Deadbomb Bingo Ray
Foreword INDIES Finalist
Library Journal Pick of the Month for November 2017
Crime. Vengeance. Love. Physics.
The infamous Deadbomb Bingo Ray is a high level fixer in the City of Brotherly Love. He's the man you call when you've crossed the line into hopeless and there's no way back to anywhere.
Three years have passed since Ray burned a hedge fund manager on behalf of a pool of retirees, and now the money man is back for revenge. While Ray unravels the plot and orchestrates some payback of his own, he unwittingly steps into the ultimate high stakes game. Falling in love with the beautiful physicist trapped at the edge of the burn was just bad timing.
When the fuse is finally lit, getting killed isn't high on the list of the worst that could happen in this dark and stylish noir.
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Library Journal, Pick of the Month, November 2017 "Ray is a Philadelphia fixer and problem solver, who picked up his nickname in Vegas during a crooked card game that involved a grenade. Three years ago, he'd thwarted a hedge-fund scheme operated by Tim Cantwell and Anton Brown that would have cheated its retiree investors. Ray continues to mess with Anton and also falls for Abigail, a geek goddess who may wreck his fixer mojo. When Tim comes looking for revenge, things quickly get twisted and nasty. Chapter soundtracks (including songs by Rev. Horton Heat, Nick Cave, the Ventures, King Harvest, Leela James, and more) help to establish the ambiance and set the scenes. VERDICT The author of the "Darby Holland" crime novels launches a fast-paced, quick-witted neonoir caper packed with cons and double crosses, larger-than-life characters, and vivid language. Bound to attract fans of Norman Green, Roger Hobbs, and Max Allan Collins's "Quarry" novels, as well as the gritty works of Stuart MacBride and Pete Dexter."
"This evil strut of a book is wildly smart, utterly warped and exultant in its own mad glory."--Warren Ellis, author of the Crooked Little Vein and The New York Times best-selling novel Gun Machine
"We lost George V. Higgins...thank goodness we now have Jeff Johnson. Deadbomb Bingo Ray is a shot of...muscle-noir...with a bounce and a turn of phrase that elevates it above the pack. If this guy's under your radar, recalibrate!"--Sean Doolittle, author of The Cleanup and Lake Country
"Deadbomb Bingo Ray is hard-boiled, hilarious, and as serious as a straight razor. It has more good ideas, great jokes, and splendid writing on one page than most books have in a full chapter. Read it, because it's the only book even remotely like it that will be published any time soon.--Tim Hallinan, author of the Simeon Grist, Poke Rafferty, and Junior Bender series
"The launch of Johnson's new series, as inventive and comic as the Darby Holland books (Lucky Supreme, etc.), introduces Philadelphia fixer Deadbomb Bingo Ray. Three years earlier, Ray derailed a scheme by greedy hedge fund manager Tim Cantwell to rip off some retirees. When Ray learns that Tim is now plotting revenge, Ray sets out to teach him a lesson. Ray believes in firepower (he keeps two Berettas loaded with three different kinds of bullets) and in safe exits (he pays the proprietors of four restaurants, a grocery store, a dress shop, and more to stand by in case he needs their help). Cantwell has his allies, such as operator Mary Chapman, the bait for a honey-trap. That Mary has her own complicated schemes, as do various other players, prompts Ray's helper, Cody, to comment: "Setup inside a setup inside a setup. Inside a setup." Descriptive gems--"the costume brought out the side of him that was dangerous in a next-level way, beyond angry beehive and well into biblical-serpent territory"--make Johnson's writing a rare treat."--Publisher's Weekly
Praise for Knottspeed, A Love Story
"Johnson's second novel drops readers into the unpredictable world of the infamous and mysterious Knottspeed. Through dark, sarcastic humor glazed with cynical insights into the human condition, Johnson turns readers into confused collaborators in the outlandish, death-defying schemes through which Knottspeed drags his broken body. Bullets fly, knives are drawn, and death is waiting to join the fray as the characters cuss, fight, and drink their way out of the dull, uneventful lives they had led before Knottspeed arrived. Will they survive the chaos? Will they survive Knottspeed? All roads collide in Johnson's irreverent, chaotic novel, with an ending that will leave readers stunned."--Publisher's Weekly
"Phillip Marlowe meets Huston's Joe Pitt, Knottspeed is legendary, irreverent, and deeply funny. A philosophical love letter to vagabonds and outcasts everywhere."--Kate Moretti, New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year and The Blackbird Season
Johnson wastes no time in establishing the world and characters as filthy washed out, dangerous -- albeit incredibly charming -- victims of life's cruel sense of humor. Like reading a Hunter S. Thompson parable by way of Chandler and Westlake, the story screams along at the speed of sound . . . . Exciting, hilarious and well-written."--RT Book Reviews
Praise for Lucky Supreme, A Novel Of Many Crimes (Skyhorse Publishing, April 2017)
Johnson... captures the conflict between the two cultures perfectly without any false sentiment . . . The inventive, unorthodox Darby effectively marshals his forces against thugs, officials, and even federal agents in this amusing crime tale."--Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"The bastard lovechild of Charles Bukowski and Raymond Chandler, Lucky Supreme is a novel so good you'll want to ink it into your skin."--Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, the basis of Netflix's hit drama Longmire.
"As hip and cool as the neon rain-slicked streets of Portland. Darby Holland is a modern hero in the mold of Sam Spade and Marlowe only with more tattoos and in steel-toed boots. A funny and very gritty book with cool folks, cool music, and wonderful sense of place."--Ace Atkins, New York Times Bestselling author of The Innocents and Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn
"Lucky Supreme is one hell of a book. I didn't know anyone could do noir like this. Now I know Jeff Johnson can." --Joe Lansdale, Edgar Award-winning author of The Bottoms and The Hap and Leonard Series
"What wonderful Northwest noir. LUCKY SUPREME cruises through Portland's underworld with a raunchy grace and an unfailing sense of black humor. I loved it."--New York Times bestselling & 3-time Edgar Award-winning author T. Jefferson Parker
"Jeff Johnson writes with a poet's rhythm, a boxer's attitude and an artist's sense of style and flair."--Norman Green, Shamus Award-winning author
Praise for Everything Under the Moon (Soft Skull Press, September 2016):
"There's a whole world out there, that most of us never need to know about. A world of predators and prey, and predators who prey on predators. It's a dog eat dog world, and things are getting a bit hairy. It's Jeff Johnson's world, where the volume is always cranked up to eleven, the violence is cranked up to the max, and it's just one damned thing after another. The pace is fast, the plot is racing, and restraint has been kicked into the gutter. And it's got werewolves. What more do you want?" --Simon R. Green, New York Times Bestselling author of Tales from the Nightside
Praise for Tattoo Machine
"Jeff Johnson is a gifted and natural born storyteller."--John Irving, Academy Award-winning author of The Cider House Rules
"Tattoo Machine is meticulously observed, savagely funny, and deeply compassionate. It's a tale of up-from-under redemption through the shadowed art of personal symbolism. Jeff Johnson is a sharp-eyed master tattoo artist and an extraordinary writer."--Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love
"An amazing firsthand account of all things you wondered about tattoo shops. I loved it."--Gus Van Sant
"A wry, tender story about the tribulations of flesh and ink--and funny as hell. I've never understood why people get tattoos, but after reading Jeff's excellent book I may just get one myself." --Steve Dublanica, author of New York Times Bestselling Waiter Rant?
"For everyone out there who is as fascinated by skin art as much as I am, Jeff Johnson's memoir is a must read, a gritty, brutally honest account of his life and years in the tattoo business. Equally hilarious, alarming, heartbreaking, rebellious, and philosophical, Tattoo Machine gets inside your head and leaves an impression that goes deeper than any needle, one that will only be wiped away when you, dear customer, are dead and gone."--Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff?
"Tattoo parlors are showcases for the socially disreputable, the brazenly nonconformist and the indelibly creative, all on display in this colorful memoir."--Publishers Weekly
"One of the best books I've read so far this year... a reading experience that transcends the subject matter."--Jeff VanderMeer
"Funny, outlandish, and sometimes disturbing..."--New York Post
p>"Astonishing candor and brilliant imagery."--London Free Press"Absolutely fascinating."--Washington Post
