Praise for Books
“An absolutely gorgeous book about the beauty and terror of bonds, both with the natural world and with our families. As a tortured dad tries to outrun his past and keep it from being a legacy for his adored daughter, she struggles to find her own path, even as tragedy looms. Yes, it’s a story about loss, but at its rare beating heart, it’s about what really matters: love. And I loved this book.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You
“The unflinching Zen master of all trades in fiction reveals some of his best, most disarming magic in the epic sequel to Felonious Monk, proving again that no one does a gumshoe thriller quite like William Kotzwinkle. Here is a damn-near miraculous and grimly hilarious two-gun rocket ride through a mystic labyrinth of passion and crime, populated by a seemingly never-ending cast of quirky guys and dangerous dames, sadistic gangsters and salacious street toughs—there’s even a Kung Fu hairdresser!—all running on fumes from hell’s own refinery, circled by the one man who might save them, and yet is the most tragic and fated of all: the renegade monk Tommy Martini. In Kotzwinkle’s masterful hands and through Tommy’s unflinching eyes, we face the evils of our times and the most desperate and important questions of god and man in a constant battle for our own soul, all the while taking it on the chin for so many other sinners. From its first explosive chapter to the last stunning sentence, Bloody Martini is a tour-de-force that will force you to stay up very late, gazing deep into a black, yet profoundly illuminating night.” —Stephen Romano, author of Resurrection Express and The Riot Act
“Beneath Cruel Waters is an intense, gripping, exceptionally written mystery thriller that everyone must read. Bassoff has always been one of the best, but this unputdownable novel catapults him to another level.” —Jason Starr, internationally bestselling author of The Next Time I Die
“In Oleander City, Bondurant reminds us of the horrors of our humanity but amid it all, that there are those who fight for goodness, for love and truth, that we are brutal but also beautiful brutes. This is a brilliant novel.” —Julianna Baggott, national bestselling author of Girl Talk and Pure
“Up till now, the lonely literary crossroads where monastic life intersected with criminality has been occupied mainly by Donald Westlake’s jolly novel Brothers Keepers. But William Kotzwinkle’s Felonious Monk—what a mad, pitch-perfect title!—blows away the Westlake novel in much the same manner that our hero, Tommy Martini, ruthlessly deals with a skeavy spectrum of would-be assassins out to revenge the various sins that Tommy inherits from his bent priest uncle. Bigger than life and twice as punishing, Tommy Martini, in search only of inner peace and the contemplative life, finds himself forced to wade through a deadly sea of hired killers, mad UFO priestesses, jealous cousins, and haughty crime lords just to keep his head above the dirt. Continually surprising, endlessly shocking and mesmerizing, Martini’s exploits across the brilliantly limned gaudy and grotesque landscape of the Southwest are replete with the trademark Kotzwinkle droll observations, effervescent dialogue, and off-kilter insights. Robert Parker and James Crumley come to mind—then quickly get left behind in the rearview mirror. You want Tommy Martini in your corner, not on the other side, and thanks to Kotzwinkle’s unique verve and talents, every reader can be the ex-monk’s best friend—if they dare!” —Paul Di Filippo, author of The Big Get-Even and others
“Bernard paints a haunting picture of an American West where wildness is the last commodity…Small Animals Caught in Traps is a heartbreaker of a domestic novel. In any case, I won’t forget it.” —Justin Tussing, Oregon Book Award–winning author of The Best People in the World
“Winning…There’s lots of action, much of it violent, in Mr. Kotzwinkle’s second Felonious Monk novel.” —Wall Street Journal
“The antidote to every sappy, saccharine story you’ve ever read. Jon Bassoff is the master of the bleak. No one makes desperate characters and their miserable plights so entertaining.” —Mario Acevedo, author of the Felix Gomez vampire-detective series
“With austere prose, compelling characters, and a gripping true story, Oleander City bears down on its characters like a category five storm, forcing three lost souls to discover who they truly are. More timely than one would think, this tale of natural catastrophe, racial injustice, and lawlessness ultimately illuminates the humanity that motivates and unites us all. A certifiable page-turner, Oleander City pulls at you with the dark undertow of an America that isn’t quite bygone.” —Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Master’s Son
“A great legend of the written word has returned with a mighty shotgun blast that proves yet again why we call him a legend. The yen and yang of two-gun holy man Tommy Martini is a story for the ages, and he’s just the kind of battered, beleaguered, tough-as-nails-and-twice-as-bizarre anti-hero/anti-scoundrel who could have only come from the neo-Zen imagination of William Kotzwinkle. Refreshingly original, ever-inventive, and deeply moving in the most unexpected moments, Tommy’s one-damn-thing-after-another rocket ride through the dizzying heights of fated love and lowest canyons of mafioso madness will have you doubting your own world and smiling in recognition, leading you into places you never knew existed and providing you with lessons you never knew you needed. A virtuoso symphony from one of fiction’s master maestros.” —Stephen Romano, author of Resurrection Express and The Riot Act
“Draws you in and holds you tight through an emotional and educational journey across the wilderness of the wild soul.” —Tim Tigner, bestselling author of The Price of Time
“This wry, extremely funny, character-driven novel will remind readers of classic LA noir…Kotzwinkle is sure to win new fans with this one.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A haunting, lyrical tale of family madness and the sins of the past from which we can never wash ourselves clean. Beneath Cruel Waters is a twisty, page-turning novel that asks profound questions—what are we willing to do for those we love? And what happens to our souls when love leads us to sin?” —Barbara Nickless, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Sydney Parnell crime novels
“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant takes the carbon of history and, with the pressure and heat of beautifully crafted prose, sensitively drawn characters, and a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching narrative, creates a brilliant diamond of a novel. Bondurant hurls readers through the Galveston hurricane of 1900, past figures as legendary as Jack Johnson and Clara Barton, into collision with the Ku Klux Klan, and straight toward the dark, murky truth of the American Dream. Oleander City, like all diamonds, is a gift to last forever.” —Snowden Wright, author of Play Pretty Blues and American Pop
“Sharp as a razor, wryly humorous, and bursting with breathless action, Felonious Monk is William Kotzwinkle at the top of his game. If you’ve never read him before, this is a great place to start!” —Nicholas Kaufmann, Thriller Award–nominated author of Chasing the Dragon and The Hungry Earth
“As powerful as a sudden summer storm, Small Animals Caught in Traps sweeps you up with rich, heartbreaking details. Bernard has crafted a world that blurs the line between civilization and wilderness, with a protagonist struggling to find his way between them while mastering his own grim past. With a gritty roster of characters and an unforgettable sense of place, this is a book to savor.” —Liz Michalski, author of Evenfall and Darling Girl
“Kicks major ass…A fitting memorial to the wisdom of the hero’s late grandfather: ‘I’m always angry. It saves time.’” —Kirkus Reviews
“Jon Bassoff only gets stranger, and better, with each novel. I don’t know what to do with his hypnotic, earthly, yet always surprising voice. I only know there isn’t anything else like it out there. Part mystery, part heartland crime, part horror…Let’s call it nouveau-noir Americana. If you’ve got the stomach for riding the original underbelly of modern fiction and want it high octane, Bassoff’s latest will scratch the itch like only the finest of 100-proof bottles can do.” —Christopher Ransom, internationally bestselling author of The Birthing House and The People Next Door
“Perhaps best known for his unflinching nonfiction, Matt Bondurant’s latest novel, Oleander City, capitalizes on the same strengths to weave a fictional account of one of the most horrific natural disasters in American history…Compelling…Oleander City is a well-executed take on one of the most fatal days of the last century.” —San Francisco Book Review
“A savage, white-hot noir overflowing with humor darker than Vantablack. Uncompromising, page-turning, genre-bending—James Cain on nitrous and LSD. Kotzwinkle firing on all cylinders = the best thriller of the year.” —John Altman, author of The Korean Woman and others
“Reminiscent of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, this novel gives you love and heartache, disappointment and joy in equal measure. Bernard creates a small-town world that sucks you right in. This novel is full of grit and fishermen, broken towns and real animals, a wonderful read to go along with coffee or whiskey, or whiskey in coffee.” —Pedro Hoffmeister, author of American Afterlife
“There is plenty of suspense, danger, violent confrontations, unexpected revelations, romance, and above all: originality…The novel is replete with bizarre characters who seem real and intensely alive, because William Kotzwinkle is incapable of writing about stereotypical characters…Kotzwinkle is a philosopher and theologian in addition to being a novelist.” —Len Levinson, author of In the Pulp Fiction Trenches and The Rat Bastards
“Jon Bassoff proves he’s not only a master of horror but can weave a chilling noir. A slow-burning tale of generational suffering that inches its way toward heartbreaking reveals for a family in desperate need of hope and deliverance.” —Aaron Philip Clark, author of Under Color of Law
“This novel will appeal to readers wanting to learn about the greatest Jewish boxer of all time (Choynski), young Jack Johnson, the selfless Red Cross of an earlier time, and the carnage wrought by Galveston’s hurricane.” —Historical Novels Review
“A wild ride of double-crossing crimes…This hard-boiled mystery benefits from its frequent injections of humor and its appealing characters, who are never quite what they seem. Tommy’s interior dialogue is entertaining; his struggles to reintegrate with normal life are thought provoking…A character-driven thriller.” —Foreword Reviews
“A savage, white-hot noir overflowing with humor darker than Vantablack. Uncompromising, page-turning, genre-bending—James Cain on nitrous and LSD. Kotzwinkle firing on all cylinders = the best thriller of the year.” —John Altman, author of The Korean Woman and others, on Felonius Monk
“Jon Bassoff never wastes a word in this pitch-perfect tooth-chipper of a novel about the frayed realities of the human condition. His prose crafts a claustrophobic and haunted past in order to decipher the pieces of a tortured present. A mesmerizing and satisfying display of storytelling.” —Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana, Donnybrook, The Savage, and Back to the Dirt
“Oleander City is a well-written, fascinating historical fiction.” —Book Junkie Reviews
“[A] nimble comic thriller…Fans of Donald Westlake’s action-packed, screwball crime fiction will hope Martini will be back for an encore.” —Publishers Weekly
“Tommy Martini shows his hard-boiled PI creds right off in this riot of a novel…One has a sense of a writer gleefully deploying a splendid gift for creating bright images that illuminate a moment without distracting from it.” —Booklist
“Jon Bassoff’s writing is as gritty as a bloodstained baby blanket. His latest, Beneath Cruel Waters, is a disturbing tale of secrets and sins that challenges the myths at the heart of a most dangerous institution—the family. This relentless exposure of one man’s destructive re-creation of his forgotten past rejects and then recasts assumptions about the redemptive power of forgiveness and the saving grace of the truth. Readers beware. Buckle up for a nightmarish trip through more than one level of American hell.” —Manuel Ramos, author of Angels in the Wind
“Set against the sweeping backdrop of dramatic action…this book will keep you reading into the night.” —Chris Offutt, author of Shifty’s Boys
“Kotzwinkle…brings [an]…engagingly outre vibe to this tale of a conscience-stricken mob scion who finds peace as a Benedictine monk…The amiably satirical novel takes place in Paloma, Arizona (read Sedona), a world gathering place for ‘cartoon spirituality’ and New Age hustlers.” —Washington Post
“I’ve read and loved all of Bassoff’s previous novels, but this one hit me hard. It scars. A haunting, beautifully written, breathlessly tense, dread-filled meditation on guilt and memory that will linger in your mind long after you’ve read it.” —Ivan Kavanagh, director of Never Grow Old, starring John Cusack
“In Oleander City, Matt Bondurant braids the events of the worst natural disaster in American history with one of the great untold stories of American culture. Only a writer of Bondurant’s skill could achieve such complicated braiding. This is history written like a novel, a complicated legacy of human tragedy, race, and class distilled into one hell of a read.” —Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author
“Seasoned novelist William Kotzwinkle tempers the blood-soaked brutality in Felonious Monk with tough-guy witticisms…Kotzwinkle’s writing draws readers into the righteous violence rather than push them away.” —Shelf Awareness
“Beneath Cruel Waters is brilliant, dark, compelling, and heartbreaking. The story of Holt Davidson and his journey to uncover family secrets is not only a page-turner, but an immersive character study and an engrossing examination of rural Colorado life. Filled with unexpected twists and brutal truths, the novel will stay with you long after you finish it. Settle in for a new Colorado classic.” —David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Edgar and Anthony-nominated author of Winter Counts
“Bondurant masterfully entwines haunting imagery, humanity at its best and worst, and factual historical events into an examination of racism, sexism, and white privilege that is just as relevant today as it was in 1900.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Mr. Kotzwinkle has been concocting compelling fiction for decades. With Felonious Monk, he’s produced a whiplash adventure that tests the courage and character of its fallible protagonist. Can Tommy Martini emerge from this maelstrom with his soul intact? In the words of his late uncle: 'The Lord moves in mysterious ways'.” —Wall Street Journal
“This is a haunting and disturbing yet compelling novel, in the vein of Jen Williams’s A Dark and Disturbing Place and C. J. Tudor’s The Burning Girls.” —Booklist
“Bondurant weaves together fascinating backstories with vivid descriptions of the storm and its aftermath, showing that it takes many types of courage to fight for what is right.” —Booklist
“A psychological thriller like no other, Bassoff weaves a tale that is sure to capture the reader’s attention from the opening pages.” —Mystery & Suspense
“Bondurant’s Oleander City is the best kind of historical novel. Richly imagined, exquisitely written, this tale of disaster and perseverance is both visceral and urgent. The intertwined tales of Galveston mud and spilled blood, like the dizzying combinations of the book’s bare-fisted boxers, make this novel a knockout.” —M. O. Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of My Sunshine Away and The Big Door Prize
“A powerful family melodrama drenched in sadness and guilt with hints of redemption.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Oleander City is a surreal blend of the real and the imagined, where broken lives traverse the ravaged landscapes of hurt and loss. Matt Bondurant depicts characters who carry the great weight of tragedy, and he reminds us that where there is heavy burden, there is also the strength to bear it.” —Michael Farris Smith, author of Nick and The Fighter
“Beneath Cruel Waters is a cleverly constructed morality tale that grabs hold violently in the first chapter and then gently guides us the rest of the way. In a style reminiscent of Raymond Carver, Jon Basoff is a master at creating a world that’s both simple and complex, a world where most struggle to keep their heads above water, a world of long-buried family secrets that inevitably lead to tragedy.” —Charles Salzberg, Shamus Award–nominated author of the Henry Swann novels
“From the catastrophic chaos and horror of the worst natural disaster in US history, Matt Bondurant extracts three very human stories of individuals who found themselves caught up in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy. His portraits of these three disparate souls dramatize the valuable poignancy of tenderness cast against the necessary toughness of dedication, the sweetness of dreams, and the unwavering commitment to purpose, to life. This novel surprises with its perceptiveness and astonishes with its poignant illustration of the deeper and more sustaining values of beauty and truth and love.” —Clay Reynolds, author of The Vigil, Franklin’s Crossing, and The Tentmaker
“Jon Bassoff draws you in without being brash about it. The writing is subtle and nuanced, so as the story unfolds, it is a shock that Beneath Cruel Waters is such a disturbingly dark mystery…A chilling, must-read book!” —Book Junkie Reviews
“Matt Bondurant’s latest work of historical fiction is a deftly woven tale of humanity amidst tragedy. Its vivid characters traverse the broken landscape of hurricane-ravaged Galveston, their lives intersecting in surprising and complicated ways. I won’t forget any of them—especially Hester, a stoic orphan girl accompanied by an old hound dog. It’s a gripping story told with lush and immersive detail.” —Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens and We Want What We Want