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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ISBN: 1874061394
Price: £9.99
Casing: Paperback
Format: B (198 x 129mm)
Extent: 602pp
Rights: UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada
Pub. Date: December 1995

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A hobo at age 16, then a decorated WW2 marine, then a teacher of literature, Willeford had two careers as a writer - in the 50's & 60's, hardboiled pulp in the style of Jim Thompson and then in the eighties the 4 superb Hoke Moseley novels. The first of these - Miami Blues - was made into a film starring William Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Fred Ward.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Three great novels from Willeford's hardcore early days, gathered together in a single volume.

PICK UP

Prowling the grimy streets of San Francisco low-life, Helen is a beautiful, sensuous drunk - and a pathetically easy pick-up. Harry just wants to help, but before long he and Helen are both adrift in a sea of alcohol - until Harry conceives the ultimate crime...

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY

Art critic James Figueras is a psychotic, an amoral unrepentant killer. Out to make a lasting name for himself, he seeks out the greatest painter in the world, now a hermit in the Florida swamplands. Figueras is after more than the man, however - he wants the work, and something more...something more horrible than can be imagined.

COCKFIGHTER

Frank Mansfield is the cockfighter, a man obsessed with an illegal sport which is unspeakably cruel, unthinkably bloody - and incredibly exciting. His pursuit of the champion's medal takes him into the seamy underbelly of rural Southern life...into the hot dusty small-town circuits, where greed and corruption vie only with lust and violence...

RELATED FEATURES

• The Black Mass of Brother Willeford by W R Bittner
• Washington Post article - December 2004

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'the master of cynical Florida crime fiction ' - The Times

'Better than Hall and Hiaasen and as good as Elmore Leonard at his best ' - Time Out

'a crime writers' crime writer lionised by peers such as Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block ... dangerous indeed, with a bitter humour, black as it comes but also so sweet' - The Herald

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.' - Elmore Leonard