Tuesday 31 May 2016

2 BY RYAN SAYLES

A couple this week from an author I know next to nothing about - Ryan Sayles.

I do like the look of his books though, which is just as well as I have a few of them on my Kindle!

He has a website/blog over here - Vitriol and Barbies.


Other titles available from Sayles....

That Escalated Quickly! (2013) (Got it!)

Two Bullets Solve Everything (2014) (Got it!)

An omnibus release of a couple of novellas from Chris Rhatigan and Ryan. Disco Rumble Fish - Ryan, A Pack of Lies - Chris.)

I'm Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy (2016)

A collection of stories by Ryan Sayles





















The Subtle Art of Brutality (2012)

The girl has gone missing. Again. But this time people are trying to kill her. Trying to burn down everything she has touched or left behind. The girl's surrogate father feels responsible and to assuage his guilt, he hires Richard Dean Buckner, former Saint Ansgar homicide detective turned private eye to ferret her out. Buckner was doing fine as a bare-knuckles detective for the PD until he was rendered "unserviceable" by a hit attempt. Early retirement doesn't sit well with that type of man, half predator and half savior. He takes the case, and from two ex-boyfriends who ruined their lives for the girl, her rapist dad, drug dealers she burned for thousands, an uncomfortable meeting at the local Incest Survivors group to whoever is setting fire to her life, Buckner is going to need all his guts, instinct and .44 Magnum to finish the job. Because in Saint Ansgar, what doesn't kill you only makes you wish it did. 

Praise for The Subtle Art of Brutality

 "Richard Dean Buckner is just the hero for our modern world: a righteous killer who can step outside convention and right the wrongs; and Sayles is just the writer to drive his story. This is how I like my fiction: unrelenting prose and kick-ass justice."
-Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation

"The brutality is in the prose. Course and violent, Sayles writes like he is seeking vengeance against the world. It's 21st century noir. Mickey Spillane on meth."
-Tom Pitts, author of Knuckleball

"As subtle as brass knuckles to the face. Buckner is a classic and Sayles is one to watch."
-Eric Beetner, author of Rumrunners and The Year I Died Seven Times .

"Richard Dean Buckner left me wanting more. He is a breath of fresh air in an antiques shop. A biker in a museum. A chaotic, reckless anomaly. You know I'm enjoying something when I deliberately slow down my reading pace to enjoy the novel longer. The Subtle Art of Brutality is a ridiculously strong first novel, starting the new darling of the P.I novels legacy."
-Benoit Lelievre

Warpath (2015)

The real estate mogul is lying about something, but his wife really was raped twenty-years ago in an unsolved assault. Now she's long dead by her own hand, the case has gone cold, and the mogul starts dropping cash into former Saint Ansgar homicide detective turned private eye Richard Dean Buckner's wallet to find some answers.

Just hours later Buckner's old homicide partner calls up. His grandmother was just killed in a drive-by that hit the wrong address. People that stupid need to be taught harsh lessons, and vengeance just so happens to be one of Buckner's finer skills.

Everything circles the drain as Buckner finds himself at war with the worst gang the city has to offer as well as the slithering rapist who has resurfaced just to tie the loose ends from the twenty year-old crime. Buckner doesn't back down, and if that means getting himself carjacked so he can interrogate the gang bangers, pose as the mogul's secret lover and chase the rapist into a women's shower room so he can beat him mercilessly, so be it. Just another day.

***Praise for Warpath***

"When so many PI novels are all about pretty form, damned few writers get the gritty function of real PI novels. Chandler, Hammett, Crais, Crumley. Those guys are the shit. So is Sayles. Warpath immerses you in his world, shows you what you'd rather not see, makes you hear his music his way. When Bruckner bleeds, we do, too. But it's not just pretty red, it means something, we learn from it. Read him...period. Incidentally, Sayles tells us that music sounds like a drillbit up someone's ass. Come on...how can you not read that?"
- Trey R. Barker, author of Death is Forever and Slow Bleed

"Buckner's back. More bloody, more bawdy, more biting ...and more brutal. Sayles' wise-cracking, sardonic detective takes you along in the front seat for a ride on noir's wild side. Funny, dark and twisted. Warpath chafes against the cookie-cutter mysteries of yesteryear and serves up crime like no other. Not since Philip K. Dick has a writer created a narcotic so insidious as the Big Fry."
- Tom Pitts, author of Knuckball and Hustle

"William James first defined the literary technique of stream-of-consciousness and then William Faulkner and James Jones employed it for powerful and uber-original effects, becoming the best-known practitioners of the technique until Gordon Lish came along and edged it further along in its evolution. Now, Ryan Sayles has taken hold of it and pushed it along even further on its evolutionary journey with one of the wildest noir rides I've ever been privileged to read, his raw and elemental Warpath. Buckner isn't nuts or a psychopath; he's just tired of all the bullshit that goes on in the game between criminals and cops and intelligently, he simply takes the most logical course of action in eradicating the animals who dare to breathe in his world. That he's the baddest bad ass in the neighborhood doesn't hurt. This is a ground-breaking book in just about every sense of the word. Sayles is a mighty talent and we're lucky to have him."
- Les Edgerton, author of The Bitch, The Rapist, The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping and others

"Richard Dean Buckner is a tough ex-police detective turned tougher private eye with at least .44 reasons not to call him Dick. Ryan Sayles pulls out all the stops as he races his protagonist along a frantic and treacherous Warpath."

- J.L. Abramo, award-winning author of Gravesend

12 comments:

  1. I really like this feature of yours, Col. You always find interesting authors I haven't heard of before. I'm afraid this particular pair of books doesn't sound up my street, but I do like learning about Sayles. Thanks.

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    1. Margot thanks, I'm glad you like the feature. I like highlighting some slightly less well known books and authors from my collection. Maybe next week's offering will be more your cup of tea! :-)

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  2. These sound pretty interesting. Looking forward to your reviews when you've had the chance to read them!

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  3. Another missing child book 1 - there's a glut at the minute! Hopefully I'll read one fairly soon, by which I mean this year!

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  4. Missing characters, cold trails...so many of these novels are about closure. I think it's a good plot line for a detective-mystery.

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    1. A good point Prashant, are you tempted?

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    2. I'm certainly tempted by the two covers, Col.

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    3. I'll let you know how I get on with these then.

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  5. Just based on the covers, I would say these books might be too brutal for me. We will see.

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  6. Sounds right up your street - PI and gruesomeness - but I'll wait for the reviews....

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