Wrong Thing (22 page)

“Mike Harris' novel has all the brave force and arresting power of Celine and Dostoevsky in its descent into the depths of human anguish and that peculiar gallantry of the moral soul that is caught up in irrational self-punishment at its own failings. Yet Harris manages an amazing and transforming affirmation—the novel floats above all its pain on pure delight in the variety of the human condition. It is a story of those sainted souls who live in bars, retreating from defeat but rendered with such vividness and sensitivity that it is impossible not to care deeply about these figures from our own waking dreams. In an age less obsessed by sentimentality and mawkish ‘uplift,' this book would be studied and celebrated and emulated.”
— John Shannon, author of
The Taking of the Waters
and the Jack Liffey mysteries

“Michael Harris is a realist with a realist's unflinching eye for the hard truths of contemporary times. Yet in
The Chieu Hoi Saloon,
he gives us a hero worth admiring: the passive, overweight, depressed and sex-obsessed Harry Hudson, who in the face of almost overwhelming despair still manages to lead a valorous life of deep faith. In this powerful and compelling first novel, Harris makes roses bloom in the gray underworld of porno shops, bars and brothels by compassionately revealing the yearning loneliness beneath the grime—our universal human loneliness that seeks transcendence through love.”
— Paula Huston, author of
Daughters of Song
and
The Holy Way

“The Chieu Hoi Saloon
concerns one Harry Hudson, the literary bastard son of David Goodis and Dorothy Hughes. Hardcore and unsparing, the story takes you on a ride with Harry in his bucket of a car and pulls you into his subterranean existence in bright daylight and gloomy shadow. One sweet read.”
— Gary Phillips, author of
The Jook

Pike

Benjamin Whitmer

ISBN: 978-1-60486-089-4

224 pages $15.95

Douglas Pike is no longer the murderous hustler he was in his youth, but reforming hasn't made him much kinder. He's just living out his life in his Appalachian hometown, working odd jobs with his partner, Rory, hemming in his demons the best he can. And his best seems just good enough until his estranged daughter overdoses and he takes in his twelve-year-old granddaughter, Wendy.

Just as the two are beginning to forge a relationship, Derrick Kreiger, a dirty Cincinnati cop, starts to take an unhealthy interest in the girl. Pike and Rory head to Cincinnati to learn what they can about Derrick and the death of Pike's daughter, and the three men circle, evenly matched predators in a human wilderness of junkie squats, roadhouse bars and homeless Vietnam vet encampments.

“Without so much as a sideways glance towards gentility,
Pike
is one righteous mutherfucker of a read. I move that we put Whitmer's balls in a vise and keep slowly notching up the torque until he's willing to divulge the secret of how he managed to hit such a perfect stride his first time out of the blocks.”
— Ward Churchill

“Benjamin Whitmer's
Pike
captures the grime and the rage of my not-so-fair city with disturbing precision. The words don't just tell a story here, they scream, bleed, and burst into flames.
Pike,
like its eponymous main character, is a vicious punisher that doesn't mince words or take prisoners, and no one walks away unscathed. This one's going to haunt me for quite some time.”
— Nathan Singer

“This is what noir is, what it can be when it stops playing nice — blunt force drama stripped down to the bone, then made to dance across the page.”
— Stephen Graham Jones

I-5

Summer Brenner

ISBN: 978-1-60486-019-1

256 pages $15.95

A novel of crime, transport, and sex,
I-5
tells the bleak and brutal story of Anya and her journey north from Los Angeles to Oakland on the interstate that bisects the Central Valley of California.

Anya is the victim of a deep deception. Someone has lied to her; and because of this lie, she is kept under lock and key, used by her employer to service men, and indebted for the privilege. In exchange, she lives in the United States and fantasizes on a future American freedom. Or as she remarks to a friend, “Would she rather be fucking a dog... or living like a dog?” In Anya's world, it's a reasonable question.

Much of
I-5
transpires on the eponymous interstate. Anya travels with her “manager” and driver from Los Angeles to Oakland. It's a macabre journey: a drop at Denny's, a bad patch of fog, a visit to a “correctional facility,” a rendezvous with an organ grinder, and a dramatic entry across Oakland's city limits.

“Insightful, innovative and riveting. After its lyrical beginning inside Anya's head,
1-5
shifts momentum into a rollicking gangsters-on-the-lam tale that is in turns blackly humorous, suspenseful, heartbreaking and always populated by intriguing characters. Anya is a wonderful, believable heroine, her tragic tale told from the inside out, without a shred of sentimental pity, which makes it all the stronger. A twisty, fast-paced ride you won't soon forget.”
— Denise Hamilton, author of the
L.A.Times
bestseller
The Last Embrace.

“I'm in awe.
1-5
moves so fast you can barely catch your breath. It's as tough as tires, as real and nasty as road rage, and best of all, it careens at breakneck speed over as many twists and turns as you'll find on The Grapevine. What a ride! I-5's a hard-boiled standout.”
— Julie Smith, editor of
New Orleans Noir
and author of the Skip Langdon and Talba Wallis crime novel series

“In 1-5, Summer Brenner deals with the onerous and gruesome subject of sex trafficking calmly and forcefully, making the reader feel the pain of its victims. The trick to forging a successful narrative is always in the details, and
1-5
provides them in abundance. This book bleeds truth — after you finish it, the blood will be on your hands.”
— Barry Gifford, author, poet and screenwriter