A Big Dill

by Ed Lynskey

Brendan Fishback coming home from a rock concert ends up the next morning in bed with a corpse, his dead girlfriend Ashleigh Sizemore. He has no idea how she died. But the local sheriff closing in targets Brendan as the prime suspect for Ashleigh’s murder. Time is running tight.Going on a Lake Charles outing with his twin sister Edna and best pal Cobb Kuzawa, Brendan mulls things over.

That night when Edna turns up missing, Brendan and Cobb take off to find her. Events heat up after they stumble on a well-guarded pot farm. Blood spills in the violent clash. Staying one jump ahead of the local authorities and an enraged drug cartel, Brendan picks up unexpected aid.

Cobb’s dad Jeremiah is a decorated Korean War vet and ex-CIA operative who applies his own rough ideas of justice. Veera Grant, a tough lady DEA agent working under cover, also joins in Cobb’s quest for the truth. Told in a stylish, taut prose, LAKE CHARLES set in the vibrant Great Smoky Mountains tells how a young man when pushed to the extreme defends himself against overwhelming forces on both sides of the law--and wins, but on his own terms.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime

151 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2011

About the author

Ed Lynskey is a crime fiction author who writes the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series and the Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Reviews

[Eric]

Lake Charles by Ed Lynskey is an entertaining thriller detailing the friendship between Brendan and Cobb in backwoods Tennessee during the 1980's. Brendan has recently been released on bail for the murder of the daughter of a wealthy influential resident and one he denies committing. Edna is the twin sister of Brendan and currently is the estranged wife of his best friend Cobb. To take their minds away from Brenden's legal troubles, the three decide to spend a day fishing at Lake Charles, a man-made lake that is slowly being reclaimed by nature.

From there, in separate bass boats, Brendan and Cobb journey out onto the lake, while Edna joins them on her jet ski. Along the way and after a spat with Cobb, Edna mysteriously disappears and the story unfolds as Brendan and Cobb try to find her in the swampy area of Lake Charles.

Eventually, Mr.Kuzawa, a mysterious war veteran and the father to Cobb, joins in the search and adds his own ambiguous witticisms of knowledge during the search.

Lynskey introduces a wide range of characters in the tale and is quite adept at describing the Tennessee backwoods in a novel that is often described as "redneck noir."

Recommended to those in search of a decent thriller and for fans of writers like Joe Lansdale and his Hap and Leonard characters.

[wally]

not louisiana...tennessee. 1st sentence: my twin sister edna seated between cobb kuzawa and me snapped her gum. an eye-narrator driving a cab truck...an interesting expression...meaning a regular pickup? semi?...sounds like a pickup...they're going fishing. almost seems like a missing word on page one..."fishing was my all this saturday morning...." nope...just needed to read it again...different way of expressing things i take it.

onward and upward.

okay...so i'm at the 14% mark...i like the narrative voice. branden (did i spell that right?) is a...we'll say not entirely rich and well-educated hillbilly from tennessee who is trying to quit pot and apparently he has a handle on that.

his sister edna...twin sister....well she has disappeared on lake charles, on her jet ski...they may be hillbilly, but they are the deluxe model--they own jet skis and bass boats and double-decker trailers...i don't believe i've ever seen one in action...a double-decker...i'm trying to figure out the logistics of one...i guess you must launch the bottom one first? have to, wouldn't you?

branden has been accused of murder....

this is a story not heavy on the mystery angle, as yet...it does build atmosphere and character...there's cobb, who has "eat more bass" tattooed on his forearm. anyone who likes to fish can't be all bad. it's a law.

edna and cobb, as a sidelight...they were married, not now, but they may try working on that, given time. edna and branden's ma...she's alone...the old man scooted long ago.

there's a nice touch in that branden is having dreams of asleigh, the dead-murdered girl. that's something that might run in the family, having the touch, edgar cayce-like things...seeing things and such.

(i almost forgot...wanted to say that lynskey's writing reminds me a bit of harry crews who i have enjoyed the heck out of...daniel woodrell who i discovered this year...larry brown....others....lynskey's characters are not...well-off....i don't get the feeling/idea that they are...like cobb...i get the feeling he's a working-week joe who likes to fish weekends...and drink beer...drinking a beer the only sin a man has he is well-blessed...pardon the pun if there is one there.)

update at the 46% complete mark...

all jacked up as gretchen sang it...me...maybe not maybe. just saying.
okay...where was i?

this is a good story.

if i could complain, i'd hazard that there are a few times when the scene/setting/shift could use a nudge. there's a lot of great dialogue here...

where i left off earlier, at lake charles...they were still there...cobb and brendan....then cobb's old man shows for reasons i can' get into. then....heh...brendan's lawyer shows....for reasons i can't get into.

but the thing is, as they go along, brendan, cobb's old man...i don't have his name on the tip of my tongue, say sorry..kawanaza or something like that...anyway...great dialogue...but it would be nice...nicer...to read a bit of scene/setting as they traverse the lake. a bit of placement. scene setting. all that great dialogue...there is that awkward line about brushing off a gnat off the elbow...i marked it on my notes and stuff...but three sheets to the wind, me.

anyway..great story...i could compare it to other things...things considered great by the great unwashed populace...etc etc...or even things considered great that i say ho hum...it is better than that...which brings me back to the things the great unwashed consider great...

there's some blood-letting...it is dark/night at times....they are trying to get a handle on things...they are slowly approaching daylight and a kind of...enlightening i believe..

woulda been great to have some scene/settings...instead of....no, it wasn't entirely dialogue...but some lines to indicate where they were...and that was not not entirely missing either. they were on the lake edge. but later too, there were some scenes i was thinking, we need a setting here.

update: saturday evening 635 pm est finished.

dunno what i was getting at above...


well...i do. nothing overly serious...i'm thinking of some big-number-selling stories by whoever and all of it is dialogue...no scenes...no sets...at times, you wonder where are we? that does not happen here....but seemed like at the time i read a few places as mentioned, that a line of scene/setting would have helped.

one other thing i noticed late...and i've noticed this MORE in other stories....but say someone is describing whatever and the characters go into a store. tell us the name of the damn store! do you or anyone know of a place w/o a name? yet i see that time and again in stories...no name....just some generic sounding shietz.

anyway...there is one instance of that...there's a time the characters go some place, a diner or something...way later in the story, in a line of dialogue, we get the name of the diner....gloria's diner or something....we should have gotten that on page one is what i'm saying...it makes it more real....but other than the one instance i can think of...lynskey gives us names....the place on the lake...the lake itself


so....


good read...enjoy.

[Connie Haag]

'Three things were certain in my life: death, taxes and Mama Jo's one rule to say nothing of Angus Fishback under her roof.'

It's a risky journey to scramble up a murder mystery with classical coming-of-age elements, but in his latest novel accomplished author Lynskey never steps wrong. Nineteen-year old protagonist Brendan seems a nice enough guy, a somewhat unreliable charmer in his half-baked reluctance to fully grow both up and out of drugs (yes, it's the 70s).

The story jumps right into the heart of things when the reader learns that Brendan is out on bail awaiting murder trial charged with killing his girlfriend Ashleigh Sizemore, pampered daughter of the richest man in a small Tennessee town.

Plucky enough to face shambles if with disbelief and muted horror, he sets off on a fishing trip, heading out to Lake Charles with his running mate Cobb and his twin sister Edna. Lynskey cleverly goes through the ritual of telling this scene of comradeship and small adolescent asides while operating in another, subtle way: of course things are going to pan out nasty. Of course Brendan cannot clear his mind, because his sister suddenly disappears. It's nice to see how the author avoids to go for effects, but lets the impact calmly come to the reader when drugs, the filth of a limited small town world and phoniness enter the picture.

The story unfolds evenly paced, with great clarity, an ear for dialog and the loneliness of an adolescent who grew up fatherless and unconsciously still seems to seek a person in his life to take the place of his absent Dad. The truest scenes in the book come when Brendan, haunted by nightmares, battered by goings-on and struggling with issues of right and wrong, finds solace in the Company of Cobb's father, a Korean War veteran (Jerry Kuzawa) who has seen it all and most of the time doesn't even seem to know how tough he sounds. His hard-boiled ways work like the homeopathic remedy for Brendan's unapologetic loneliness, though their lines of dialog never overdose on sincerity and roughness. Quite the reverse, they even manage to leave room for tender truths.

Ashleigh Sizemore's death works like the catalyst to rocket the story's hero into adulthood - a place far more complicated than small town Umpire, Tennessee throughout the late 70s, vividly depicted by the author of this thoroughly enjoyable, well-functioning Story.

Connie Haag

[Adam Light]

This was a pleasant surprise. Coming-of-age noir mystery mashup set in eastern Tennessee in 1979. The prose was occasionally too purple for my taste, but not so much that it bothered me. I bought it because the cover art jumped at me. Glad I did. This is a good yarn.

[Richard Godwin]

This novel is spellbinding in its tight narrative control. As you read it you feel someone has greased the slide on a helter skelter.

From the opening, where Brendan Fishback’s sister disappears while on vacation, to the tight ending this is a highly readable brilliantly written page turner.

Ed Lynskey has an assured narrative voice that inhabits Noir and thriller writing equally.

He has believable well drawn characters and he always keeps it real with dialogue.

In that sense he is a highly skilled author who lets the characters tell the story.

Ed Lynskey’s prose has an almost lyrical quality that lifts it off the page and reminds me of Tom Waits at times

”I cadged a complimentary green matchbook with a gold bird icon from the Bell canning Jar. Later we’d use the matches to light our spliffs. My fingertips tapped the stem to the gizmo that dinged a bell. Nobody came out. Wrong signal, so I did two bell rings. No response prompted me to tap out a series of bell rings.”

This is a Noir classic.

The location of the backwoods of Tennessee evokes the dark atmoshere against which the ambiguous and dark prose ignites this story.

As Brendan begins to search for his sister he encounters police corruption.

The story deepens at this point. The corruption goes deeper than this and involves a complexity of socio-economic and familial issues which are deeply rooted within the infrastructure of heavily engineered social mores. To disclose more would be to reveal the plot.

This is a well structured novel which will keep you guessing until the end. It knows exactly what it’s doing.

Ed Lynskey also writes evocative prose

”After traversing Yellow Snake’s main street, we doubled back, and juddered down an alley behind a Lebanese restaurant, staying sharp-eyed all the way. No furtive sedans dogged us. Mr. Kuzawa liked my idea, so we moored opposite the yellow Snake Courthouse where I’d last frog marched into while tricked out in irons for my bail hearing.”

If you like street-hard crime fiction with a twist, read ‘Lake Charles’.

[Alan Williams]

It’s the summer of 1979 and Brendan Fishback, his sister Edna and brother-in-law Cobb Kuzawa are heading to Lake Charles to do some bass fishing and have a good time.

Brendan has the spectre of a murder charge hanging over his head, a crime that he didn’t commit, and this might be the last chance he gets to cut loose before his trial.

Lake Charles isn’t the same place that it was though, once a haven for leisure, it’s now run-down and in a bad way, and it isn’t long before Brendan’s situation goes from bad to worse. His sister disappears and Brendan and Cobb run up against some back-country marijuana growers while trying to find her.

“Lake Charles” is told by Brendan in the first person and also through the clever use of flashbacks in dreams in Brendan’s mind’s eye. In this way Ed Lynskey writes a novel that oozes evil and violence by turn. As the story unfolds you are caught time and again by another punch to the guts in terms of a twist in the plot or a revelation that you didn’t see coming. Page after page, I found myself thinking about things I wanted to include in this review, but without giving too many spoilers that would have made this review too long, and given away too much of the plot.

The story carries an air of realism, and is grounded with the practicalities of the late ‘70s, this gives it an edge in terms of pace and dialogue that wouldn’t have been possible with a more modern setting. The characters feel complete and as a result as the plot turns, you become embedded in what is happening to them and wondering what the next shock will be.

This is the first novel I have read by this author, but I will certainly be looking out for others, and would recommend “Lake Charles” if you like a good crime or mystery.

[Randy]

It's 1979 and Brendan Fishback is facing a murder charge. He'd hooked up with Ashleigh Sizemore, daughter of a prominent lawyer, at a rock concert and wakes up to a dead body in the motel room. He rushes out to call the cops and is arrested when PCP, angel dust, is found in the room and is what Ashleigh died of an overdose from. The night was hazy from a lot of drinking and pot smoking, but Brendan knows there was no angel dust in with them.

Brendan goes on a fishing expedition with his twin sister, Edna, and his best friend, Cobb Kuzawa, Edna;s husband to relax. It makes for a confusing time as the pair are separated and torn between reconciliation or divorce. After an argument, Edna takes off on her jet ski and it;s only hours later, as night approaches, Brendan and Cobb begin to worry.

They go looking, but the only thing they find is some patches of marijuana plants and they begin to suspect what happened. Deciding to stay overnight to get an early start in the morning, they are attacked late, killing one and driving the other off. No name, but the face is familiar.

Jerry Kuzawa, Cobb's father joins the hunt. A man with a shadowy past, serving in the Korean War, rumors of a career as a government op, he comes loaded with weapons. When they hook up with a beautiful undercover agent, she reveals some facts that start to shed light on the whole mess. Brendan's murder charge and Edna's disappearance are connected.

Good one and due for release in late June.

[Stephen Gallup]

For someone who has lived many years in a major city, as I have, there's a latent wish to escape to the purity of an uncomplicated rural environment. Lakes Charles is the antidote for that, in the same way Deliverance was. In fact, I'm probably safe in saying that certain parts of this are a deliberate homage to Deliverance.

I think this is Lynskey's best work to date. No disrespect intended to the trusty private eye who stars in other whodunnits, but I preferred getting the story from the point of view of an ordinary person--somebody who simply has trouble thrust upon him, as opposed to encountering it in the line of work. Also, the writing has notched up in quality. Lynskey has a distinctive voice and sentence structure. It doesn't feel entirely natural to me, with its oddly placed modifiers and minimal use of commas, but it certainly did not detract from my enjoyment of a ripping good story.

[Marti]

I have just finished reading a pdf copy of my Goodreads' friend Ed Lynskey's latest book which I really enjoyed. The only other one that I read several years ago was The Blue Cheer, so I was glad to have the opportunity to read another. There is a LOT of action ib this one, which is set in Tennesee. The title refers to the location of a lake where the main character, Brendan Fishback, his twin sister Edna,and Cobb Kuzawa--Edna's ex and Brendan's best friend go for a getaway weekend. Brendan is out on bail, accused of murdering Ashleigh Sizemore, whose father Ralph owns much of the land around. Edna disappears on her jet ski, and all kinds of other problems ensue, but I'll stop there before giving away more of the plot. If you like adventure, you will probably like this book.

[Kevin Farrell]

Hard boiled crime fiction is not my favorite genre. But that is what this book is and I read it anyway. When I say not my favorite, I mean to say it is not my least favorite either. Just not the first thing I grab.

I needed you to know that first.

I started reading this and was quickly moving along with the story and the characters. I enjoyed how the descriptions of the surrounding wilderness was woven into every part of the story. At first I was willing to give this one about 3 stars. To my surprise this is a story that builds like a snow ball rolling down a mountain. By the end it was really hauling ass - as Branden might say. Plus I like the way it ended. It was a good wrap-up but not predictable.

At 190 pages you should take this one on the airplane with you. Just right.

[Gregg]

Moody and atmospheric, Lack Charles takes place in the hills of Tennessee in 1979. You can almost smell the feculent and foul waters of the lake as the characters are drawn back to it's shore and hills over the course of the story. The lake is almost like a rotten tooth that you just can't help probing with your tongue.

Brendan Fishback's life, and the lives of his sister and best friend are abruptly influenced and affected when Brendan hooks up with the wrong girl and things end very unfortunately for both of them.
Small town corruption, drugs, guns and the Feds all play a role in this dark and interesting mystery.

[Pamela]

Finally got my copy yesterday - probably would have finished it last night but I needed a little sleep so I could go to work today. -FANTASTIC- I am wanting to skip ahead but I am forcing myself to read it through- biting my nails! ---OKAY FINISHED! Actually 4 1/2 stars but the rate tool would not let me leave a half star. Wonderful Ed! Now I've got to get your other books.

[Diane Perry]

A very enjoyable read! This was my first book by Ed Lynsky and was not sure what to expect. I got great characters, interesting storyline and enough mystery that kept me turning the pages. The dialog between the characters had me laughing out loud at times. I will certainly look for more books.

[Linda Rowland]

Good story. Wound up really liking the main character. I could not figure how things might work out okay for him but pleased that it did. Thanks Ed.

[Bryan Kornele]

Good murder/mystery.

[Maggie]

My first noir fiction - an enjoyable read. Good plot, great characters and wonderful details about that part of Tennessee. From my goodreads friend Ed Lynskey.

[Cheryl Cooper]

A good read. Believable characters in a well described setting. Looking forward to reading more by Ed Lynskey.

[Les Edgerton]

When I first picked up Ed Lynskey’s novel, Lake Charles, I was excited to read a book set in a place I used to live and had fond memories of—Lake Charles, Louisiana. As I began reading, I got a bit confused as the setting didn’t sound anything like the place I’d lived in.

Turns out, it wasn’t. The Lake Charles of Lynskey’s novel was another lake entirely, a man-made body of water created by the TVA in Tennessee.

Also turns out, it didn’t matter. This was as dark and as Gothic as anything else Southern, and it could have worked just as well if it had been set in the Louisiana town of the same name.

And, it is dark and very Gothic! Atmosphere up the yazoo. Or… kudzu… Precisely my cup of tea. An absolutely amazing novel.

Rather than go into the plot points, which others, better qualified for that kind of stuff do a better job than I ever could, I just want to talk about my visceral reactions. First, I never consciously seek out symbolism in novels. Symbols mostly just get in the way of enjoying the story. But, there are some in here that were so well-done and so organic to the tale that not only did they not interfere with the reading pleasure, but caused it to transcend what will be termed “genre” literature by some into something I feel would more accurately be looked at as simply literature. Good and even great literature.

The lake itself is the most pervading character in the novel. Its water is slimy, odoriferous, and malignant. I’m assuming Lynskey intended it to stand for things manmade, things our modern civilization have wrought to what used to be a wondrous example of nature with a capital N. It reminded me of what uber-agent Donald Maass once related to me as being one of the elements that all great books contained—a magical place. A physical place in the best novels where seminal events took place. We were talking about that at a workshop we were both appearing at a couple of years ago, and it dawned on me that he was exactly right. “Like the street in Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River,” I exclaimed. “The story begins there with the boy’s kidnapping and it comes up at crucial times and ends there—in the movie with the Sean Penn character, where he slumps to the curb when he realizes the monstrosity of his murder of that same boy now grown, years later.”

“Exactly,” Don said, and we were off to a discussion of similar mystical/mythical places in literature.

Well, add Lake Charles to that list. Like Dennis Lehane with his Boston Southy street, like Raymond Chandler with L.A., like Ellen Gilchrist with New Orleans, like Russell Banks with various locales—Lynskey has made a setting a living, breathing character.

A dark,foreboding, malignant, malevolent character. Since reading this book, I’ve seen the lake in my nightmares at night and I always awake drenched with sweat. Only the best of books have that power and this one qualifies. It’s a story of loyalties—both familial and friendship, a tale of the evilness of drugs and what they’ve done to society, and, in the end, and for me, most of all it’s a look back at the days of my youth growing up in East Texas where people took care of their problems themselves and if it took violence to enact justice, well, violence is what took place. We didn’t look for the police or the courts or lawyers to solve our problems, but acted as men and took care of them ourselves with whatever it took. In these days of “social consciousness” or whatever they call it, taking matters into one’s own hands is frowned on and will likely get you called out on talk shows, but… man-oh-man! I long for those days!

This is a vigilante novel and an example of how vigilantes aren’t always the bad and nasty thing they’re often made out to be. It seems to me that this and novels and movies of this sort are hugely popular simply because there are a lot of us who long for those “good old days” when people took care of their own problems and didn’t depend on others. Brendan Fishback, the protagonist, hooks up with his best friend’s father, Mr. Kuzawa, as they team up to avenge the murder of Kuzawa’s son and Brendan’s best friend, Cobb, and to find the kidnappers of Brendan’s twin sister Edna by the same folks, and the result is Southern justice of the sort that makes you jump up and cry: “Yeah!” when they triumph over evil.


This is just one of the best novels I’ve read this year, simply put.

[Kevintipple]

It is 1979 and Brendan Fishback isn’t doing too well in the game called life. Waking up next to a dead woman can cause huge problems. The fact that she, Ashleigh Sizemore, was the daughter of the wealthy and powerfully connected, Ralph Sizemore is a huge problem. Word is old Ralph is going to be a Senator. The fact that drugs were planted in the room is a huge issue. The fact that Brendan keeps having strange dreams and visions where the dead teenage girl talks to him about her murder is a huge problem.

Despite the odds and the nice frame job against him, Brendan Fishback gets out on bail. Besides avoiding the shyster slime ball lawyer his mother, Mama Jo, hired for him Brendan plans to go fishing with his brother in law and good friend, Cobb Kuzawa. A quiet couple of days at Lake Charles, a local man-made lake created by the Tennessee Valley Authority, will be as good a break as he can get these days.

Like Brandan, the best days seem to have gone by the lake as it and the surrounding area is in bad shape. If trying to detox from all the pot he has done isn’t enough, the area flat out reeks and is depressing to look at. Back in the day, it used to be a happening place. Not only is nobody apparently around, but there is the stench of rot and decay at the marina area and large sections of the lake are fouled by algae scum. Not only do they have to get the bass boats through that, Brendon has to listen to his sister Edna and Cobb bicker.
Edna invited herself along and that had not been the plan. What been initially planned as a guy trip has mutated into a cranky family outing. Edna and Cobb fight constantly and both of them are driving him nuts. Clearly, Edna should have never married Cobb and certainly she should never have come on the trip. They are driving each other nuts too and before long Edna rockets away on her jet ski towards the dam area leaving the other two behind on the lake in their boats.

And she never comes back.

The search is soon on and leads Brendan and Cobb into a violent confrontation. The first of many confrontations proving that the lake area is not at all deserted like they thought. Brendan wants his sister back, alive and in one piece, and knows too well they can’t get help from the corrupt local police. The trail of the missing Edna leads back and forth across the Lake Charles area and the Tennessee Mountains while Brendan soldiers on getting the answers he seeks. Some of them won’t be pretty.

The front cover has a blurb quote from author Ed Gorman, “Lake Charles is going to scorch your soul . . . I loved it.” That pretty much sums up things very well for this very complicated book where everyone has a dark backstory that gradually comes out. A dark and twisted noir tale that starts with a bang and goes in many different ways by use of dreams and flashbacks and forward literary narrative before bringing the whole thing to a surprising conclusion.

Simply put, Lake Charles by Ed Lynskey is a mighty good book and one well worth your time.


Lake Charles
Ed Lynskey
Wildside Press LLC
http://www.wildsidebooks.com
June 2011
ISBN# 978-1-4344-3046-5
Paperback
192 Pages (includes one page of reference sources)
$12.99


Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2011
http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/

[Sam]

Lake Charles by Ed Lynskey
ISBN-13: 978-1434430465
Wildside Press (June 2011)
• Sam North review
What Carl Hiaasen did for Florida, Ed Lynskey has done for Tennessee in his funny and slick Appalachian noir thriller. Shades of ‘Cutters Bone’ (one of the many underrated Jeff Bridges movies) haunt this tale, the same obsessive, relentless seeking for justice against arrogance and power.

Lake Charles is a fetid lake, once a tourist haven and provides an epic setting for this complex tale of murder and disappearance.
Sometime just before this novel begins Brendan woke up in a sleazy motel next to a pretty girl to find she was dead. Ashleigh Sizemore died of an overdose of Angel Dust and even though Brendan calls the cops – it’s him they arrested and charged with murder.
By sheer luck he’s out on bail thanks to a sympathetic judge and is now camping with his twin sister Edna and her husband, his best buddy, Brendan in the forest beside Lake Charles. It doesn’t help that the dead Ashleigh is still talking to him in his head (blame it on the recreational weed in Brendan’s system).
Edna goes missing on the lake. At first Cobb thinks it’s because she’d pissed off with him, but as time goes by they are growing ever more worried and begin to search. Cobb and Brendan meet up with Herzog, Brendan’s lawyer, sitting in a tree. He’s allegedly looking for turkeys, but Brendan has his doubts. When they stumble across fields of weed growing in the woods and Cobb gets an arrow in his chest, Brendan begins to realise his life is in real danger.
He calls Mr Kuzawa, Cobb’s dad (ex-Fed, ex Korean War vet). He’s not best pleased to discover his son is dead and the wife most likely abducted. He arrives fully loaded with 12 gauge shotguns and they go looking for Edna with lawyer Herzog reluctantly in tow.
The dead Ashleigh keeps making contact. She accuses Brendan of being a wimp, she wants him to solve her murder, but Brendan is aware that he’s up against her rich father who well on his way to becoming the next Senator for Tennessee and getting a fair trial is going to be pretty darn difficult.
Brendan and Jerry Kuzawa discover more pot plantations and realise that the dead Ashleigh’s father is connected somehow and take their revenge by uprooting them.
Cobb dead, Ashleigh dead, Edna definitely missing, Brendan is beginning to worry he’s going to be spending the rest of his live in jail unless he can find Ashleigh’s killer, let alone find out who took his sister Edna.
And just who are the people following them and what are their intentions? And the guys in a red Cadillac with New York plates that keep crossing their paths, what have they got to do with anything?
Lake Charles is rich in atmosphere, sharply funny with wonderful authentic dialogue; this is ‘Dude’ fiction at its best and highly recommended.
Order your copy now.
© Sam North
Author of ‘Another Place to Die’

[Elizabeth A.]

If you found yourself out on bail waiting trial for a murder you didn’t commit you’d think it would be hard for things to get much worse. Of course, you’re not nineteen-year-old Brendan Fishback.

After a night of partying Brendan woke up in a motel room to find his companion dead, apparently from a drug overdose. Unfortunately for him the girl, Ashleigh Sizemore, was the daughter of the wealthiest man in their little town of Umpire, Tennessee. Eager to please the town big shot, the police seem content to pin the death on Brendan, especially after some highly potent angel dust is found hidden in the room.

Now out on bail and not optimistic about his chances at trial, Brendan heads out to Lake Charles with his twin sister, Edna, and best friend, Cobb, for what may be his last hurrah as a free man. While Brendan and Cobb try their luck bass fishing, Edna strikes out on her jet ski. When she doesn’t return as dusk begins to fall the guys go looking for her. After coming up empty in their search of the lake they return to shore and begin scouring the shoreline on foot.

Instead of finding Edna, however, they stumble into a clandestine marijuana growing operation, and the two heavily armed men guarding it. A shootout ensues during which Brendan is hit and one of the marijuana growers is killed. Suddenly what began as an afternoon out to celebrate his remaining freedom has turned into a life or death struggle and race against the clock to find Edna, whom Brendan and Cobb now fear has fallen into the drug gang’s hands.

Author Ed Lynskey has crafted a taut tale of murder, drugs, corruption, and small town politics in Lake Charles, one which finds the painfully naïve Brendan knocked off his feet and swept along in its crushing assault. Not sadistic enough to stack the deck completely against Brendan, Lynskey provides him an ally in the form of Cobb’s father, Jerry, a decorated military veteran and former intelligence operative who’s not above dishing out a little Walking Tall style justice. As their search for Edna unfolds they learn things which lead them to believe something more sinister than simple backwoods pot growing is occurring, and that Ashleigh Sizemore’s death may in fact be related to the goings on out at Lake Charles.

Though Lake Charles is undeniably noir, it’s also a bit of a coming of age story. As the brutal events unfold Brendan is forced to make tough choices and mature beyond his years virtually overnight. Along the way he learns things about himself and his character he never knew existed. The book’s setting is wonderfully evocative, and Lynskey has done a masterful job of painting a vivid picture of a place that could only exist in the Great Smoky Mountains of Umpire, Tennessee in 1979. I can’t say that I’d ever want to actually visit there in real life, but I can definitely recommend you take a fictional journey to Lake Charles

[Julie H. Ernstein]

Who the heck goes fishing when he's out on bail after having been framed for the murder of his one-night hook-up, drug-loving ne'er-do-well Ashleigh Sizemore, who just so happens to be the daughter of a wealthy local with political aspirations?! No, seriously. I'll tell you who: Brendan Fishback, worker at Longerbeam Printery in Umpire, TN and his best buddy Cobb Kuzawa who sports a tatooed forearm that reads: "Eat More Bass."

It's a strange set-up, but the noiresque storyline quickly devolves into one in which our hero is going through cold-turkey withdrawal from habitual pot use, is plagued by dreams in which the dead Ashleigh hectors him for not having solved her murder, and his fishing trip with best buddy Cobb and Cobb's estranged wife Edna (who also happens to be Brendan's twin sister) is reduced to a trip from hell in which he and his buddies stumble upon a major pot-growing operation near TVA-created Lake Charles, TN; Edna goes missing under sinister circumstances; and Brendan is forced to rely on Cobb's gun-toting Korean war vet and former operative father to help extract him from the highly troubled circumstances in which he becomes mired.

There's a tremendous amount of ground to cover, bullets to fire, crosses and double-crosses to identify and general baddies (as well as corrupt cops, Mr. Sizemore, not to mention ticked-off DEA agents) to elude before our hero is able to determine whether he should head to Valdez, Alaska, to track down his father (i.e., the elusive Angus Fishback) who sends the odd postcard every few years from somewhere in Alaska where he's been working on the recently-completed Alaskan Pipeline or to pursue some other life's course. Until then, there's the small matter of an impending murder trial and the recent related difficulties in which Brendan is neck deep and sinking fast.

In all honesty, Lake Charles was a really slow start for me, but once Edna went missing and events began spiraling even further out of control for Brendan and Mr. Kuzawa arrives to help sort things out, I was hooked. If this novel were ever made into a movie, I hope that Tarantino would take it on--he'd certainly be able to do the violence (esp. the thwarted robbery at the convenience story in Yellow Snake) and Mr. Kuzawa justice. The writing is tight, the description great, and the unfolding of details and interrelationships quite masterful. For those reasons alone, I'd recommend Lake Charles and this author to other readers. This is the first work I've read by Ed Lynskey, and I look forward to reading more of his work, esp. his hard-boiled mystery series.

[ღ Carol jinx~☆~☔ʚϊɞ]

Lake Charles by Ed Lynskey
I just can't rave enough about this book. I also read The Blue Cheer by Ed Lynskey.
Brendan Fishback has been accused of murdering Ashleigh Sizemore and is out of jail on bail awaiting trial. He can’t remember what happened that night but keeps having dreams in which Ashleigh talks to him.
Brendan, his twin sister Edna, and Edna’s estranged husband, Cobb, who is also Brendan’s best friend take off for a relaxing weekend of Bass fishing on Lake Charles.
Since Edna and Cobb can’t be civil to each other for more than a minute, she takes off on her jet ski. She doesn’t return. They start to worry and it’s soon obvious that she is missing. They start on a search for Edna which also becomes a soul search for Brendan.
They stumble into a big bucket of worms that includes political fraud and police corruption and Brendan realizes it’s dangerous and he’s not equipped for whatever is out there.
He calls on Cobb’s father, Jerry Kuzawa, a retired military weapons and tracking expert.
Mr. Kuzawa is more than happy to oblige.
Together and with Brendan’s lawyer they try to ferret out the clues and figure just how deeply involved the police and other characters are in the plot.
Brendan has dreams where he talks to the dead Ashleigh and wonders if she is trying to help him or thwart his efforts.
This book is full of vivid characters, plots and sub-plots told with humor and on the edge of your seat terror.
Besides being an adventure across the rugged terrain of the Tennessee Mountains, it is a poignant self-awareness and awakening for Brendan.

[Kim]

Lake Charles is the soon to be released standalone novel from Ed Lynskey. I had not read anything by this author prior to this book and I very much enjoyed it. Set in 1979 in the midst of the gas crisis and the Iran situation, the story brought me back to the time, just a few years younger than Brendan, Edna and Cobb were in the time of the story. I was immediately drawn into the story and I really did not want to put it down. The action was non-stop, with twists and turns throughout the book that left me always guessing, always wondering.

I really enjoyed the voice of the story, told in the first person by Brendan. Sometimes tales told in the first person tend to be overly polished, the language not really fitting the character telling it. This was definately not the case with this novel. The tone of the words used were directly in keeping with the character of Brendan, making the entire story much more realistic. The characters were very different from one another, and that made the story very rich in texture and very interesting. There were many times throughout the story when I was sure I had a read on a particular character, only to be proven wrong further in the story line!

The entire story was very engaging, and even towards the end of the book, when you already knew "whodunit", there were still surprises and unexpected twists that kept you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend this read!

[Cathy Cole]

First Line: My twin sister Edna seated between Cobb Kuzawa and me snapped her gum.

1979 is not being kind to nineteen-year-old Brendan Fishback. Idly hoping that his song-writing efforts will make his name in Nashville, instead his dope-smoking partying has landed him in deep trouble. Accused of murdering the beautiful daughter of a local big shot, Brendan is out on bail, and has stopped smoking marijuana completely. Now he's headed on a fishing trip to Lake Charles, Tennessee, with his best buddy, Cobb, and his twin sister, Edna. Brendan knows he's going to have to do something to clear his name, but right now, he just wants to relax. Unfortunately, it's going to be a long time before he's allowed to do that.

Lake Charles is a dark tale of Smoky Mountain politics, corruption and drugs. It is violent and moves as swiftly as a mountain stream. The writing is well-paced and very evocative of its rural setting. There are so many things to like about this book, but I kept finding my mind wandering as I read. I am a very character-driven reader. For me the most interesting characters in the book were Cobb and Edna, and they're dealt with very quickly. I tried to refocus on Brendan, but it just didn't work. I was left with a book that I liked a great deal, but one that I didn't particularly enjoy.

[Jayakrishnan]

This novel reminded me of James Lee Burke's "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead" and Norman Mailer's "Tough Guys Don't Dance". Its like these two books together with more action. The writer shows great imagination at the beginning of the novel and I really liked what he was trying to do here. It really was a great idea.

Unfortunately, the dialogs are terrible and the writer fails to create any kind of tension. Overuse of the word "shit" to emphasize the coolness and toughness of the characters. A tough hero who leaves the exact change (he actually adds it up) after he steals goods from a shop. A gun happy Korean war veteran who becomes irritating after a while because most of what he talks is completely imbecilic. And his actions are incredibly stupid. In fact you wish he was dead two minutes after he makes an entry. And a villain who is built up (sort of!) throughout the novel but amounts to nothing when he finally makes an entry.

Ed Lynskey tries to write in this really tough lingo. But it doesn't really work. Instead of bringing nobility and justness to the two violent main characters, the writing style makes them come across as a couple of goofy tough guys from a bad Van Damme movie. I finished two other novels while I was reading this. I didn't want to come back to it after a point and had to force myself to finish it.

[ILoveBooks]

I hadn't read anything by this author, but I soon learned that I was missing out. The book is set in 1979, a setting that really adds flavor to the book. Brendan Fishback is the main character. He is accused of murdering Ashleigh Sizemore, the daughter of a local hot shot who went to a bad hotel with Brendan. This is where the book reminds me a little of Native Son, Brendan wakes up with Ashleigh dead. Due to the amount of drugs and alcohol he consumed, Brendan cannot seem to remember if he did or did not factor into her death.
Brendan's problems multiply when his sister, Edna, disappears after going out for a relaxing weekend at Lake Charles with her husband and Brendan. The plot thickens further when Brendan discovers that Lake Charles is the site of a major pot farm. Brendan also derives that the pot farm may even have something to do with the murder he is charged with.
I have to admit, I was happy with the ending. I won't give away how many people died, but I can tell the reader that he/she will be satisfied. The dialogue in the book was intriguing and kept me reading, I enjoyed the characters' development throughout the book. I would recommend this book to young adults/adults who enjoy crime fiction.

[Mary Aris]

Lake Charles is the type of story that entertains the reader with powerful descriptions and zany characters. The story is set in 1979 during the Gas crisis. The main Character, Brandon, is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Ashleigh whom Brandon found dead next to him at a motel. After being set on bail, Brandon sets out on a fishing trip with his best friend, Cobb and twin sister, Edna.

The plot thickens when his twin sister, Edna goes missing and Brandon and Cobb set on a mission to find her. To their astonishment they uncover a pot plantation in the middle of Lake Charles that might just be behind the murder of Ashleigh and Edna's disappearance. Behind the scenes, Ashleigh's ghost kept creeping into Brandon's conscience encouraging him to catch her true killer.

I found the story dragged a bit in the beginning as the author used highly descriptive words to describe the
Atmosphere but during the middle, as the plot thickened, the story got interesting.

This is a good story if you like a good mystery and detective story

[Roberta (Always Behind)]

Lake Charles, Tennessee, does not become a dream vacation spot for Brendan Fishback. His sister disappears after riding off on a Jet Ski and he wakes up next to a corpse after a night of partying. Brendan is the number one suspect, of course, and sets off on a quest to clear himself with the aid of his brother-in-law and a Korean War vet. Their search for the truth lead to violent and scary discoveries.

With LAKE CHARLES, author Ed Lynskey has crafted a modern noir novel that grabs you from the first page and takes you on a non-stop ride to the end. The book is short enough to almost read in one sitting. That is a good thing, because you won't want to put it down once you start.

The characters are authentic and the setting comes to life through vivid descriptions. LAKE CHARLES may not be a place you would ever want to visit, but this intense tale is sure to stay with you a long time.

Ed Lynskey has added another great book to his growing volume of work.

[Beth]

From its luridly tasteful cover to its tastefully lurid conclusion, Lake Charles creates a unique momentum of its own. Brendan, his twin sister, and his best friend travel to Lake Charles for some fishing, but Brendan’s past and future are about to collide. Recently released on bail, Brendan stands accused of the murder of a casual girlfriend, a girl he took to a motel only to awaken the next morning to find her dead beside him. Then Edna, his twin, roars off on her jet-ski, disappearing somewhere in or around the lake, and Brendan begins the long quest to find her. The bodies pile up, and the tension soars, as past and future meet with explosive force. Add a pinch of psychic dreaming (which really works) and you’ve got a mixture that makes for compelling reading.