Showing results for "James Sallis" in Crime Fiction

A stylish piece of noir fiction; now a major film starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Drive is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. Sallis combines murder, treachery, and payback in a sinister plot with resonances of 1940s pulp fiction and film noir. Told through a cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver's near-existential moral foundations, intercut with moments of bloody violence.

David was one of an elite corps of spies trained during the Cold War. But those days are gone and for nine years he has been an ordinary citizen... until a phone call in the middle of the night. The only other known survivor of that elite corps has gone rogue. They need David to stop him. What ensues is an existential cat-and-mouse game played out across the American landscape.

Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered army stint, ill-advised marriage and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement, and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she's filling. 

Seven years have passed since Driver ended his campaign against those who double-crossed him. He has left the old life, become Paul West, and founded a successful business. But walking down the street one day, he and his fiancée are attacked by two men, and his fiancée is killed. Sinking back into anonymity, Driver realises that his past stalks him - and will not stop. He has to turn and face it.

New Orleans: Lew Griffin hat seine Vergangenheit als Privatdetektiv hinter sich gelassen. Er ist jetzt Schriftsteller und verbringt seine Tage in einem alten Haus im respektablen Garden District - immer darum bemüht, den heiklen Verführungen der Straße zu entfliehen. Doch als seine ehemalige Freundin LaVerne stirbt und ihre Tochter Alouette verschwindet, sieht er sich gezwungen, der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen. Lew Griffin taucht hinab in die schwülen Nächte der pulsierenden Stadt.

The small town where Turner has moved is the perfect hide-away for him to forget he was a cop, a psychotherapist and always an ex-con - until a body is found and Turner is thrust into the investigation and everything he thought he had left behind. Turner slowly becomes reacquainted not only with the darkness he had fled, but with the unsuspected kindness of others.

Die Schatten der Vergangenheit sind lang. Besonders, wenn die Mafia ihre Finger im Spiel hat und noch eine Rechnung offen ist. James Sallis hat die Fortsetzung seines preisgekrönten und erfolgreich verfilmten Romans "Driver" geschrieben - und wieder einen außergewöhnlichen Noir geschaffen. In Hollywoodfilmen schnellt ein Typ, der fast ertrunken wäre, für gewöhnlich aus dem Wasser hoch ins Sonnenlicht und schnappt dabei gierig nach Luft.

Driver ist kein Verbrecher. Jedenfalls nicht im engeren Sinne. Er ist nur der beste Stuntfahrer, den man in Hollywood kriegen kann. Und manchmal fährt er bei Raubüberfällen den Fluchtwagen, obwohl ihn das gar nicht so richtig interessiert. Genauso wenig wie die Hollywoodfilme. Eigentlich will er nur fahren. Aber dann läuft einer dieser Überfälle schief, und Driver findet sich in einem schäbigen Motel in Arizona wieder, mit mehreren Leichen im Zimmer und einer Tasche voller Geldscheine.