05/22/2017
Career con artist Rowan Petty has run out of luck in this gritty, poignant crime novel from Hammett Prize–winner Lange (Angel Baby). Living out of a hotel in Reno, Nev., Petty is down to his last five grand and trying to stay afloat working various phone scams for chump change. When an older criminal colleague approaches Petty with a story he heard in prison about $2 million in stolen army money smuggled out of Afghanistan into L.A., Petty is just desperate enough to take the bait. Accompanied by a down-on-her-luck prostitute who calls herself Tinafey, Petty heads to California. Things get complicated and violent quickly, as Petty discovers that he isn’t the only one looking for the stolen cash. Meanwhile, he makes contact with his estranged daughter, whose life has taken a difficult turn. Lange is a master at writing about characters on the margins of society and humanizing outcasts and misfits, and he manages to capture the surreal culture of Los Angeles in all its contradictory glory. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. (July)
PRAISE FOR RICHARD LANGE:
"Lange's prose is sharp and his pacing moves with the momentum of rolling thunder."—Derek Hill, Mystery Scene
"Lange knows how to inhabit the skin of his protagonists and breathe life and vitality into them with his minimalist prose."
—Keith Rawson, Lit Reactor
"Lange writes of the disaffections and bewilderments of ordinary lives with as keen an anger and searing lyricism as anybody out there today. He is Raymond Carver reborn in a hard cityscape. Read him and be amazed."
—T.C. Boyle, author of The Harder They Come
"Lange's writing is reminiscent of that of James Ellroy.... A lot of writers try to write like this, but Lange just does it and he makes it work."
—David J. Montgomery, Daily Beast
"When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer. Every character feels like flesh and bone."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"Lange is incapable of creating a character that isn't memorable. Even the most minor are indelibly sketched.... The zone where literary fiction meets genre fiction is a crowded borderland these days. Lange proves himself comfortable on both sides of the line."—Antoine Wilson, Los Angeles Times
"Richard Lange is a natural-born storyteller."—Ron Rash, author of Above the Waterfall
"Lange has already earned a place close to Beckett's elevated company."—Jack Batten, Toronto Star
"Lange is a writer firing on all cylinders who belongs in the top tier of novelists working today.... He's the real deal."—Jason Kuiper, Omaha World-Herald
"Make all the comparisons you like-Cormac McCarthy, Dennis Lehane, Martin Scorsese-but Richard Lange is a force of his own, the high standard for crime fiction."
—Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon, The Wilding, and Refresh, Refresh
"Lange stands out as the greatest young crime writer of his generation, precisely because he doesn't write crime - he writes literature."
—Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight and Bad Sex on Speed
2017-05-02
Down-on-his-luck grifter Rowan Petty is talked into taking part in an iffy get-rich scheme by Dandy Don, an ex-con in Reno, only to be set up for a fall.A crew of Afghanistan soldiers in cahoots with Afghan truckers has siphoned $2 million in ghost payments and kickbacks to Los Angeles, where it has been hidden by Tony, a wounded young veteran. Don promises Petty a big chunk of the cash if he can put his hands on it. Posing as a plumber, Petty searches the kid's apartment for a possible hiding place. An armed thug sent by Don bursts in demanding the money and is shot dead by Tony, who is so rattled by the thought of going to prison that he offers Petty a share of the $2 million if he takes care of the body. Petty devises a scam to abscond with all the money. Standing in his way is Diaz, the coldblooded vet behind the original theft, who is back in the U.S. Petty's situation is further complicated by two women: Tinafey, a smart and sassy hooker he falls for, and his long-estranged 21-year-old daughter, Samantha, who is diagnosed with a serious medical problem. As he did in the gritty Angel Baby (2013), Lange brings a fresh dimension to noir by making parenthood a central theme (Petty's father was a failed gambler). Petty's romance with Tinafey, who becomes his reluctant accomplice, can get a bit squishy. Like his protagonist, Lange "ha[s] a soft spot for hookers." But he is such a breezy, stylish writer that even scenes that in other hands would be filler, like those in which Petty indulges Tinafey's shopping and sightseeing desires, have something to reveal. In this breezy page-turner, Lange shows off his uncommon ability to combine toughness and tenderness.
