Any discussion of modern crime fiction isn’t complete without the name Jason Starr, author of HARD FEELINGS, TOUGH LUCK and a Hard Case Crime trilogy co-written with Ken Bruen that includes BUST, SLIDE and the upcoming THE MAX. In the meantime, BOOKGASM talked to Starr about what’s ahead, the joys of collaboration and the future of the crime genre.
BOOKGASM: What are you working on now? What solo things?
STARR: Well, I just turned in a new thriller to St. Martin’s Press, which will be published in spring 2009. I think it’s my best book but, hey, I’m biased. I’ve also written a full-length graphic novel for DC/Vertigo which should be ready to roll in spring ‘09 or so. This coming December, St. Martin’s is publishing a mass market edition of THE FOLLOWER, and in September, I have a new book coming out co-written with Ken Bruen in what we’re now calling “The BUST Trilogy.” This one’s called THE MAX.
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Step into the Wayback Machine with me, kids, back to the ’80s, where the only thing bad was the inexplicable hipness of the mullet. I loved the malls, the music, the television and the skinny ties. Of course, I was in my teens and not getting laid, so what did I know?
Jack Ketchum was hanging and banging, and his collection of short stories BROKEN ON THE WHEEL OF SEX gives a unique perspective on that golden time in America, right between where free love stopped, but somewhere before AIDS began.
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Permuted Press has a lot invested in the end of the world! J.L. Bourne’s DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON gives the small publisher instant street cred, but sacrifices some crucial entertainment value necessary to make it a success.
Someone wittier than me once wrote that Nebraska is living proof that Hell is full and the dead walk the earth. If so, I want Bourne in the foxhole with me when they come staggering with their cold, dead hands. He makes Chuck Norris look like a pansy ass. This is what I’ve been able to determine about Mr. Bourne: He’s active-duty military — whereabouts unknown, but probably in the deserts of the world, destroying evil in a fashion that would make Remo Williams weep. In the morning, after a hard night of partying, when it comes to zombies, Bourne doesn’t throw up — he throws down.
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You can’t ever discount the value of a good title. When Brian Keene’s KILL WHITEY hit my radar, I was a bit ambivalent. Keene’s work represents that great unknown that you find a lot of in the books reviewed here: genre titles that often transcend genre.
So now from Cemetery Dance, we have KILL WHITEY: snazzy title, evocative of a ’70s blaxploitation movie. Even the back of the book had me wondering. That was my mistake. With Keene, you just got to trust him. He always delivers on making his evil interesting and his situations twisted.
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Two things become readily apparent reading EVERY SIGH, THE END: 1) I’m not the only person in the world who thought that LESS THAN ZERO was actually the scariest zombie book ever written, and 2) author Jason S. Hornsby boldly takes on the undead genre with a challenge I haven’t read before. EVERY SIGH, THE END — yes, another novel about zombies — is hip, referential and daring.
The plot requires a bit of explaining — maybe a couple of flow charts, possibly even fractions. I suck at math, so I’ll try and sum it up the best I can: New Year’s Eve, 1999. Professional layabout Ross Orringer is complaining about his life and jaded affair with his girlfriend’s best friend. Ross and his asshole buddy Preston, when they aren’t getting stoned, dub those hard-to-find classics you saw in the back of old-school FANGORIA. It’s not much of an existence, but it beats being dead.
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