Description

The renowned author pens his most commercial novel to date—a thrilling retelling of the John Dillinger story told by one of his most colorful and loyal cohorts. . . . “One of the best and most original writers today.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

They were 10 daring and deadly men who transfixed a nation with their penchant for crime, bad women, good times, and lots of laughs. They were the Dillinger Gang. And at its heart was “Handsome Harry” Pierpont, an incredibly tough yet well-spoken natural leader who would eventually die in the electric chair.

From humble beginnings as a car thief and smalltime stick-up man, Harry worked his way up to bank robber—a career move that landed him in prison and introduced him to John Dillinger. When Dillinger was paroled, he provided the pistols Harry and nine other convicts used in one of the most renowned prison breaks in American history. Discovering his true blue pal had been captured, the ever-loyal Harry then broke Dilligner out, killing a high sheriff and sealing his fate.

Yet in the four months before they were finally apprehended, the Dillinger Gang lived uproariously, robbing banks rom Chicago to Tuscon. An exciting, animated story chock full of violence, sex, and humor, Handsome Harry brings to life a dangerous and exciting time and the outlaws who made it legend.

About the author(s)

James Carlos Blake is the author of nine novels. Among his literary honors are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Southwest Book Award, Quarterly West Novella Prize, and Chautauqua South Book Award. He lives in Arizona.

Reviews

“One of the best, and most original writers in America today.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Classic Blake, mixing violence with passion, the hardnose with the sensitive...No one out there does this better.” — Denver Post

“’Handsome Harry’ is not a departure for the seductively violent Blake but a refinement. It still carries his trademark - carnage, sex and dry humor - but it is also a beguiling, hurtling digression into a new voice for Blake. It’s not just firstperson point-of-view, but it’s crawling inside a character who really lived and rebuilding him from the inside out without disturbing the patina of legend that colors him.” — Denver Post

“James Carlos Blake has established himself as one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life... his fiction is so readable--so folksy, action-packed, and earthy,--it’s easy to miss the fact that it is also, frequently, brilliant.” — Entertainment Weekly

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