This was my first book by Richard Lange and I really enjoy books that cross genres. This is part thriller, part romance and part something else I can’t quite put my finger on.

Joe was an interesting character - yes he has terrible luck and he sometimes makes questionable decisions, but he also felt relatable. No spoilers but these characters go through a lot.

By the end of the I wasn’t sure what to think of Joe, but I love characters who are complex and gritty and don’t always do what we want them to, spending time in the grey area of life. I am still not entirely sure what this book was about, but I feel maybe that’s the point!

I keep coming back to the ending…if you are looking for a book that is wrapped up in a neat bow, this isn’t it. But it will definitely get under your skin.

I have long admired Richard Lange---I even blurbed one of his books, The Smack, several years back, and very willingly---and this time my approbation comes unsolicited. Here, after the successful "horror outing" of his atypical "Rovers," he's back working in his wheelhouse, the gritty, desperate, beer-soaked and weed-fogged milieu of Los Angeles. The eponymous character, pingponging from one shitty job to the next, strikes up a whirlwind romance with a woman of decidedly unsound mind, and the two embark on an ill-advised, detour-filled road trip. While I don't think this book can be pigeonholed into a "crime" or "thriller" category---it is much too episodic and character-centered for that---the story's hard-boiled world view, replete with dark and realistic ancillary characters and razor-sharp dialogue, will keep you turning pages and rooting for these two star-crossed "hustlers".