In a near-future Pacific Northwest, a made-to-order sex robot tests a married couple's concept of fidelity; in the Tennessee hills of 19th-century America, an itinerant preacher forces others to prove their devotion to God - at gunpoint; and in a settlement town of the Old West, a former outlaw seeking to rescue his deceased brother's family from a life of poverty discovers to his horror the true meaning of blood.

In The Meaning of Blood and Other Tales of Perversity, Edgar Allan Poe scholar Chuck Caruso combines his deep roots in the American Gothic with his own contemporary sense of macabre humor. These sixteen stories of dark fiction range from crime thrillers to western noir to grotesque horror. Each twisted tale displays Caruso's unique blend of wry prose, feverish storytelling, and tragically-flawed characters discovering that even the most innocent encounter can lead to death. Or sex. Or both.