NOVELS
Tomato Red DANIEL WOODRELL

TOMATO RED

Daniel Woodrell
October 2000
New foreword by Megan Abbott
Paperback; 978-1-935415-06-0; $15

A dark noir novel set in West Table, Missouri, featuring nineteen-year-old Jamalee, her gorgeous gay brother, Jason, and Sammy Barlach, the young man passing through West Table, who just may be their ticket out.

"Three pages into Tomato Red I got that inexplicable head rush that comes from wondering how I'd never heard of the book or of Daniel Woodrell, and regretting the years I was ignorant of both. Woodrell writes with a poetic, lyrical, breezy style that reminds me of authentic country artists like George Jones or Hank Williams but he somehow does it on the page. He packs an entire world into a short book and leaves you yearning for more. Thank you, Busted Flush Press, for introducing me to Woodrell. Now others won't make the mistake I made."
—C. J. Box, Edgar-winning author of Nowhere to Run

"Reading Tomato Red—the first Daniel Woodrell novel I came upon—was a transformative experience. It expanded my sense of the possibilities not only of crime fiction, but of fiction itself—of language, of storytelling. Time and again, his work just dazzles and humbles me. God bless Busted Flush for these glorious reissues. It's a service to readers everywhere, and a great gift."
—Megan Abbott, award-winning author of Bury Me Deep

"Whenever I'm in need of inspiration, resuscitation—a big, heaping blast of air—I read the opening page of Tomato Red. By the end, I'm always grinning: that disbelieving, appreciative, joyful grin you get when you come upon the extraordinary. That writing! It's hard to not move when you read Woodrell; his Ozark rhythms will get you toe-tapping, swaying in your seat. It's impossible, in fact, to read Woodrell discreetly: you'll find sentences, dialogue so funny or brutal or just plain brilliant, you need to share them with someone else. His characters are underdogs, heartbreakers, steal-your-wallet-and-kick-you-on the-way-out scoundrels, but you still want more time with them. With Woodrell, you always want more."
—Gillian Flynn, Edgar Award-nominated author of Sharp Objects and Dark Places

"There are a handful of writers who are known, read and revered by other writers for the brilliant beauty of their words. Some have become better known—James Lee Burke is an obvious example—but some haven't yet achieved the wide readership that they deserve. Daniel Woodrell is chief amongst them. He's created his own niche in the mystery world—'Ozark Noir'—and he'll dazzle you with each page. Chandler once wrote his ideal of a private eye and I think it applies to writers as well, certainly to Woodrell: 'He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.' Woodrell is the best at what he does and he can equal the best writing in any other world."
—JB Dickey, Seattle Mystery Bookshop (Seattle, WA)

Killer Instinct ZOË SHARP

KILLER INSTINCT

Zoë Sharp
May 2010
Introduction by Lee Child.
Price $15, trade paperback original.
ISBN: 8888-8888

Introducing a tough new heroine in thriller fiction—Zoë Sharp's Charlie Fox! Charlie makes a living of sorts teaching self-defense to women. It's a skill she picked up out of necessity, having been kicked out of the British Army for reasons she prefers not to go into. So when Susie Hollins is found dead after she mistakenly tussles with Charlie, Fox knows it's only a matter of time before the police come calling. And when the real killer starts taking a very personal interest in Charlie, she finds herself in the middle of the investigation, where she has no choice but to stand and fight.

Fans of Lee Child, Greg Rucka, Gayle Lynds, and Stella Rimington should not miss this thriller series! Never before published in the United States, this is the highly-sought first novel in the Charlie Fox series. An original novel with an introduction by Lee Child.

"One of the best crime debuts in years."
—Yorkshire Post

"An exciting . . . entertaining first novel."
—The Sunday Telegraph

"Charlie Fox came on strong in Zoë Sharp's early novels but, like a lot of tough girls, softened up with time. Now, thanks to an enterprising small press, we can catch Charlie in the rough. Originally published in 2001, Killer Instinct finds this army-trained martial-arts expert on her first job, working security for a club in an English seaside town. Charlie looks like a made-for-TV model, with her red hair and motorcycle leathers, but Sharp means business. The bloody bar fights are bloody brilliant, and Charlie's skills are both formidable and for real."
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review, July 4, 2010