From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair.
Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game.
When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.
The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through?
Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.
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"Southern crime legend Joe Lansdale channels his best James M. Cain world vision...Readers can expect to be transported in the usual Lansdale fashion, as nobody does those East Texas period details quite like Lansdale, who always delivers with a finely-crafted, engaging, compulsive crime story in his home terrain."
— Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads
“Imagine James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice steeped in hillbilly noir, and you’ve got Lansdale’s new novel…The real fun is in Lansdale’s slightly depraved wit.”
— New York Times Book Review“[A] grisly homage to the classic noir of James M. Cain…It’s still the same old story in the end (‘the American dream, drenched in blood and greed’), but Lansdale really makes this used car purr.”
— Booklist (starred review)“Nobody does those East Texas period details quite like Lansdale, who always delivers with a finely-crafted, engaging, compulsive crime story in his home terrain.”
— Crime Reads“An enjoyably cynical cruise down the back roads to perdition.”
— Airmail“Populated with an admirable array of laughable miscreants, this droll, savage novel is vintage Lansdale.”
— Publishers Weekly'“The irresistible allure of easy money coupled with a conniving woman in distress drive main character Ed Edwards to take some unorthodox steps to secure his financial future.”
— BookPageHighly enjoyable . . . Populated with an admirable array of laughable miscreants, this droll, savage novel is vintage Lansdale. The author's storytelling powers remain as strong as ever.
— Publishers WeeklyHe's genre dextrous, moving fleetly between westerns, mysteries, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, literary fiction, and nonfiction, and doing it all extremely well.
— Publishers WeeklyLansdale really makes this used car purr.
— Booklist (starred review)Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including the Edgar Award–winning The Bottoms. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, a Critics’ Choice Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, among others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli.
Suehyla El-Attar Young is an actress and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She dabbled in radio for a bit, working with several well-known stations as a morning news personality and DJ. Eventually, she returned to acting, on stage and in film. She has nurtured both crafts of acting and writing, working with local companies such as Theatre du Reve, Synchronicity Theatre, the Alliance Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company as dramaturge, actress, and playwright on several projects.