The Carrion Birds - Softcover

Waite, Urban

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062216899 ISBN 13: 9780062216892

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2013

Synopsis

The Carrion Birds from Urban Waite, author of the highly acclaimed The Terror of Living, is a remarkable work of literary noir.

Hired gun Ray Lamar is ready to put his past behind him. He wants to see his twelve-year-old son and start a new life--away from the violence of the last ten years. One last heist will take him there. All he has to do is steal a rival's stash. Simple, easy, clean.

But when things start to go very wrong, Ray realizes the path to redemption isn't always easy.

A soulful tale of violence, vengeance, and contrition, The Carrion Birds is an elegant depiction of one man's last chance to make things right.

About this title

Review:

"The defining quality of Urban Waite's gripping existential thriller is an elegant sparseness, which inevitably recalls Cormac McCarthy."--"Financial Times" on "The Terror of Living"

"In the tradition of "No Country for Old Men", Urban Waite has written a nail-biter that takes off from the get-go and never stops, a book chock full of memorable characters and kick-ass writing."--Tom Franklin on "The Terror of Living"

""The Carrion Birds" is as muscular and laconic as anything by Cormac McCarthy, yet it crackles with humanity. A-"--"Entertainment Weekly"

"The Carrion Birds" is as muscular and laconic as anything by Cormac McCarthy, yet it crackles with humanity. A- --"Entertainment Weekly""

A lean and mean, modern-day noir western filled with complex characters and situations . . . hauntingly dark and elegiac writing . . . a candidate for best crime book of 2013. --"New York Journal of Books""

[A] searing western noir. Three people face terrifying moral choices as they each wish for what they can t have: life as it was before their small border town . . . was doomed by its dying oil economy. --Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

Waite writes with grace and poignancy and keen comprehension of hard men in hard circumstances . . . [The] narrative rages as a perfect torrent of violence flooding toward its inevitable conclusion. Fierce and lyrical. --Kirkus Reviews"

One fine specimen . . . with more artistry than would seem possible in a conventional thriller. --"New York Times Book Review" on "The Terror of Living""

In the tradition of "No Country for Old Men," Urban Waite has written a nail-biter that takes off from the get-go and never stops, a book chock full of memorable characters and kick-ass writing. --Tom Franklin on "The Terror of Living""

A hell of a good novel, relentlessly paced and beautifully narrated. There s just no let-up. Waite s style is tight and taut. . . . Strong narrative voice, auspicious debut. . . . Awfully glad I read this one. --Stephen King on "The Terror of Living""

From the Back Cover:

Ray Lamar has made some mistakes. He's good at hurting people--the dead wife he failed, the young son he abandoned, the victims who stand in his boss's way. But Ray's tired of being that man. He wants to go home to Coronado, New Mexico, to see his boy and make a new life far from the violence of the past. One last job will take him there. All he has to do is steal a rival's stash. Simple and easy.

Ray knows there's no such thing as easy, and that simple plan has quickly become a catastrophe. Now the runners who have always moved quietly through this desert border town want vengeance. To stop a bloodbath and maybe save his own soul, Ray must figure out how to make it right. But for a man like Ray Lamar, there is only one way. . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062216899
• ISBN 13: 9780062216892
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288