Ken Bruen - The Max (Hard Case Crime (Mass Market Paperback))

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 seamlessly and mercilessly... Funny [and] vividly fresh.

Entertainment Weekly

Adventurous crime-fiction fans who like their literary escapism totally unrestrained will find this brazenly violent and downright vulgar novel... as filthy as it is fun.

Chicago Tribune

A full-tilt, rocking homage to noir novels of the 1950s... 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... has just upped the ante once more.

Crime Scene

When they brought Angela to the prison in Lesbos her first thought was, Jaysus, this place lives up to its name. The holding cell held eight other women. Most of them were in micro-minis, skimpy tube tops, a couple even in bikinis. Most were talking in Greek, and a couple of blondes were talking in some other language, maybe Swedish.

Angela went up to one of the blondes, asked, So is this a prison or a nightclub?

Thought she was making a joke, but the blonde said, Both. There was a raid at Nikos last night. Heroin or something. But we have nothing to do with it.

She sounded a little too defensive. Angela glanced down, noticed the track marks on her skinny arms.

So what did they charge you with?

We do not know. They told us nothing.

What about you? the other blonde asked. What did you do?

Oh, nothing, Angela said. I was just having a drink, minding my own business, and next thing I knew two cops were taking me away.

The officers whod arrested Angela hadnt notified her of any charges. But, of course, Angela knew why she was being taken away. She didnt know if theyd found some evidence that could hang her or if she was just a suspect by default. Not that it mattered. Shed heard enough stories over the years about the Greek justice system. It was your classic, old-world, eye-for-an-eye, guilty-until-proven-innocent mentality. She figured shed never be formally charged with anything. Shed be handed over to Georgios relatives and quietly killed.

Do any of the guards here speak English? Angela asked.

There was a young guy here last night maybe nineteen years old. He was hitting on all the women. He told one girl, if she give him blowjob she can get out.

Angela thought, Bingo...

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

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

DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane

DEADLY BELOVED by Max Allan Collins

A DIET OF TREACLE by Lawrence Block

MONEY SHOT by Christa Faust

ZERO COOL by John Lange

SHOOTING STAR/SPIDERWEB by Robert Bloch

THE MURDERER VINE by Shepard Rifkin

SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E. Westlake

NO HOUSE LIMIT by Steve Fisher

BABY MOLL by John Farris

byKen Bruen
andJason Starr

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-047)

First Hard Case Crime edition: September 2008

Published by

Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street
London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

Copyright 2008 by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

Cover painting copyright 2008 by Glen Orbik

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 978-0-85768-371-7

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-395-3

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab
Design direction by Max Phillips
www.maxphillips.net

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.

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

For Jerry Rodriguez, Megan Abbott and Alison Gaylin Madison Rules

I had no worries about someone fucking me. I was no white bread white boy. If someone said something wrong, my challenge would be quick and if the apology was less than swift, I would attack forthwith.