Ken Bruen - Slide (Hard Case Crime)

Raves For BUST, the First Collaboration From KEN BRUEN and JASON STARR!

Two of the crime fiction worlds brightest talents, Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, join forces for one of the years most darkly satisfying and electric noir novels...This is one of the top guilty pleasures of the year.

Chicago Sun-Times

This tense, witty, cold-blooded noir...reads seamlesslyand mercilessly...Funny [and] vividly fresh.

Entertainment Weekly

A full-tilt, rocking homage to noir novels of the 1950s...A seamless blend of Bruens dead-on Irish underworld and Starrs hellish vision of the Big Apple, Hard Cases latest release is smart, trashy fun.

Publishers Weekly, starred review

Fasten your seat belts, and enjoy the bumpy ride of double- and triple-crosses, blackmail, and murder. If Quentin Tarantino is looking for another movie project, this novel with its mix of shocking violence and black comedy would be the perfect candidate. Highly recommended as a terrific summer read.

Library Journal, starred review

Two of the centurys best thriller writers have joined forces to bring a postmodern twist to the black heart of noir fiction. Grade: A.

Rocky Mountain News

A really black comedy...I pretty much laughed my ass off.

Sarah Weinman

Really good...very violent and very funny.

Jenny Davidson

Crosses and double-crosses, miscalculations and blunders, and plenty of dead bodies...For those who like the bungling-criminal genre, this is good fun.

Booklist

A fearsome and wondrous mix of vile characters [in] a caper novel worthy of Westlake or Leonard...exquisitely conceived and flawlessly written.

Book Reporter

The prose reads like a dream. Fast paced and bursting with energy...Hard Case Crime have released some of the best new novels of the past few years. Theyve given us some amazing reprints of classic crime. But this book, Bust , has just upped the ante once more.

Crime Scene

They called him Slide because he didnt let anything slide, ever. Hed killed thirteen and counting. Counting like the ritual psycho he was. Counting on there being morelots more. He was, as they say, only getting warmed up. The name, trademark, signature if you likethats right, he had a signature came from what hed whisper to his victim before administering his coup de grace.

Know what, partner?...Im gonna let it slide.

Ah, that sheen of hope, that desperate last dangling moment of reprieve. It got him hot every time.

He had looks to kill, like a wannabe rock star. Long dark hair, falling into his eyes, always the black leather jacket and the shades, knock-off Ray-Bans. He wore a thin band on his left wrist, woven by the tinkers. He didnt come from the classic horrendous background. He was that new comfortable Irish middle classlots of attitude, smarts and a mouth on him. Raised in Galway, hed been to the best schools, never wanted for anything. His passion was all things American.

He had one sister, always in his face, taunting him about his long hair, his huge blue eyes that girls would swoon over. Theyd been swimming, his sister and him, and literally, in a second, the voice said, Drown the bitch.

He did. Whispered to her, Was gonna let it slide.

Maybe the world didnt know it yet, but Slide was gonna be one of the greats. Dahmer, Bundy, Ridgway, Berkowitz, Gacy, and Slide. But he needed cash to finance his dream. Piles of it.

And that was how Slide got into the kidnapping biz...

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain

NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin

BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell

LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange

THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block

ROBBIES WIFE by Russell Hill

THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN by Gil Brewer

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis

BLACKMAILER by George Axelrod

SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas

FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich

KILL NOW, PAY LATER by Robert Terrall

SLIDE

by Ken Bruen

and Jason Starr

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-036)

First Hard Case Crime edition: October 2007

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

Copyright 2007 by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

Cover painting copyright 2007 by R. B. Farrell

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-356-4

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-391-5

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab

Design direction by Max Phillips

www.maxphillips.net

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

The name Hard Case Crime and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Printed in the United States of America

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

One

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.

C HARLES B UKOWSKI

Max Fisher opened his eyes, looked at the blurry mess around him, thought, Where the fuck am I? He managed to turn his head, stare at a wall. It was a white wall. The walls in his apartment were whiteokay, he was probably home. What day was it? He thought it was Monday because yesterday was Sunday, right? Didnt he see a football game on TV, at the bar he was drinking at? Or was that two days ago? Wait, it wasnt football, it was baseball. It was July for Christs sake. The Fourth was just, what, last week? He remembered loud noises, explosions, fireworks. Yeah, it definitely wasnt football season.

He rolled over toward the night table, misjudged it, fell onto the floor. Right on his hip. Mustve been a bad fall because the pain killed even though he was still smashed.

Aw, Christ, he said, wincing, tasting vomit.

He stayed like that for a long time, mightve passed out, then managed to struggle to his knees. The pain in his hip was excruciating, but he figured if hed broken something he wouldnt be able to move.

Using all his energy, he squinted, trying to focus on the digital clock. There was a 7 there and a 1 and was that a 5? No, it was an 8. 7:18. There was light outside behind the curtains so it was morningokay, things were coming together. Then he made out the letters above the numbers: W E D S . Fuck, it was Wednesday morninga workday. He had meetings to go to, people to see, deals to close.