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The Mean Reds
Paperback
Mystery & ThrillerGeneral Fiction
ISBN13: 9781622889259
Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press
Published: Nov 22 2022
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.69
Height: 0.45 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
Sam Drift is a college dropout who spends his days smoking pot, writing movie reviews, wallowing in the betrayal of the only girl he ever loved, and watching old noir flicks with his beloved cat, Audrey Hepburn. Life is perfect. But when Sam's editor forces him to write an article about the death of an exotic dancer outside an unpopular strip club, he suddenly finds himself tangled in a web of local politics and criminal enterprise.
The plot thickens when Sam's ex-girlfriend comes to town to premiere a movie at a local film festival. Can Sam solve the mystery of the dead stripper and win back the love of his life? Or is Sam's delusional THC-riddled brain just acting out a Humphrey Bogart fantasy that doesn't actually exist? Part Big Sleep and part Big Lebowski, The Mean Reds is a quirky small-town mystery told by one of the most unreliable narrators you'll ever read.
Falling somewhere in the middle of the crime genre spectrum that shimmers between Dashiell Hammet's Maltese Falcon and Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids, The Mean Reds taps our hapless protagonist's silver-screen obsessions to reveal just how valiantly a drug-bedraggled schlub of a journo can rise (or, yeah, fall) when death, dames, and destiny come a-calling. You might be able to put this archly cinematic novel down for a minute--like, for a quick swig on a double-strength Old Fashioned or because you need to pass along the candy blunt you've been hitting--but, friend, I'd bet you a purloined Oscar that you'll pick it back up again ASAP.
-- Austin Chronicle
-- Dr. Christopher Bell, Skydance Animation Dale Bridges' debut novel is a hilarious bourbon-soaked, hash-toned slacker noir with an unforgettable, stumbling cinephile at its heart. Bridges is natural at crafting worlds and populating them with wild, endearing, outrageous, and utterly believed characters. Expect conspiracies, parties, drugs, and more classic movie references than you can shake a weed pipe at. Also expect the unexpected. This book will surprise you!
-- Owen Egerton, author of Hollow and the writer/director of Mercy Black Packed with highly caffeinated observations on pop culture and classic film icons and an unreliably hungover writer protagonist, The Mean Reds announces Dale Bridges as a hip, smart, and wickedly funny writer.
-- Jesse Sublett III, author of Last Gangster in Austin
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