Everybody knows how to spot an undercover cop. Right? Doing life, six months at a time . . . You think the gun makers will always win? When you can't trust your own grandmother, that's noir. ***Rock and a Hard Place***is back with issue 9, featuring a dirty dozen tales of woe and misfortune from some of crime and dark fiction's finest, including: Jennifer Bernardini C.W. Blackwell David Hagerty William Kitcher Nick Kolakowski Mike McHone Michael Penncavage Emilee Prado Richard Risemberg Elena E. Smith Archer Sullivan and Mike Zimmerman Rock and a Hard Place is the literary magazine that comes face-to-face with our gritty truths and hard luck realities, and doesn't blink.