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...

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'The Pope of Psycho-Pulp' - Time Out

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

'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

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

'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. Miami Blues is the real stuff' - Elmore Leonard

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

ESSENTIAL TRIVIA

Willeford's wartime career saw him serving as a tank commander in the U.S. army, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and being awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.
He said of his fellow soldiers - "A good half of the men you deal with in the Army are psychopaths. There's a pretty hefty overlap between the military population and the prison population..."