Buzzkill

by James R. Preston

"Am I going to die?"

Eighteen-year-old Mary Jane Bailey is sprawled on her back in a weed-choked field, bleeding from a cut on her forehead, when she asks that question to the man in a sharkskin suit who stands over her holding a straight razor. 

It is 1968. Jane is both a student and snitch. A federal agency asks her to keep her eyes open and report on potentially violent activities at Cal State Long Beach. For reasons even she doesn't understand, Jane agrees. 

Go with her as she encounters vicious thugs, police and pot heads, goes to a beach party where she takes midnight swim through the red tide, all the while trying to infiltrate a radical group and establish whether they're as dangerous as they seem. 

And the man with a straight razor standing over Jane? He answers her question with a single word.

"Yes."

***

"A historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten. Jane, for starters, is a remarkable protagonist . . . The story thoroughly embodies the '60s era, both its anti-war sentiments and pop culture. The decade is also humorously portrayed . . ." - Kirkus Reviews

Buzzkill and its companion novel Crashpad are the latest thrillers by James R. Preston, author of the Surf City Mysteries and two-time recipient of the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Award for Fiction. His works have been described as "beach noir" and "Margaritaville, but with guns."

182 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2017

About the author

James R. Preston, two-time recipient of the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Award for Fiction, spends most of his time at the keyboard writing in a style best described as “beach noir” and “Margaritaville but with guns.” His latest novels are the thrillers Crashpad and Buzzkill.

He is now working on Remains To Be Seen, the sixth Surf City Mystery. This series has been selected for inclusion in the California Detective Fiction collection of the Bancroft Library, one of the libraries at the University of California, Berkley.

Away from the keyboard, James likes reading, films (especially 1950s SF like Them and The Crawling Eye, sailing, bodyboarding and Texas Hold’Em Poker. James played in one of the 2011 World Series tournaments and sadly busted out early. Next time it will be different.

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun mystery set on the Long Beach State campus in 1968. Mary Jane Bailey, an 18-year-old student, finds herself bleeding in a nearby field. A man stands over her holding a straight razor. She has been caught up in the campus unrest of the Vietnam era, trying to infiltrate a radical group to learn if they are really a threat to the U.S. government. She has become a snitch. At the same time, she is a normal young co-ed who goes to classes and beach parties. The second novella featuring Mary Jane, Buzzkill works as a prequel to the first, Crashpad. We learn how Mary Jane becomes the person of that book. Both are fast and exciting reads that do an excellent job of depicting the tumult of late-60s and early 70s America. Both are quite fun reads.