Les Edgerton's Blog, page 37

Interview with the inestimable Richard Godwin

Hi folks,

Well, the early sales of THE RAPIST have been hugely gratifying! My heartfelt gratitude to all who've purchased a copy.

Richard Godwin, the London author of great crime books, has just posted an interview I did with him on his site here. I think you'll enjoy it. Richard always asks the best questions and makes me think and reach down deep inside for the proper responses to his always intelligent questions.

Thanks to all the people who are helping me spread the word of THE RAPIST. You folks rock!

Blue skies,
Les

THE RAPIST IS OUT! Not gonna sleep tonight!

Hi folks,
I’ve just been given the okay by my publisher, Jon Bassoff of New Pulp Press that my novella, THE RAPIST, is up and available early on Amazon!


I’ve awaited the publication of this book more than any other I’ve ever had published. The writers out there will know the feelings that are coursing through me right now. There’s a lot riding on this book for me. A lot of folks are telling me they think it’ll be a breakout book and I certainly hope they’re right.
The paperback edition is gorgeous! Usually, I’d suggest buying the ebook version because it’s cheaper of course, but this book is so physically awesome I’d really recommend the paperback version… and I earn a lower royalty on the print version. I’m just really, really proud of it. And, it’s very reasonably-priced for paperback at just ten bucks and change.
If you don’t mind, please help me out by hitting the “Like” button and if anyone will post a review (hopefully a good one!), I’ll be hugely in your debt.

You might want to take a peek look at the foreword Cort McMeel provided in the Free Peek function on Amazon.

The Rapist paperback, U.S. edition
The Rapist ebook, U.S. edition
The Rapist paperback UK
As of this writing, the ebook version wasn't yet posted on the Amazon UK site yet, but it should appear at any time.
Here are some of the prepub blurbs I was fortunate to garner for THE RAPIST. Thanks to everyone for your kind and gracious words.
BLURBS FOR THE RAPIST


1. Les Edgerton presents an utterly convincing anti-hero. The abnormal psychology is pitch-perfect. The Rapist ranks right up there with Camus' The Stranger and Simenon's Dirty Snow. An instant modern classic.
Allan Guthrie, author of Slammer and others. Publisher, Blasted Heath Books




2. So, I’m reading Les Edgerton’s The Rapist. The title has already made me uneasy.


Five pages in and I can hardly breathe.


Ten and I’m nauseous.


For the next 50, I’m a mixture of all of the above, but most of all, angry.


I feel like ringing my feminist friends and confessing: Sisters, I’m reading something you will kill me for reading.


I feel like ringing my ex colleagues - parole officers and psychologists who work with sex offenders in Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow - and asking them if they think it’s helpful to publish an honest and explicit transcript which shows the cognitive distortions of a callous, grandiose, articulate sex offender; one which illustrates his inability to have a relationship with a woman and his complete lack of empathy?


I’m thinking I don’t know what I should be thinking.


Will it turn sex offenders on?


Should we listen to this guy?


Is it possible to separate the person from the offence, and to empathise with him as he waits to die?


I don’t ring anyone.


I read on.


And the breathlessness, nausea, anger and confusion increase all the way to the end, at which point all I know is that the book is genius.
Helen FitzGerald, author, Dead Lovely, Bloody Women, The Devil’s Staircase, The Donor and others.




3. Take a Nabokovian narrator trying to convince the reader of his innocence and filter it through An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and you've got The Rapist, a raw and frightening journey through the inner psyche of a damaged man.
Brian Lindenmuth, Publisher, Spinetingler Magazine and Snubnose Press


4. One never knows what to expect when reading a novel entitled “The Rapist,” yet, similar to “The Bitch” which precedes this, with Les Edgerton you know you're in for an interesting ride. Tackling a tough subject with great aplomb, Les Edgerton proves once again why he is one of the most exciting writers of this generation. The structure of this just astounded me. I've never read anything like it before. I've never been so engrossed in a novel as I was with this one. I had no idea Edgerton had this literary part of his writing. I don't know of any other writers that can go from crime fiction to literary so seamlessly. Edgerton should be very proud of this novel...


One of the bravest pieces of fiction you are likely to read this year, and also one of the best. This is a novel you'll want to read again and again, an outstanding read!
Luca Veste, author of the story collections Liverpool 5, and More Liverpool Five. He is also the editor of the story collection, Off the Record




5. The Rapist blends Camus and Jim Thompson in an existential crime novel that is as dark and intoxicating as strong Irish coffee. Les Edgerton pulls us into the corkscrew mind of Truman Ferris Pinter, a twisted man with skewed perception of the world, as his life spirals toward oblivion, like dirty dishwater down a plughole. It reminded me of Jim Thompson's Savage Night in its delirium.
Paul D Brazill, Author, 13 Shots Of Noir and others.


6. Les Edgerton’s book The Rapist is Albert Camus’ The Strangerretold as if by the lovechild of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Bukowski. Yes, it’s disturbing, yet layered and provocative, with its combination of mysticism and perversion. I particularly like the cat and mouse relationship between the protagonist Truman and the prison warden—it’s reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption. This tale, with its many twists and turns, is definitely not for the faint of heart—but then, the title should have made that clear.
Scott Evans, Editor, Blue Moon Literary and Art Review,Author, First Folio


7. William Faulkner on steroids or Hannibal Lecter on meth; neither as literate or frightening as Les Edgerton in his ground-breaking novel, The Rapist. This intellectual tour-de-force rips open the mind of a delusional psychopath taking the reader on a raw journey that challenges Dante’s Inferno. And the last line of the book is the penultimate example of a sociopath’s naked ego.
Bob Stewart, author of Alias Thomas A Katt, Hidden Evil, No Remorse, Revenge Redeemedand others.


8. A deathdream swan dive from the existential stratosphere plummeting into the personal hell of a tormented, broken psyche, The Rapistintroduces us to a gentle and philosophical misanthrope named Truman Pinter, at once reminiscent of Albert Camus and Patricia Highsmith, even John Gardner’s Grendel and the journal of Carl Panzram. Les Edgerton melds introspection and visceral, human brutality in this death row narrative from a masterful storyteller, whose dissection of a psychopath will haunt you long after the final page.
Thomas Pluck, Well-known commentator on the noir scene, many short stories published in magazines such as the Utne Reader, editor of the anthology, Lost Children Protectors

9. The Rapist is a disturbing look into the twisted mind of a narcissistic psychopath on death row. A vulgar odyssey reminiscent of Nabokov’s Lolita, although far more depraved, Les Edgerton has crafted a dark and brilliant story that leaves you as equally unsettled as it does in complete awe.
Julia Madeleine, author of No One To Hear You Scream and The Truth About Scarlet Rose


10. When Les Edgerton asked me to read an ARC of “The Rapist” he warned me with that title it may not be my thing and he was okay with whatever I decided. I knew of his writing books like Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go and Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing  but never had looked at any of his fiction. I was prepared for something graphic but he refused to talk about the plot or storyline. No hints.


I was ready to be offended. I’m a strong advocate for women’s equality and won’t tolerate or put my name near anything that belittles woman. With a title of “The Rapist” it had two and a half strikes before I read the first line because rape is all about a man having power over a woman.


From the first pages the words and voice made me think of American literature masters like Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe I was forced to read in high school. The difference was in school I still muttered about reading dead masters and times, but grew to love the descriptions, plots and characters that transported me to another moment in history. In “The Rapist” I read greedily to see where the book was going, totally engrossed in the story. The honesty and freshness of the words from the main character kept me glued to the page to see what happened to the man caught in the worst circumstances and an act of degradation to woman. That is about all I want to say about the plot. I understand Les’s reasons for not explaining the details. You need fresh eyes to appreciate it but that isn’t to say I won’t go back and reread it like other writing masters savoring it. It is one of those books that each time you read it, you find another kernel of truth, a pearl of wisdom. It has that many facets wrapped in rich layers of dialogue, characterization and setting that pounded with each of the rapist’s heartbeat. I was hooked from the first page.
Wendy Gager, author of A Case of Infatuation, A Case of Accidental Intersection, and A Case of Hometown Blues.


11. Les Edgerton’s masterly The Rapistis a deeply disturbing journey into the murky recesses of the mind of psychopathic death row inmate Truman Ferris Pinter. An intellectual, erudite, philosophical misanthrope, Truman draws the reader inexorably into his fractured web. There are times when one nods one’s head in agreement with his well-reasoned arguments, only to shrink back in horror at the realisation. Sympathy for The Devil, indeed, in this dark vision of a black heart that is both astoundingly honest and ultimately terrifying.
Lesley Ann Sharrock former publisher/editor Moondance Media (UK), author of 7th Magpie.


12. Les Edgerton is the king of hard-edged, bad-ass crime fiction, and The Rapist is his most harrowing book yet.
Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest, The Walkaway, Cottonwood.


13. Like Denis Johnson’s classic novel-in-stories, Jesus’ Son, Les Edgerton’s The Rapistis a dark, risky, disturbing story that grabs the reader in a haunting fashion and holds on tightly. The writing is taut and unsettling. Edgerton is a mighty talent.
Tony Ardizzone, The Whale Chaser and others


14. ‘I live in a small, dark realm which I fill out’. Jean Genet’s words in “Miracle Of the Rose”. And like Genet, Edgerton writes with lyricism and a sense of history of things that disturb, balancing through his superb style themes that may otherwise unsettle the narrative. Edgerton’s brilliant archaeological dig into the motivations of a rapist is an unflinching look at the darker recesses of the human psyche. There is nothing gratuitous here and it takes a command to achieve a narrative pull in such territory. It reminded me of John Burnside’s “The Locust Room” but it’s better written. Edgerton voices the demonic forces at work within his narrator’s head. He embeds the story with the protagonist’s need for redemption set against the backdrop of his life. "The Rapist" is confessional, poetic, unrelenting, and as real as the newspaper lying before you. It challenges the assumption that fictions need to censor the things people read every day in what is deemed factual. It is told in a style that situates it among the classics of transgressive fictions.
Richard Godwin, Apostle Rising, Mr Glamour


15. Les Edgerton's THE RAPIST is for those brave enough to acknowledge the ugly reality produced by our illusions. It's unapologetic, tough, taut, and well-written. It's also stark and metaphysical. It poses hard questions and makes you look hard for answers. This is great, challenging literature.
Lee Thompson, author of When We Join Jesus in Hell


16. Les Edgerton has written, in The Rapist, something that . . . that . . . well, defies explanation. Don't get me wrong; the writing is extremely powerful. The imagery is wonderful and startlingly clear. The emotions are vivid and visceral. Emotions that grab you physically and rattle your teeth violently the further you dip into his tale. But the question is . . . how do you define it?


Nihilistic existentialism comes to mind as a basis for understanding. The realization that nothing . . . nothing . . . is real or meaningful. But somehow the definition falls flat. There is, ultimately, a purpose for what happens to the character. Better yet; there is a deep, almost Freudian, mysterythat grabs you and makes your imagination soar with the possibilities in understanding what is happening.


I wouldn't say that, after you finishing reading The Rapist, you're going to have a feeling of satisfaction. In fact I strongly suggest you're going to feel as if you've just walked out of a House of Mirrors. You certainly will be confused, shocked, and puzzled.


But you will realize that you've just read something amazingly original. Truly, magnificently, original.
B.R. Stateham, author of A Taste of Old Revenge, Tough Guys: The Homicide Cases of Turner Hahn and Frank Morales, and others


17. Meet Truman Ferris Pinter, condemned prisoner #49028, a snarling, wicked, silver-tongued misanthrope – a black hole of a man who sucks you in with the human gravity of his self-deception, then distorts your beliefs with the super-logic of his epiphanies. Oh, it’s all there – gut-grabbing lust, sex, hate and violence, deeply disturbing comments about our insane world – but The Rapist by Les Edgerton is much more than a new classic of Modern Noir. Against all odds, master wordsmith Edgerton has created the most mesmerizing and disturbing narrator since Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, an intense, strange, well-spoken villain whose story and sexual perceptions will frighten many more men than women. The Rapist is not who -- or what -- you think.
Jack Getze, Fiction Editor, Spinetingler Magazine


18. Logic and reason mean everything to Truman Ferris Pinter. They trump all. Convicted of rape and more, Pinter faces a sentence he isn't the least bit concerned about, because he has planned the perfect escape.


In THE RAPIST, author Les Edgerton has penned potentially a career-defining work, challenging societal notions of right and wrong, crime and punishment, religion and philosophy, and wrapping the whole thing up in a taut, breathtaking, utterly absorbing account of narcissism, self-absorption and unchecked ego.


Edgerton is one of those rare writers who tackles the most difficult subjects unflinchingly, and does so in a way that leaves the reader spellbound. Whatever you think THE RAPIST is about, you're wrong. Read it and see. You'll find yourself thinking about it long after you've finished.
Allan Leverone, author of The Lonely Mile and others.


19. A unique, riveting look into the mind of a very disturbed character. Tough to read, but tougher to put down. Only a writer with Les Edgerton's skill could pull this off.
Terrence P. McCauley, Author of PROHIBITION and FIGHT CARD: AGAINST THE ROPES


20.

For instance, here is the opening:


Let me tell you who occupies this prison cell. Perfidious, his name is Perfidity. His name is: Liar, Blasphemer, Defiler of Truth, Black-Tongued. He lies down with all members of the congregation equally, tells them each in turn they are his beloved, while he is already attending to the next assignation, in his relentless rendezvous with the consumption of souls.


THE RAPIST is a book in three acts, beginning with Truman sitting in a prison cell, accused of rape, awaiting execution. Truman speaks with such precision and clarity, such perfect prose, the reader is immediately faced with the conflict of how this weaver of words could commit such a brutal act. The seductive nature of the words is incredible. But that is only half the story. The seduction is purely intellectual. It speaks purely to the mind. Truman seems a character almost totally bereft of any sort of empathy or compassion. Never before have I read such coldness. Hannibal Lector doesn’t even come close. Truman Pinter is truly terrifying.


Truman tells us of his crime, his justification for the act, his plan to thwart the authorities at the final moment. He is very difficult to like.


But then comes the second act. We learn of Truman’s childhood. We learn of how his pathology manifested. We learn of the boy he once was. What is so brilliant about this is that as Truman tells us of his mother and his father, and of his childhood, he is barely aware how vulnerable he is becoming. It is so very, very touching.


The third act spins everything on its head, and concludes with a twist that is sublime beyond words.


A writer who writes a book THE RAPIST is a writer that holds no fear. That is clear from the outset. It alerts the reader to the fact this will be a challenging read–and it is. A challenge for the reader to trust the writer. Unreservedly. Trust the writer will keep them safe. 


In Les Edgerton, you are in the safest of hands.


THE RAPIST is bleak and touching, challenging and inspirational.


An astounding read.
Ian Ayris, author of Abide With Me and One Day in the Life of Jason Dean.


21. I just finished The Rapist and . . . um . . . wow. . . just . . . I mean, holy . . . what a voice. What a . . .I mean, it's so . . . wow. Damn. Seriously.
Eric Beetner, author of The Devil Doesn't Want Me




22. One page into Les Edgerton’s The Rapist and I whispered, “Damn.” Not just the kind of “damn” you utter in respect for the audacity of what you’ve uncovered, but also that “damn” that means, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that?” You didn’t think of that because you haven’t lived it. The ring of ironbound authenticity is consistent throughout Edgerton’s career, and The Rapist is no exception. Not just the blunt realities of incarceration, of course, but the mileage on his narrators. But this is a different voice than we’re used to, a different kind of hunger. What’s new here is the abandon. This is the kind of work you get from a writer with nothing left to lose, not one with nothing left to prove, and that’s the biggest surprise of all.
-David James Keaton, author of Fish Bites Cop!


23. Ezra. Finally.


Years ago, the poet Ezra Pound, issued his one and only commandment to all the writers and poets who would follow in his footsteps: "Make it new." 


Since then many have tried. Most have failed. But Les Edgerton in, The Rapist, obeys that commandment to the letter.


Truman Pinter, the protagonist of, The Rapist, by his very name (an apt combination of Truman Capote and Harold Pinter; two giants of modern mysticism and hard reality) informs the reader that he or she is in for a strange and illuminating journey.


The Rapist was very like being immersed suddenly in a boiling tsunami of religion, physics, philosophy, psychology, pathology; God, Freud, Kant, Jung, Skinner, Einstein, Hawking, John Milton, John Donne, Micky Spillane, Percy Bysshe Shelly and a choir of thousands all speaking at once in a cosmic argument; a grand parade of immortal thoughts, transcendent science and hard, hard reality. A wild surf that spins the reader head over heels, both lost and grounded at the same time.


If all that sounds confusing or frightening, don't be alarmed. Edgerton's steady hand at the tiller makes sure the reader is never lost in this raging river of words, poetry and ideas. Les guides you home to port astounded, much wiser than you were -- and in complete awe of the ambition and success of this sudden classic.


Ezra Pound would be proud. And grateful that somebody had the vision -- and balls -- to finally follow his long ago command.
A.J. Hayes, His stories and poems been published in venues like Yellow Mama, Eaten Alive, A Twist Of Noir, Shotgun Honey, Black Heart Magazine’s Noir Issue. The Hard-Nosed Sleuth, Apollo’s Lyre, Flashshot, Skin Diver Magazine, Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird’s Anthology: Pulp Ink. He’s also in Off The Record and Off The Record 2,and is a well-known commentator on the noir literary scene.


24. If the narrator of Camus’ The Outsider had written an especially disturbing thriller it would be The Rapist - rock hard, darkest Noir, very fine writing, first-class storytelling.
An intelligent, proud psychopath on death row tries to win your approval, in the last few hours before the big sleep. You don’t like him but it’s impossible to stop reading.
While some of us tourists can sometimes concoct realistic stories from knowing criminals and having dabbled occasionally, Mr Edgerton has served time, giving him knowledge citizens prefer not to have.
Writers Helen Fitzgerald and Wendy Gager also had initial misgivings being associated with this title and a persuasive narrator. My name, for the few who know it, is already associated with unapologetic hard drug use, chronic alcoholism, a lightweight’s criminal record, sex work, (that’s where drugs can take you) and twenty years campaigning for consensual fetish sex. “This is supposed to be about him!” sorry, but if degenerates like me are squicked out by our unrepentant host, a cold man who looks down on those who empathise with other humans, you might feel uneasy about this book. Decent people should despise scumbag predators but that’s not a reason to avoid this gripping book.
I’m thrilled to have a new author over whom to obsess. It’s been a while since I discovered Ted ‘Get Carter’ Lewis, Elmore Leonard and Thomas Harris. Decades since I saw my first Tarantino. Les Edgerton belongs in that company.
Mark Ramsden, jazz musician and author of Radical Desire (Mandrake) The Dark Magus and the Sacred Whore, The Dungeonmaster’s Apprentice, The Sacred Blood (Serpent’s Tail) War School (Troubador)


25. A brilliantly narrated tapestry of violence, sex, and death in American heartland, The Rapist is a must read for all noir aficionados and serious readers of hard-boiled lit. Once again Les Edgerton proves that he is not only a master of the modern noir novel, but a literary stylist capable of delivering a contemporary classic.
Vincent Zandri, bestselling author of The Remains and Murder by Moonlight


26. Les Edgerton is the real deal, his work consistently unflinching and raw. And his new novel is no exception. Reminiscent of Hubert Selby Jr.’s The Room, Edgerton’s The Rapist takes us deep into the mind of a disturbed man. And while some would label the character a monster, Edgerton is much more interested in finding whatever shred of humanity he can within the darkness. Ambitious and provocative, as every novel should be.
Johnny Shaw, author of Dove Season and Big Maria.


27. With THE RAPIST, Les Edgerton has written the most bone-chilling, evocative, depraved and insightful novel of the year. Forget "hardboiled", forget "noir", forget everything you think you know about what a genre story is supposed to be. THE RAPIST brushes all of that aside with a disdainful sneer and instead presents something that aspires to far more than any single genre can provide. More than anything else, this novel occupies that same uneasy space that Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" rests in-- a controlled testament of misanthropy and delusion. But whereas the great Russian's protagonist was fueled by rage, Edgerton's narrator is fueled by a sharp, ugly narcissism, and a beastly inhuman nature that peeks like a stalker through his eloquent language and high-minded ideas. Not so much a plot-driven novel as a narrative, Edgerton guides us into the mind of his narrator and leaves us there alone to fend for ourselves and make our own way back from the darkness. How much of what Truman says can we dismiss as the ravings of a damaged mind? And how much must we stop and listen to, hunting for a glimmer of truth?


THE RAPIST is a challenging novel, not for the squeamish, and definitely not for anyone who dislikes being pulled out of their comfort zone. It quite simply blew me away. Destined to be a classic.
Heath Lowrance, The Bastard Hand, Dig Ten Graves, City of Heretics and others.


28. If you were familiar with Les Edgerton's work - you aren't anymore. The Rapist marks a whole new direction for the noir stalwart. He strips Kafka of genteel niceties and leads us on a searing voyage into the black beating heart of an implacable sociopath. The Rapist will leave you jittery for days and wondering what damaged human depths there remain for Edgerton to plumb.
Court Merrigan, author of Moondog Over the Delta.


29. Les Edgerton’s ‘The Rapist’ is an extraordinary book.
In essence, it describes the events leading up to the protagonist’s incarceration and the time he passes as he waits his final dawn to arrive.
It’s written in a style of yester-year and there are sketches that suggest a contemporary setting; what I feel the author achieves by this juxtaposition is to direct his thoughts to the human condition as it’s always been rather than it might be at any given point.
The main character is an intellectual. A pedant. A philosopher. He is in the middle of a war of attrition against the people he meets, himself and even more importantly with the reader.
It’s like being hit repeatedly by a blunt object as he cajoles and insists and backs up his arguments. There are even times when the guy seems convincing and these are the most disturbing sections of all.
There aren’t many modern books like this, I’m pretty sure. Though it may not always be a fun ride, there’s an element of satisfaction for the reader who takes this on in undertaking such a perilous journey.
I left ‘The Rapist’ battered, bruised and exhausted - what more can one say about a book than that?
Nigel Bird, author of Smoke, Mr Suit, In Loco Parentis


30. Les Edgerton's The Rapist reads like congress with the Devil himself - elegantly unsettling and with a hell of an after-taste. Jedidiah Ayres, author of Fierce Bitches


31. The Rapist's narrator has the same overweening self-importance as Nabokov's Humbert Humbert and the Lolita comparisons don't end there. At times you don't want to look, you want to wash your mind out but this compelling work, told in bleakly sonorous prose, pulls you back. Les Edgerton has produced that rare thing: a book of seriousness.
Tony Black, author of Murder Mile


Thank you so much, everyone!
Hope you enjoy the read!
Blue skies,
Les

Two New Reviews!

Hi folks,
I wanted to share my take on two books I've read recently that are just smashmouth great!
First up is Jed Ayres' story collection, titled (ready?) F*ckload of Shorts.


Jed Ayres is just the coolest dude! He's a well-known name in the world of noir literature and hosts the Noir @ The Bar event in St. Louis, which is legendary. He also writes a column on noir and crime writing for Barnes&Noble.  I got one of his rare invitations to participate and my wife Mary and I drove down and had one of the best times I've ever had. He's a terrific host, a wonderful person, and a brilliant writer and I hope I get to take part in a future Noir@Bar event in the future.
I've been waiting for this collection to come out for the longest time and the wait was worth it. An amazing, mesmerizing collection of darkness and human truth. Every single story here is brilliant, but I found a special connection to "The Whole Buffalo." A movie that rests within my top ten list is the black comedy EATING RAOUL (when I teach writing at the university level, I always show it for how to create black comedy), and Ayre's short story took the premise of that movie and rode it to a new level entirely. Now, I want an entire novel centered around this character.

Buy this book!
Another book that blew my doors off was Tom Pitts PIGGYBACK. Reading this guy was like sitting in a cell in Pendleton, listening to my cellie tell a story.


 
I was tempted at first to say something to the effect that Tom Pitt’s novel PIGGYBACK was “the best of noir,” but that would have been almost akin to damning it with faint praise. Like Nabokov, I don’t believe in genres. Like him, I think the only genres are “good writing” and “bad writing.” Well, PIGGYBACK belongs in that first group and I’d go beyond “good” to declare it “superlative” writing. I’m ranking it among my personal list of one of the best books I’ve read, period.
There are a lot of writers penning novels that are crime-based and centered around criminals. While many of them are entertaining and I enjoy reading them, this novel goes beyond mere entertainment and is a book that contains that rare verisimilitude that only those who’ve walked the walk can achieve. As a criminal of many years myself, I recognize those few writers who’ve actually lived on the dark side and Mr. Pitts is indeed, just such a writer and you can tell.
I’ve known his characters intimately. Up close and personal. And, I am positive that he does as well. It shows in the way he treats his characters and the choices he has them make. You can’t fake veracity, although there are lots who try. They can fool the straights but they can’t fool the ex-con. Jimmy is my ex-cellmate. He’s my old rappy. He thinks and he acts exactly like the way criminals act. His rappie Paul is a guy I’ve known many times in my own life as well. These characters—all of them—are as true as any characters ever have been. They’re real, man, and they’re not Hollywood in any sense.
PIGGYBACK will show you the true nature of the criminal. And, in doing so, it transcends genres. This is literature and of the highest order.

Keep your eye on these two guys. They're destined to become novas in the literary universe.

Blue skies,
Les 

Dead End Follies: Book Review : Les Edgeton - The Rapist (2013)

Dead End Follies: Book Review : Les Edgeton - The Rapist (2013): Pre-Order THE RAPIST here A fish is an excellent substitute for, say, a wife. The piscatorial species accept instruction with good hum...

THE HIDING PLACE GIRL Review--Superb!

Hi folks,


I just finished reading one of the best novels I've read in a long, LONG time and wanted to share my thoughts about it with you. The author is a friend I've known for a long time, but this was the first time I'd read any of her work. I know her as Robin Billings and she's chosen to use an old family name (Martin) for this book. Robin has done a ton of great things to help my own career--she introduced me to the great Paul D. Brazill for one very big thing!--and I'm just happy that I can hopefully return the favor a bit by recommending her book here. Below is the review I posted in Amazon and Goodreads. It's one of those books that I know will become part of me and a book that will forever help inform how I see women from now on.


Like they say by the watercooler--You've got to read this! You really do.






THE HIDING PLACE GIRL by Robin Martin
I’ve just turned the last page on a wondrous book, titled The Hiding Place Girl by Robin Barker. I’m just now getting my breath back. I’ve only experienced the feeling I got from Robin’s book a couple of other times. One was when I finished Dr. Richard Selzer’s Letters to a Young Doctor. I was in one of my MFA residencies when I read Dr. Selzer’s book and the next morning, I was privileged to eat breakfast with him. Later that day, he gave a talk to the student body and faculty and afterward, I was walking on the grounds in an absolute daze after the experience and a fellow classmate came running up to me, telling me he’d gotten stuck in town and hadn’t been able to make it.
“How was his talk?” he said.
I thought for a long moment. I didn’t have the words to describe the experience. Finally (and weakly), I came up with my answer. “It was like being in a cathedral and hearing the voice of God,” I said. And it was. Dr. Selzer had deeply touched every good emotion a human being is capable of feeling.
I felt the same way upon finishing Barker’s novel. I have never understood women as well as I do now after reading her work and have never loved women as much. What a marvelous creation they are! What wondrous brains and hearts and souls they have!
Thank you, Robin. This is every bit as good as Dr. Selzer’s book and it’s every bit the revelation of the open, totally honest heart of a human being as anything Walt Whitman ever revealed. This is true and it is intelligent and it is the kind of thing I think of when I think of poetry and literature.
I am in awe and I thank you.

Hope you get a copy! You'll thank me.
Blue skies,Les

Canadian crime writer Rob Brunet reviews THE BITCH

Hi folks,
  Canadian crime writer, Rob Brunet just posted his review of my book THE BITCH (winner of the Preditors & Editors Award for Best Thriller and nominee for the Spinetinger Magazine Award for Best Novel (Legends Category) on his blog.   


THE BITCH in Les Edgerton’s novel is not who or what you might expect from the title, but it’s a serious bitch nonetheless. It hounds Jake, Edgerton’s matter-of-fact narrator, from chapter one to the very last page. And along the way, Edgerton makes sure we get to know the bitch real well.
For the most part, the story takes place outside of prison, on the bricks, but the joint casts its shadow large from the moment Jake’s former cellmate calls him out of the blue. Walker Joy is a cruel oxymoronic name for a guy who brings a shit storm into Jake’s life—a good life he’ll do anything to protect.
In a jocular passionate voice, Jake leads the reader step by rational step into dark corners completely foreign to your average "civilian". The horrific decisions Jake has to make would be much less believable if it weren't for Edgerton's masterful hand. Given what’s at stake, there’s hardly a moment when a you can argue with the path Jake takes—even as the grotesque results pile deeper by the page.
This is the kind of book you're going to reach for at 3:30 in the morning because whatever crap is disturbing your sleep won't stand a chance against the terror looming in the next chapter.
THE BITCH doesn't rely on bad luck or cheap device to create drama. Nothing pops out of the closet when it oughn't. Jake plays the cards he's dealt. It's a lousy hand and he does all he can to make it better. He's got optimism, criminal skill, and solid execution. He even gets a couple good breaks. But the deeper he goes, the more the bitch laughs in his face.
And where THE BITCH takes him ain't funny at all. Even if it makes tragic good sense.
Thanks, Rob! It means a lot to me when another writer likes my work. 
Blue skies,Les

Review of THE RAPIST by The Fright Site

Hi folks,
(Warning: Some of the language and content below may not be suitable for younger readers.)

Here's one of the first pre-pub reviews of my forthcoming (March 20, 2013) novel, THE RAPIST, from The Fright Site an online site dedicated to horror entertainment, with frightening fiction, scary movies, gruesome games, bizarre comics, stimulating movie reviews, commentary on the horror genre, and weird diversions. The Fright Site's movies and internet fiction have won numerous awards. Online since 1995, The Fright Site is one of the oldest horror sites on the web.
The review of THE RAPIST was written by Adam Groves.

THE RAPIST
By LES EDGERTON (New Pulp Press; 2013)


Here we have a genuine rarity: a truly original entry in a rather hackneyed subgenre. THE RAPIST is so unique, in fact, that I’m finding it difficult to adequately describe. It’s a bit like THE KILLER INSIDE ME crossed with THE STAR ROVER, being a stark crime procedural, a gritty account of prison life (the author, unsurprisingly, is an ex-con) and a near-psychedelic depiction of the whorls of a deranged mind, all contained in an economic 142 pages.      The first person protagonist is one Truman Ferris Pinter, a rapist-murderer reflecting back on his life and crimes from his death row cell. In contrast to the protagonists of most crime novels, Truman is extremely well educated, a Harvard bred snob whose nature is reflected in his often absurdly erudite prose (example: “I had more profitably recalled a sonnet of Andrew Marvell or a scene from Aeschylus, both examples far loftier than grubby, nefarious depravations of some inconsequential peasants…”).      That Truman is an unreliable narrator is evident early on when he provides two separate accounts of the brutal rape and murder of a young woman that led to his incarceration. He’s trying desperately to convince us (and himself) of his innocence, first by claiming his crime wasn’t “actually” a rape and the woman’s death an accident, and then by questioning the very concept of rape, arguing that rape is instrumental in propagating the species and that other cultures have more aggression-friendly views of sexuality than ours.     Some blunt descriptions of prison life follow, with Truman admitting to being raped by another inmate (“I felt nothing during it other than wishing he’d speed it up”) and breaking a tooth on a piece of gravel mixed in with his food. Truman also engages in a lot of freeform musing about the events of his life, during which he reveals a most intriguing tidbit: that as a child he could fly. Truman claims to have regained that ability, and proves it (in a manner of speaking) when his mind eventually unmoors itself entirely from the here-and-now and enters a subconscious realm where Truman time-trips, speaks with God and witnesses his own death before undergoing a painful self-realization.     Eccentric pulp fiction or avant-garde literature? I’ll leave it up to you to make that distinction for yourself. It won’t take you more than a couple sittings to read this short, shocking and profound novel, but I can guarantee you will be indelibly impacted by the experience.　

More to come...
Blue skies,Les
P.S. The second part of the interview I did with Alex Laybourne can be seen here. 

Early review for The Rapist, a birthday gift, and an interview

Hi folks,

Lots of stuff happening in the last few days. First, I got a call from my best buddy, Tom Rough who owns the Taglio Salon in Scottsdale, AZ to wish me a happy birthday... and to give me a present. He knows I'm a lifelong and avid fan of the S.F. Giants so he's flying me out to Arizona for four days on his dime and got tickets for us to the Giants-Reds spring training game. He was amazed that they were sold out--in a spring training game!--but among his friends is an announcer for the Diamondbacks and through him we got seats.

And, while I'm out there I'm going to have lunch with a bunch of my online class students! I began this class while teaching online for Phoenix College and they still form the backbone of the class. I can't wait to break bread (and the seal on a Jack Daniels' bottle) with them!

Easily the best birthday present I've ever received! And, I get to hang out with Tom and his gorgeous wife and daughter, Lisa and Nicola. More J.D.... And sun! Sun! No snow! Can't get better than that!

Me and Tom on my last visit to him at his house in The Boulders, Carefree, AZ.

Then, my publisher at New Pulp Press, Jon Bassoff, emailed me the link to an early review of THE RAPIST and it's a honey! Check it out here. Getting a comparison to Jim Thompson is the cherry on top of the sundae!



And, then, today, an interview I did with a writer in Holland came out. You can read my exchange with Alex Laybourne here. This is Part I and Part II comes out tomorrow, so if you enjoy the first part, bookmark the site and come back tomorrow. Our mutual friend, Kristen Lamb, introduced us. Thanks, Kristen!

I forgot to ask him if he's ever stuck his finger in a dike... That's probably a stereotype, right, Alex?

And, now, Mary and I are off to visit my youngest daughter Sienna and her terrific husband Jason and our cute-as-hell and smart-as-hell grandson Logan for the day in Michigan. Haven't seen her in two years so this is going to be a great day!

Blue skies,
Les

FINDING YOUR VOICE

Hi folks,
Years ago, I published my first writer’s craft book, FINDING YOUR VOICE with Writer’s Digest Books. It enjoyed wonderful success and last year sold out all of the print copies. My agent, Chip Macgregor was able to secure the ebook rights to it and with his help I was able to put out an ebook version of it. We changed the cover and everything else remained the same. And, it’s still selling like crazy!


In the last few days, Chip has graciously posted a couple of excerpts from it on his blog and he got a lot of great comments on the posts. You can access them here.  This link will take you to the most recent post and if you just scroll down, you’ll find the two posts on Finding Your Voice.
I thought it might be helpful today to include an exercise I used to give when I was the visiting writer-in-residence at the University of Toledo. I stole it from my buddy, Jane Bradley. (Keep in mind what they say: Good writers borrow—great writers steal…)
The impetus behind it is knowing that every single person and living thing sees the same exact scene in a different way. Take a single city block. Say, a residential street in a lower-class neighborhood. Take two different individuals, one a welfare worker and the second an aluminum siding salesman.
The welfare worker might notice the tricycle standing upended and with a missing wheel  in the front yard that needs mowing and weed removal, along with the sack of empty beer bottles at the curb awaiting pickup, and think, “I need to check with the people in this house to see if there’s any child abuse going on.”
The siding salesman might not even see or register the trike or the empties at the curb, but might see the peeling paint of the house next to it and think, “Damn! Here’s a guy who could use some new siding.” The things the welfare worker saw might be invisible to him. He sees them perhaps, but he doesn’t see them.
These are just two small examples of how different people look at the same exact scene but each registers very different things.
It’s this condition we all operate under that you can use to inform the characters in the novel you’re writing. Let’s say you have a burglar in your story and you have him walk down that same street. He might not notice the trike in front of the one house nor the peeling paint job of its neighbor, but he might indeed notice the widescreen TV he sees through the front window of the second house and notice that the door is slightly ajar and the wood appears to be a bit rotted. Easy access… Neither the welfare worker or the siding salesman noticed what your burglar focused on. We all practice selective vision depending on who we are, what our jobs are, and on a myriad of other factors.
And, this is how you get into your character’s frame of mind. If you’re writing a story and have a character who’s say a game warden, then climb in your car and take a drive in the country. Get yourself inside what you perceive is a game warden’s mind and try to notice the kinds of things such a person would notice. Really look for the things a game warden might notice that you yourself probably wouldn’t. Let’s say you drive by a woods and notice a pickup truck parked in the open field next to it. If you were driving down that same road in your normal frame of mind as a novelist or a housewife or a Laundromat owner or whatever and whoever you are in “real life,” you might notice there’s a truck there, but it would most likely be a blip in your minds’-eye and quickly be gone without much or even any thought to it. But… in your game warden frame of mind, you notice that it’s July and as far as you know there’s no hunting season going on and you wonder if maybe that truck belongs to a deer poacher.
Now you’re thinking like your character! This is the time to return home and begin writing the scene from the game warden’s pov. You’ve just became that game warden yourself and will write with the kind of verisimilitude a real game warden might bring to the typewriter or computer.
See how this works?
Here’s the exercise I gave my students: I prepared a list of all kinds of characters and made little slips of paper with each character on it. A typical list might be: a nun, an armed robber, an astronaut, a six-year-old girl, a German shepherd, a person from Ghana on their first day in the U.S., an Amish teenaged girl who’d never been away from her farm before today, a sparrow, an alcoholic with no money and no booze, a pimp and so on. You can put virtually anything and any kind of character you wish on the list. I then ask the students to draw out one of the slips and not tell any of their classmates what they drew. They’re then asked to go out into the campus and note what they see but through the eyes of that character. When they’re done, they’re to return to class and take ten minutes to write a brief scene through that persona. Nowhere in it are they to reveal who or what they are, other than through the artifacts they describe seeing.
When they’re done, each student stands up and reads his or her scene. Then, the rest of the class tries to guess who or what they are. It’s a very rare occasion when the class doesn’t guess almost instantly who they are, even if their character is really esoteric, like the Amish girl or the German shepherd. This is absolutely one of the best exercises I’ve ever come upon for showing writers how to get inside their fictional characters hearts and minds. It’s also extremely instructive in illustrating how the same scene is seen very differently by the various characters. Most just go out into the quad the campus buildings are around so most are using the same exact scene. But, if there are twenty people in class, we’re treated to twenty very different descriptions of the same exact scene. I’m not big on most writing exercises, but this is one that really works. Try it for your own novel or short story if you’re writing a character that isn’t you. You’ll be amazed at how much more accurate your depiction becomes once you’ve walked around your neighborhood or taken a drive in your town looking at ordinary vistas you look at every day but through the eyes of your particular character.
Plus, it’s just plain fun to do! I guarantee you no one misses that class when they know it’s coming up. They’ve heard too much about it from kids who took the class previously.
This exercise and other info on how to write in your own particular and unique voice are within the pages of FINDING YOUR VOICE. Hope you glom onto a copy and more than that, I hope you find it valuable in your own writing.
Blue skies,Les
My agent, Chip Macgregor in a photo showing all the power of Photoshop and how it can remove literally dozens and dozens of imperfections...

Review of Bob' Stewart's thriller, FIRST BORN

Hi folks,
Today, it's my genuine pleasure to talk about my good friend Bob Stewart's newest thriller, recently released, titled FIRST BORN. Below is the review I posted in Amazon and Goodreads.   



Five stars *****


Bob Stewart made a national name for himself with his bestselling true crime books such as NO REMORSE. He’s doing the same thing these days with his thrillers.
Stewart delivers one of the most chilling murderers in contemporary fiction with the introduction in FIRST BORN of Percy Kilbourne, known to most as “No Mercy Percy” Kilbourne, who misspells his own last name as “Kill Born” to reflect what he sees and owns as his evil destiny. What Stewart has done here is nothing short of remarkable. He has turned the plot of Pygmalion upside down and created a character who began as the white-trash rapist in Deliveranceand is transformed during his stint in prison into a smooth, cultured, educated, sophisticated guy who can charm preachers and old ladies out of their socks, while creating a personal apocalypse for those he has vowed vengeance against. Sent to prison by a jury bent on ridding society of a murderer, even when presented evidence that legally he should be set free, No Mercy Percy gets set free by the same lawyer who served as jury foreman for his conviction… and sets out to destroy the lives of all who sat in judgment on him.
Over and over again, while reading this novel, I kept thinking of Robert DeNiro’s portrayal of Max Cady in the remake of Cape Fear. I’ve always thought of that performance as the best depiction of the single scariest villain in any movie or book—much more frightening even than Hannibal Lector. Well, Stewart’s No Mercy Percy is the guy who could take down Max Cady. He’d have him for breakfast. To steal a line from one of my own stories that seems apt: Wherever this guy was became the bad part of town.
This is one scary guy. You’ve got to read this book. And then, send letters to DeNiro’s agent. This is a role that was made for him.
That's the review. And you can take this to the bank--this is indeed, one scary dude!
I'm kind of worried now. Later this summer, Bob is picking me up along with our mutual friend, Carl Brush, and we're driving on to the Writer's Retreat Workshop in Minnesota where I'll be presenting and they'll be... drinking? Now I wonder if I should be in a car with a guy who can dream up people like No Mercy Percy... 
I'm pretty sure I won't be dozing off...
Get his book. It's a winner.
Blue skies,Les