Publisher Description
Raymond Carver meets Elmore Leonard in this extraordinary collection of contemporary crime writing set in the critically acclaimed Gangsterland universe, a series called "gloriously original" by the New York Times Book Review.
With gimlet-eyed cool and razor-sharp wit, these spare, stylish stories from a master of modern crime fiction assemble a world of gangsters and con men, of do-gooders breaking bad and those caught in the crossfire. The uncle of an FBI agent spends his life as sheriff in different cities, living too close to the violent acts of men; a cocktail waitress moves through several desert towns trying to escape the unexplainable loss of an adopted daughter; a drug dealer with a penchant for karaoke meets a talkative lawyer and a silent clown in a Palm Springs bar.
Witty, brutal, and fast-paced, these stories expand upon the saga of Chicago hitman-turned-Vegas-rabbi Sal Cupertine—first introduced in Gangsterland and continued in Gangster Nation—while revealing how the line between good and bad is often a mirage.
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About Tod Goldberg
Tod Goldberg is the
author of the crime-tinged novels Living
Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book
Prize, Fake Liar Cheat, and the popular Burn
Notice series.
His essay “When They Let Them Bleed” was selected by Cheryl Strayed
for inclusion in Best American Essays 2013. He is also the author of the story
collections Simplify a 2006 finalist for the SCIBA Award
for Fiction and winner of the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize, and Other Resort Cities. His short fiction has appeared in numerous
journals and anthologies, twice receiving special mention for the Pushcart Prize
as well as being named a distinguished story of the year in The Best American Mystery Stories 2009. His essays, journalism, and criticism
appear regularly in many publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Las
Vegas CityLife, and
have been featured in E!, Salon, Jewcy, and the Wall Street Journal, among many others.
About Johnny Heller
Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine.