Cold in July - Softcover

Lansdale, Joe R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616961619 ISBN 13: 9781616961619

Publisher: Tachyon Publications, 2014

Synopsis

From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard mysteries comes a shocking crime thriller to chill even the warmest summer's night. By turns vivid, raw, and darkly comedic, this mystery classic inspired the 2014 major motion picture Cold in July, starring Michael C. Hall (Dexter) Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down), and Don Johnson (Miami Vice).

Richard Dane has killed a man. He cannot unhear the firing of the gun or unsee the blood on his living room wall. But everybody in the small town of LaBorde, Texas knows Dane acted in self defense. Everybody except Ben Russel, the ex-con father of the small-time criminal who invaded Dane's home.

When Russel comes looking for revenge against Dane's family, the two are unexpectedly drawn into a conspiracy that conceals the vilest of crimes. Surrounded by police corruption, mafia deception, and underworld brutality, Dane, Russel, and eccentric PI Jim Bob Luke have discovered a game they may not survive.

About this title

About the Author

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels, including the Edgar Award-winning Hap and Leonard mystery series and the New York Times Notable Book, The Bottoms. Lansdale's work has appeared in television (The Twilight Zone, Masters of Horror), graphic novels (Batman), and film (Bubba Ho-Tep, Cold in July).

Jim Mickle is the director of Cold in July, as well as of critically acclaimed films including Mulberry Street and Stake Land. His film We Are What We Are was screened at the 2013 Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 15

That night Jordan went back to bed with us and I lay there thinking about Russel. After all that had happened, the thing that kept coming back to me was that he had hands like my father and he had had them around my neck. It was like my old man had come back from the grave to choke me for something I had done. I could never quite get it out of my mind in spite of what I knew about my mother that I had been in some way responsible for him eating the barrel of his Winchester.

I eventually gave up trying to sleep and went into the kitchen and put some strong coffee on. While that was brewing I went into Jordan’s room and turned on the light and looked around. The Little Sprout lamp, which had been beside his bed on the nightstand before Ann used it to hit Russel, lay on the floor where she had dropped it when the cops came in. There was a mark in the headboard of the bed where Russel had thrown the knife, but other than that, everything looked normal.

I walked around the room touching toys and books, assuring myself that things were as they had been and that they would coast along properly from here on out. It was a lie I very much wanted to believe.

I put the lamp where it belonged and sat down on Jordan’s bed, and while I was sitting there, I saw something dark sticking out from beneath Jordan’s battered toy box. Getting down on my hands and knees, I pulled it out and saw that it was a wallet. Without opening it, I knew it was Russel’s and that it had slid under there during the fight.

The thing to do was to give it to the cops, but I couldn’t resist a peek inside first. The first thing I saw was a photograph encased in one of those plastic windows. Russel was a young man in the picture and he looked handsome, strong and happy. He was down on his knee and he had his arm around a little blond-haired boy holding a BB gun. The boy looked about Jordan’s age. On the back of the photograph was written: Freddy and Dad.

There was a photograph behind that one, and it was of a young man in his early twenties. He was blond, blue-eyed, and handsome, if slightly thick in the chin. On the back of the photograph in the same handwriting was Freddy.
I thought about Freddy the night I shot him, and tried to match his face with this one. The burglar had had brown hair sticking out from beneath his cap and the eye that wasn’t a wound had been brown. His chin had been narrow, and never in his life had he been handsome or even passably attractive.

If this was a photograph of Freddy Russel, then the man I shot wasn’t him.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tachyon Publications
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616961619
• ISBN 13: 9781616961619
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288