murder at the Grindhouse - a little sample to read...

My new novel "Murder at the Grindhouse" is coming out August 7th 2026, available worldwide on paperback and eBook via Amazon - so here's a little sample to read: the prologue that kicks things off.

 

Murder at the Grindhouse

Copyright 2026 Nick Thomson 

PROLOGUE

January 1982

Granted, I've never rode behind a hearse before, but I don't think they're supposed to ride that low to the ground. Aunt Teresa was a robust woman, and yeah, she's only been present in occasional letters since sixty-nine, but there's no way she's put on this much weight since then.

The black Caddy up ahead wallows along the freeway, its undulating rear bumper scraping against the patchwork tarmacadam as the winter sun, wreathed in freezing clouds, slithers across the soft curves and sharp details of its gleaming body.

Uncle Gene's up front. He hasn't said a word since this morning at JFK, his frosty silence imposed upon everyone else in the limousine.

“At least the sun came out for her,” I say, disregarding the verbal embargo.

In the middle row of seats, Dad's gaze refuses to peel away from the world passing by, as Mom turns her head an inch or two, that all-too-familiar blankness on her face. Neither utter a word. The same goes for Angela, head to toe in black and keeping her distance. Despite the veil, there's a hint of a smile under the brim of her hat. She must like folks stewing in their awkwardness...

Click "READ MORE" below to contiue...

Murder at the Grindhouse - my new novel...

Murder at the Grindhouse - my new novel - is releasing on August 7th 2026 worldwide via Amazon.

The eBook is already up for pre-order worldwide (e.g. UK, USA) and the physical print edition of the book will go live for purchase on August 7th.

Set during the dying years of the most notorious street in America: New York's 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, Murder at the Grindhouse is a coming-of-age murder mystery thriller set against a backdrop of social upheaval, the encroachment of corporate America, and a sensational killing streak. The propulsive story is told primarily through Calvin, a scorned small town zero forever chasing to catch up only to arrive too late, who is drawn to the city by a stunning, morbid mystery: who was the second body hidden inside his Aunt's coffin?

Calvin enters this extraordinary land of outlaw film culture and illicit freedoms as a wide-eyed innocent seeking answers and personal redemption, drawing him into a world of copycat murders, temptation, and mob intrigue. Besieged by alluring distractions, he is guided by Angela, a hard-nosed punk rocker; Carol-Ann, a jocular dancer with Broadway dreams; and their coterie of misfit friends. However, when Calvin's amateur sleuthing puts him in the middle of one too many crime scenes, Detective Armstrong begins to like him as a prime suspect for 'The Devil of The Deuce' serial killer. Will Calvin be able to peel back the layers of secrets, lies, and sordid actions to unveil horrifying truths – and at what cost to his soul?

A vivid and gleefully lurid journey through society's edge during a bygone era, Murder at the Grindhouse consumes the reader in a world populated with humorous, vibrant, and emotionally flawed personalities cast against a varied mix of absurd fringe fantasia and sudden danger.

Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds (Fred Olen Ray, 1995) Review

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“You know, I have a funny feeling that you're not going to find 'giant woman specialist' in the Yellow Pages.” Think Land of the Giants, but in reverse, and with busty glamour models the size of buildings wrestling their way through Hollywood...

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Sleaze Fiend Magazine Issue #6 - available now...

It's been a while in-the-making, but Issue #6 of Sleaze Fiend Magazine is now available for purchase via Weird World Publishing's Store Envy page.

N.B. There is now a limited additional run of this issue, so if you had previously missed out grab a copy while you can before it's sold out!

Attention: UK buyers - copies available via the Strange Vice store have now SOLD OUT.

After a 4-year hiatus Sleaze Fiend Magazine makes its triumphant return with issue #6. Bringing the readers a very special issue where we dive deep into the early career of Wes Craven specifically taking a look at his seldom seen XXX film The Fireworks Woman (1975). And as a special treat for the film's 50th Anniversary, Sleaze Fiend has discovered the longest running 35mm print of the film and is including it on Blu-ray. This marks its first HD release in Worldwide and also the longest cut in circulation.

Contents include: 

Would You Like Some Cheese with Your Grease?

Empowered Sex Kitten: Sherilyn Fenn

Porn Pirates

Finding the Last House on the Left

Super Star's Super Life

The Story of Hallmark Releasing

Abe Snake Meets the Fireworks Woman

142 Pages B&W + The Fireworks Woman Blu-Ray: $20.00

 

Vice Academy (Rick Sloane, 1989) Review...

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“A Vice cop?! I feel used and violated.” From 1984 through to the end of the decade, six Police Academy movies were released (a seventh came in the mid-90s). What started out as a raunchy comedy quickly turned into a family franchise with cartoonish gags and even broader characters, rendering it practically a parody of itself. And still, along came Vice Academy, a cheap-as-chips combination of sauciness and spoof, in which a gaggle of goofy police trainees – headed up by Scream Queen legend Linnea Quigley (Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-o-rama) – attempt to make ten arrests to qualify for graduation. First stop, that most hilarious of subjects: an under-age smut operation … wait, what?!...

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Murdercise (Angelica De Alba & Paul Ragsdale 2023) Review

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“How's it you kids keep getting yourselves brutally murdered?” Like a throwback to the heyday of the 1980s Scream Queens, Murdercise poses the question – how far should one go to become the cover girl for a cheap and tacky workout video? Is a little bit of killing a step too far, or a fast track to success in Reagan's day-glo lycra-clad America?...

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Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama 2 (Brinke Stevens, 2022) Review

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“It's nothing, just a little debauchery … in the bowling alley.” Belated sequels are always a tricky sell. Can you ever truly recapture the magic of the original movie(s), the texture and tone of the way they were shot, the time in which they were made, even the attitudes of the period? Do you risk trampling on the memory of what came before – just look at what happened with Indiana Jones, which (at the time of writing) is looking to be on-course for a disastrous reception to it's fifth entry (a belated-sequel of a belated-sequel). So, what about a raunchy horror-comedy from the heyday of the VHS rental era – what will a thirty-four year gap between films mean to the tale of a nefarious Imp trapped inside a bowling trophy?...

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Witch Academy (Fred Olen Ray, 1991) Review

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“I lost a gallon of blood because she saw some cockamamie movie!” A gaggle of sorority sisters who just so happen to be witches, the Satanic temptation of a goofy nerd, and costume design exclusively from a lingerie catalogue is pretty much the jist of this straight-to-video Scream Queen comedy horror flick – oh, and some Hollywood royalty even turns up to join the fun!...

 

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Beach Babes From Beyond (David DeCoteau 1993) Review

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“They're kinda cute for primitives.” It's all be done before, hasn't it? Cops and robbers, the profession of love at an airport, the rise and fall of a criminal empire … but when was the last time you saw interstellar petrol knocked-up at a beach-side snack shack by a vegetarian wearing fashion that could best be described as coming from the 'day-glo vomitorium' collection?...

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Bad Girls From Mars (Fred Olen Ray, 1990) Review

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“Boy, what a girl goes through to send her brother to proctology school!” There's a killer on the loose, slaying their way through the set of a low budget trash cinema extravaganza, and while it's a tough job trying to keep your head attached to your body, it's seemingly a tougher job keeping your clothes on...

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Sleaze Fiend Magazine #5 pre-order now!

The brand new issue of Sleaze Fiend Magazine has arrived and is available to pre-order now from the SFM Store Envy page. My contribution for this issue was the "Sleaze Fiend's European Vacation" article.

Sleaze Fiend Magazine returns for 2021 with another massive issue! We're bringing you a sleaze drenched mag with articles such as:

El Topo: A Mythological Acid Trip
Sleaze Fiend's European Vacation
The Mysterious Life Of 40DD Superstar Uschi Digard
The Astrological Connection and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun with Brooke & Taylor Young
Danny Steinmann Interview
Loopty Loop: My Early Life As A Smut Peddler
The Legend of the Spider Pool
The First Porn Star From Down Under: Kristine Heller
Bo Arne Vibenius Interview
Remembering the Fallen
+Packed with new Reviews!

154 pages B&W

You can pick up SFM #5 HERE or you can grab the SFM Bundle (issues 3, 3.5, 4, and 5) HERE.

Hell Squad (Kenneth Hartford, 1986)

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“Is this a joke?” Dig this. The son of an American Ambassador in the Middle East has been kidnapped and the government wants nothing to do with it. He has a problem, and there's no-one else who can help, so he hires The A-Team … no wait, he doesn't. Indeed, his assistant figures it'd be a waste of time employing mercenaries so, using his connections in Las Vegas, he hires a gaggle of showgirls to stage the daring rescue. Yup!

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Willy's Wonderland (Kevin Lewis, 2021) Review

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“He's not trapped in here with them, they're trapped in here with him!” Nicolas Cage goes into a full-blown 'Cage Rage' against a gang of animatronic mascots in a children's party restaurant. It's like every stressed-out parent's fantasy at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party – to rip the head off one of those bug-eyed monstrosities during one of their maddening pre-recorded melodies...!

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Hired To Kill (Nico Mastorakis & Peter Rader, 1990) Blu-Ray Review

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“Murder, blood, and paranoia are gonna make fine company where you're going; 'cos ladies, you're going to hell.” A shady American agency has grown tired of the tinpot dictator they helped elevate to power in the nation of Cypra, so they want their best man – a muscle-bound killing machine – to go undercover and help the revolutionaries spring their leader from a fortress prison. The mercenary's cover? This brute with the bulging biceps will be posing as fashion designer Cecil Thornton – a most believable ruse, to be sure!...

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Dial Help (Ruggero Deodato, 1988) Review

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“I'm expecting an important call – a call that never comes.” Directed by Ruggero Deodato, the rogue journeyman filmmaker behind the notorious video nasty Cannibal Holocaust, this is, put simply, a movie about killer telephones jealously menacing a fashion model – why would you need a longer introduction than that?...

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The Zero Boys (Nico Mastorakis, 1986)

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“Eat your heart out, Sly.” You know how it is with so many slasher movies – pretty people making dumb decisions and splitting away from the group only to end up with a butcher knife through their face. But what if those genetically gifted college kids weren't so dumb? What if they did their utmost to stick together? What if they were armed with semi-automatics and TNT?...

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Joysticks (Greydon Clark, 1983) Review

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“We are here to extinguish the filth and the decadence that is commonly referred to as videogame entertainment.” It's 1983. You're a filmmaker and wondering what's popular with the youth right now. Well, on the one hand you've got raunchy comedies like Porky's that have been doing boffo box office on small budgets, and on the other hand you've got the unbridled popularity of videogame arcades which has seen eager gamers queuing up en masse to blast invaders from space. So, what better thing to do that mash those two hands together and come up with Joysticks?!

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Return to Savage Beach (Andy Sidaris, 1998) Review

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“How many endings can this story have?” Over the course of 13 years, writer/director Andy Sidaris (plus his son Christian) launched a dozen 'L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies' movies into the world, and with 1998's Return to Savage Beach, an era of explosive RC toys and bared flesh came to a close. After so many movies over so many years, one might have expected the final entry to feel stale, even a little limp – but Sidaris bid adieu to the 20^th Century with a bang, certainly a familiar one, but a bang nonetheless...

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Death Smiles On A Murderer (Aristide Massaccesi, 1973) Blu-Ray Review

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“So many corpses, and every death a mystery.” Most commonly known as Joe D'Amato, the prolific director Aristide Massaccesi (Emmanuelle and The Last Cannibals) only attached his real name to just one of his cinematic endeavours, the turn-of-the-century ghoulishly Gothic supernatural giallo Death Smiles On A Murderer. The Italian giallo movement wasn't best known for rock solid plotting logic, but Massaccessi's film dives head first into a zone of storytelling that can only be described as utterly baffling. Prepare for copious plot holes, taboo subject matter, an ethereal sense of time, and Klaus Kinski 'doing science'...

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Day of the Warrior (Andy Sidaris, 1996) Review

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“Bring him in from the cold? That's real spy talk – I love it when you do that.” Having sat out the previous two entries in the 'L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies' franchise (handing the reigns over to his son), writer/director Andy Sidaris returns to wreak merry havoc across America as the buff dudes and buxom gals of 'The Agency' take on a mastermind smuggler, who just so happens to be a full-blown championship wrestler...

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