Bloodwork: The New Rugged Cross - Hardcover

Joseph, Henry

9780879056285: Bloodwork: The New Rugged Cross

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879056282 ISBN 13: 9780879056285

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 1994

Jack Lee has worked hard to put an unsavory past behind him, only to have it rise up and threaten to swallow him when his best friend is brutally murdered. He has had the great fortune to find love, and a good life stands waiting for him to claim it. But the bizarre murder strikes into the bedrock of Jack Lee's being, far below the layers of conditioning that make him a "civilized man." Every aspect of his life, including love, is relegated to secondary status while Jack deals with the almost elemental evil in ways he had never before believed he could.

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Review:

Bloodwork succeeds on sheer storytelling brio.--New York Times Book Review

...crisp action...tight plotting...solid.--Booklist

The smoothness of a Southern sativa and the knock-out punch of a Dutch indica.--High Times

Just revealed a major author: Henry Joseph, whose first two novels published in France are real masterpieces...with these two works [Bloodwork: The New Rugged Cross and Dinosaur Heaven] he places himself at the top level of American Literature.--Mid-Libre

Henry Joseph subscribes without doubt to the tradition of Southern literature: that of Gone With The Wind, of Faulkner, Caldwell, and Penn Warren.--Le Figaro

. . . the most powerful first novel I've read in years. It's wonderful. . . . I highly recommend it . . ."--James Crumley

About the Author:

Henry Joseph wrote six picaresque novels (pi.ca.resque-adj: relating to the adventures of rogues) between 1992 and 1999. The first, 'Bloodwork: The New Rugged Cross', was published in hard cover in the U.S.A. and was broadly acclaimed by critics and fellow writers alike. “. . . the most powerful first novel I've read in years. It's wonderful,” said James Crumley, author of 'The Mexican Tree Duck and Border Snakes', to whom Henry has been favorably compared. “. . . sheer storytelling brio,” declared Frank Wilson in 'The New York Times Book Review'. “. . . riveting . . .compelling. . . foreshadows a long, successful career,” said Bruce Southworth in 'The Drood Review of Mystery'. In France, Cedric Fabre, in 'L'Humanite' said of 'Dinosaur Heaven', the second book in the series, “startling and magnificent, beyond jubilation: we enter a part of ourselves we were unaware of: Joseph is a terrific smuggler of tears.” Yet, through the weirdness of modern publishing, 'Bloodwork' was the only book of Henry Joseph's to be published in English. His next five novels were all published (like the first) in France, with excellent critical review. This strange aberration is now to be corrected, with publication by Astor + Blue Editions of all of the 'Dinosaur Heaven Quintet' series in English. In 2001, Henry Joseph decided to retire from worldly affairs, including writing, focusing instead on a spiritual life of yoga and Buddhism. But now, at least, his acid, moving, and witty storytelling can be enjoyed more widely than before. They are true page turners – a world of outlaws, by which is meant anyone who toys with the idea that they are an outlaw. There may not be as many around as there should be, but maybe reading Henry's novels will change all that . . . [Taken, with apologies, from the Introduction to each work written by Peter Rubie, CEO, FinePrint Literary Management.]

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