The Last King of California
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
'Beautifully written' S. A. Cosby
Sometimes to find yourself, you have to go back to where you came from.
You just might not like what you find.
After failing in his new life, Luke decides to go home, back to the one place where he’d once felt he belonged. But that was a long time ago and now he has to face the life that he chose to run away from: The Combine. The gang that his uncle now leads, but which his father still runs from prison. Brutal, unforgiving . . . family.
Reunited with his childhood friend Callie and tagging along on jobs with her and her boyfriend Pretty Baby, Luke soon discovers that he might have a place back home after all. When another gang try to encroach on their turf, The Combine and Luke must go to war to save all that they know.
But in trying to be someone you’re not, can you ever find out who you really are?
Family is everything and blood is love.
Praise for Jordan Harper:
‘When I say The Last King of California subverts the stereotypical American Outlaw Mythos, it's the highest praise I can give it. No one is thinking deeper about what crime fiction is than Jordan Harper’ S. A. Cosby
‘Burns bright and fast’ Peter Swanson
‘Darkly irresistible’ Megan Abbott
'Urgent and beautiful' Lauren Beukes
'Fast-paced and gritty' Amy Engel
'Truly astounding' Robin Wasserman
'Easily one of the best things I'll read this year. Visceral and violent. An exploration o family and loyalty. Reads like poetry. Bravo!' Chris McDonald
'[A] gripping and emotional journey . . . Authors paint pictures with words, and like the Mona Lisa or Van Gogh's Sunflowers, some of their books are instant masterpieces sure to inspire readers and elicit envy from fellow wordsmiths. The Last King of California is simply that good. Jordan Harper wields words like weapons . . . It is like poetry on the page' BoloBooks Top Read of 2022
'Blistering, brutal, with a big beating (black) heart, The Last King of California confirms Harper as one of the finest writers of noir today, with what's easily a best-of-the-year book' James. D. F. Hannah, Shamus-winning author of the Henry Malone novels
Customer Reviews
Literary crime fiction
Luke is the son of the jailed head honcho of a California desert crime gang: shades of Mad Max. (He’s Anglo. Mad Mex lives next door.) Our boy was a tad damaged as a kid. After witnessing his old man beat another dude to death in a bowling alley carpark, his mother hooks up with a new guy and leaves him in foster care. He ends up in Colorado and even does a year of community college before deciding it’s not for him, returns to the old homestead in the desert where his uncle is now boss, vacillates about committing to “The Combine,” but eventually does. Unfortunately, they’re in the middle of a turf war with a larger white supremacist gang. Stuff happens, much of it brutal as you might suspect. Our boy and a feisty female cousin he used to play with as a kid make it out, scathed but alive.
Character development was limited. This was all about narrative and style. Mr Harper cites his major influences as Cormac McCarthy, James Ellroy, and Jim Thompson. The prose style owed more to McCarthy, the plotting to Ellroy IMO. I haven’t read any Jim Thompson. However, I got a distinct Kem Nunn vibe (if you substitute dust and dirt and sand for surf). Not that there’s anything wrong with the work of any of those gentlemen, but the word derivative comes to mind.