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In Chris D.s title novella, a brilliant, alcoholic woman unable to find her place in Los Angeles downtown arts community, helps a Japanese-American girl escape forced prostitution, only to ignite a string of violent deaths. Chris D. delivers more twisted love tales here, populated by desperate, lonely people searching for that intangible something in another person: a British policewoman inadvertently falls-in-love with a hang-gliding serial killer near the white cliffs of Dover; a teen girls gang rape spurs a vendetta by an estranged male friend in 1971s Southern California Inland Empire; a high school teacher-cum-punk rock journalist is haunted by the beautiful ghost of a junkie suicide in 1977; the gory fate of a reckless drifter and a self- loathing brothel madam spurs a violent strike in a 1948 French mining town; plus two more sagas of amour fou set against private environments of emotional chaos. Chris D. writes with a clarity so merciless, reality itself seems to shimmer with menace. Whatever the author survived to render these tales from the stark side informs his prose. His sentences evoke the dark truths of David Goodis and the savage humanity of a 21st century Dostoyevsky or Zola. Already a cult icon, with DRAGON WHEEL SPLENDOR, the great Chris D. should finally find the audience he deseves. This is a book that can kill the voices in your head or make you love them. Jerry Stahl (author of PERMANENT MIDNIGHT, PLAINCLOTHES NAKED and PAINKILLERS)