A friend’s death at a pro wrestling show sends gutter journalist and punk rock hasbeen Spar Battersea back to the underground of the city to find the killer. Along the way he rams into a washed up grappler deadlier than a snake bite, a dominatrix who dresses like June Cleaver, and the freak of nature who may be the killer, the mime known as Johnny Silent. To get to the truth, Spar will have to contend with each and then survive his very own . . . Death Match! Advance Praise for DEATH MATCH! "A brash, fresh, and entertaining talent steps into the ring."— Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear "Death Match is a rock ‘em sock ‘em addition to the noir canon. Gritty, relentless, and wry as hell, Ridler brings the pain." Laird Barron, award winning author of The Light is the Darkness "Death Match is a literary beatdown that takes you to the top rope and piledrives you face-first onto a box of flaming thumbtacks—in a good way." —Ben Thompson, Bad Birth of a Legend, and the website, Bad Ass of the Week. "Fast, breezy and barbarous, Death Match is a fine, innovative noir from an exciting new writer. Reading the book is like eating a corn dog while watching a lard fire run through a greasy-spoon, it's both tasty and nasty." —Lucius Shepard, multiple-award-winning author of A Handbook of American Prayer "A swift blow to the head. Ridler’s Death Match is a fast-paced battle royal of such character and action that even once you’re bleeding profusely, you don’t want him to ring the final bell.” Trent Zelazny, author of To Sleep Gently ABOUT THE Jason S. Ridler is the author of Death Match, the first Spar Battersea thriller, and has published over forty short stories in such magazines and anthologies as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Brain Harvest, Not One of Us, Chilling Tales, Tesseracts Thirteen, and more. His popular non-fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Dark Scribe, and the Internet Review of Science Fiction. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Mr. Ridler holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada.

Broke, beaten, but undefeated, Spar Battersea finds himself working the local science fiction and comic book convention when things go from geeky to bad to insane. Wounded and haunted from the nightmare adventures of DEATH MATCH, Spar discovers that his first true love is at the convention, working as a model . . . and she’s gone missing. His hunt to find her at all costs sends him crashing into a world of amateur ninja vigilantes, smack-talking booth babes, and a megalomaniacal science fiction author whose secret son might be the key to everything . Already at the brink and in need of a shrink, Spar grits his teeth and tries to survive . . . The Con Job. PRAIS FOR CON JOB!"I liked Spar after Death Match, but I love him after Con Job . . .\[he is\] an engaging, believable character, and I can't wait to see what Jason Ridler has in store for Spar next." Book Review maven Elizabeth White “Jason Ridler’s work is intense and taut, with incredible characters and plots that keep your mind buzzing long after you’ve reached the final page. He never goes for the Sleeper Hold; his work is a literary Pile Driver.” –Trent Zelazny, author to Too Late To Call TexasPRAISE FOR THE WORK OF JASON S. RIDLER!"A brash, fresh, and entertaining talent steps into the ring."— Scott Nicholson, Liquid Fear“The Man in the Barbed-Wire Straight Jacket,” award-winning author Norm Partridge. “Ridler Brings the Pain,” award-winning author Laird Barron. Jason S. Ridler is the author of DEATH MATCH (the first Spar Battersea thriller), KNOCKOUTS, and over fifty published short stories. A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, he also holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. He currently lives in the East Bay region of San Francisco with his wife, two dogs, and two parrots. Visit him on Facebook, twitter, or at his online lair,