More Better Deals
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair.
Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game.
When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.
The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through?
Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Used car salesman Ed Edwards, the narrator of this highly enjoyable hardboiled tale set in 1960s Texas from Edgar winner Lansdale (Jane Goes North), has no qualms about perpetrating serious crimes in his pursuit of the American Dream. When sent to repossess a Cadillac purchased by Frank Craig, a rough, hard-drinking brute who is "big enough to hunt tigers with nothing but a bad attitude," Ed falls for Frank's gorgeous if conniving wife, Nancy. After acquiring the Cadillac for himself, Ed and Nancy begin an affair, and Ed soon sets his sights on attaining part-ownership of Nancy's drive-in movie theater and pet cemetery. To achieve this, he devises a crude plan to beat her husband to death and stage his murder to look like an accident so that Nancy can claim Frank's life insurance policy. Unsurprisingly, nothing goes as planned, and Ed's hopes of a more prosperous future prove as shoddy and pretentious as the clunkers he sells. Populated with an admirable array of laughable miscreants, this droll, savage novel is vintage Lansdale. The author's storytelling powers remain as strong as ever.