### From Publishers WeeklyGenre hopping seems to suit horror writer Schow ( *Havoc Swims Jaded* ) as he lets out all the stops in this high-caliber action story. It's no exaggeration to say that Barney has a more intimate relationship with guns than he does with any human, living or dead. That's why Mexicans call him *el hombre de las armas* , the gunman. It's also why old army buddy Carl Ledbetter drags him into a messy situation when Carl's fiancée, Erica, is kidnapped in Mexico City. At the prearranged money drop things start to go awry, and eventually a badly beaten, mutilated, shotup and half-starved Barney emerges, determined to get revenge on the kidnappers and anyone else who gets in his way. This is a gory, fast-paced pulp tour de force in the classic style.
“Smart, scathing, and verbally inventive to an astonishing degree, David J. Schow [is] one of the most interesting writers of his generation.”
“Take no prisoners fiction that rarely pulls away from the grisly heart of the matter, Schow’s prose is extremely cinematic, filled with pungent dialogue, sharp, memorable characters, and a sense of macabre irony worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.”
“[A] sinuous psychological thriller... Schow works suspenseful sleight-of-hand with his story... His kinetic orchestration of events [and] vivid hardboiled prose push the plot to a thunderclap climax that... is a measure of coolly calculated audacity.”
“Evocatively described and expertly paced... Schow cranks up the tension effortlessly and artfully. Reading the novel is akin to being slipped a mickey... a wonderful treat.”
“Edgy, insightful, and fearless.”
“David Schow writes with a lethal beauty.”
“A highly original, boldly conceived psychological thriller observed with the rapt eye and assassin’s sting of the artist as fer-de-lance...[I’m] a major fan of David’s work.”
“A jagged nightmare spiked with charm, melancholy and vicious intelligence. Don’t accept this novel’s invitation to party unless you’re prepared to be dragged to some very dark places — and to love every step of the way. Like being punched in the face by a poet.”
“Schow is so fine a writer, so imaginative a storyteller, that he deserves a place in all contemporary fiction collections.”
“Very much in the groove of Thomas Harris.”
“David J. Schow is a master of the art of giving the plot an unexpected wrinkle.”
“There is poignancy everywhere in his talent, amid the exquisite threat.”
“Creepy and fascinating.”
“It’s raw, it’s rough, and it’s not for wimps... A damn fine book.”
“What the hell are you doing —”
