Dan Chaon on THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER

Dan Chaon -- the National Book Award-shortlisted author of Among the Missing and Await Your Reply -- has some kind words about Daniel Woodrell's The Death of Sweet Mister (being reprinted by BFP in March 2011). At Houston's Murder By The Book (my day job), Chaon's Among the Missing was one of our favorite books of 2009!

"Daniel Woodrell is one of my favorite contemporary writers, and The Death of Sweet Mister is one of his best. His books are often described as 'noir,'and it's true that they are often dark and shocking. But to me, the most shocking thing is the unsentimental tenderness that he brings to his portraits of these deeply troubled characters. This is an incredibly moving book, in addition to being an eye-popping, disturbing, blow-the-top-of-your-head-off work of suspense. I would say it's sort of a masterpiece." -- Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply

Look for Woodrell's Tomato Red from Busted Flush Press in August, and The Death of Sweet Mister next spring. And don't miss one of the indie-film hits of the year, Winter's Bone (based on Woodrell's 2006 novel), in theaters now!

New praise for Daniel Woodrell's TOMATO RED

“Tomato Red made me laugh, made me shake my head in amazement, but most of all it made me bloody envious. Modern crime fiction is thick with storytellers, but Daniel Woodrell is that rare beast: a writer.”—Roger Smith, author of Mixed Blood and Wake Up Dead

“The characters in Daniel Woodrell’s Tomato Red speak the poetry of the trailer park in a world where all wisdom is hard-won. Here there are no trust fund babies plagued by ennui. Woodrell’s universe is strictly hard-scrabble, where the only struggle involving identity is the one to keep it concealed. We are better for knowing it.”—Thomas H. Cook, Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Talk with Lola Faye

“There are a handful of writers who are known, read and revered by other writers for the brilliant beauty of their words. Some have become better known—James Lee Burke is an obvious example—but some haven’t yet achieved the wide readership that they deserve. Daniel Woodrell is chief amongst them. He’s created his own niche in the mystery world—‘Ozark Noir’—and he’ll dazzle you with each page. Chandler once wrote his ideal of a private eye and I think it applies to writers as well, certainly to Woodrell: ‘He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.’ Woodrell is the best at what he does and he can equal the best writing in any other world.”—JB Dickey, Seattle Mystery Bookshop (Seattle, WA)

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Tomato Red (originally published in 1998 by Henry Holt) will be reprinted this September by Busted Flush Press (trade paperback; 978-1-935415-06-0; $15), with a new foreword by Edgar Award-winning crime writer Megan Abbott. Read more praise for Tomato Red and The Death of Sweet Mister (trade paperback; 978-1-935415-08-4; $15; March 2011; new foreword by Dennis Lehane) here.