Beautiful, Naked & Dead (Moses McGuire) [Kindle Edition]

Josh Stallings (Author)

Book Description

ON OVER 14 BEST OF 2011 LISTS

"Someone once said of
Raymond Chandler that he wrote 'as if pain hurt and life mattered.'
That's true of Josh Stallings, too. Hop on, kick the starter, and let
him lead you on a long, painful, but entertaining ride through Moses
McGuire's world. One hint: wear your helmet and your leathers. It
might get messy." -Tad Williams (NY Times Best selling author"

"The man knows what to do with paper and ink. Read the damn thing." -Charlie Huston (Author, Hank Thompson Trilogy)

"This
is one of the best books that I've read this year. No question. Lean,
but with depth. Violent, yet human. BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD shines
as a perfect example of what can still be done within genre work."
Johnny Shaw (Author, Dove Season and Big Maria)

"Stallings
has this way of writing, this brutally stunning way with words that
rips a character right open in front of you - shows you it all - blood
dripping, heart beating, the darkness aflame." - Ian Ayris (Author, Abide With Me)

"This
novel deserves mention, praise, attention, and indeed any treatment
that would ultimately result in such a magnificent book by such a
talented writer attaining commercial success and widespread
house-hold-name recognition." - Pearce Hansen (Author, Storm Gods)

BEAUTIFUL,
NAKED AND DEAD  From East L.A. home, through the legal brothels of
Nevada and finally to a battle with the mob in the mountains above Palo
Alto, this is a sex soaked, rage driven, road trip from hell.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"what rises Beautiful, Naked & Dead above the fray is the strength of the narrative voice. McGuire's voice, as written by Stallings, is infectious, tough, vulnerable and likable. It pulls the reader along until the end like the greatest bar story ever told."
-Spinetingler

About the Author

Josh Stallings is your average ex-criminal, ex-taxi driver, ex-club bouncer, film making, script writing, movie advertising editing, punk.

His work has appeared in Crime Factory, Shotgun Honey, numerous anthologizes including Protectors and Blood and Tacos.

He wrote and edited the feature film "The Ice Runner," a Russian/American co-production. "Kinda Cute for a White-Boy" an independent feature he directed and co-wrote with novelist Tad Williams, won best picture at the Savannah International Film Festival.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Erika, two dogs and a cat named Riddle. BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD is his first novel.

Product Details

• File Size: 468 KB
• Print Length: 284 pages
• Publisher: Heist Publishing (March 18, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004SUR85S
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,275 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I was a hardboiled virgin March 20, 2011

By Barbara Thomas

Format:Kindle Edition

This is a fabulous, genre-busting novel. Not at all the kind of book I usually read - so it just shows how wrong one can be about genre preconceptions. The prose grips by the throat and never lets go, so is a narrative-lover's wet dream. At the same time, the protagonist (Moses McGuire) is so complex and well drawn that the reader cannot but empathize, sympathize and tear out her hair at some of his less-than-healthy choices. I especially liked the way the book is underpainted with romance, and how ethics swim up through the booze and the blood. Read it, weep, then clutch it to your chest and hope you can manage the wait for the next one.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Naked & Dead is big league crime fiction April 18, 2011

By Elizabeth A. White

Format:Kindle Edition

Forty-three year old Moses McGuire wakes up every day with a decision to make: go to his job as a bouncer at a strip club, or kill himself? The job at the strip club is relatively new, he got that shortly after being released from prison, but the thoughts of suicide aren't. In fact, as Moses recalls it he was six years old the first time the thought seriously crossed his mind.

Somehow he made it another thirty-seven years down a rugged road without topping himself, but not without hitting a few major potholes along the way. Medically discharged from the marines for "almost constant drinking and general insanity," Moses has served time, picked up more than his share of battle scars from bar fights, is in debt to his ex-wife and his bookie, and has been cut off by his dealer for passing a bad check. ("Hell, what kind of dealer takes checks anyway?") That suicide option looks better every morning.

And the morning we meet him at the start of Beautiful, Naked & Dead may well have been the day, until Moses gets a phone call from one of the girls at the strip club asking for his help. Not just any girl, actually, but the one person in the world Moses considers a friend. When she doesn't show for their scheduled meeting Moses goes to her apartment, where he finds she's been brutally tortured and murdered. The one good thing in his life having been taken from him, there's going to be Hell to pay for those responsible, as well as anyone foolish enough to get in his way.

He may be a Scotch drinking, pill popping, strip club frequenting, suicidal ex-con of Viking ancestry (complete with red beard and body "built for wielding a battle-axe"), but Moses nevertheless has an unquestionably rock-solid moral compass. Unfortunately for him, in Beautiful, Naked & Dead following his moral compass leads Moses into a storm of nearly biblical proportions, landing him in the middle of a turf fight between Armenian and Italian gangsters, and in the way of both the local police trying to solve his friend's murder as well as Federal agents working the organized crime angle. They in turn threaten Moses with everything from torture to death to prison, but what none of them seem to understand is that Moses neither fears their guns nor respects their badges. He's a man on a mission with nothing to lose, and be it with fists or guns, Moses doesn't care how much blood he has to shed to get the answers he wants.

Author Josh Stallings is masterfully understated in his handling of the seamy underworld that is sex for sale in America, a topic around which a large portion of the story revolves. Whether dealing with the comparatively benign strip clubs like the one where Moses works, the legal brothels in Nevada where Moses' search takes him, or the rough business of exploitation pornography that rears its ugly head, Stallings brings each to life in a very matter of fact manner. Gangster or stripper, cop or ex-con, the characters in Stallings' world are neither heroes nor victims, deserving neither admiration nor pity. They are simply people struggling, with varying degrees of success, to make their way through the world to the best of their respective abilities.

As I was reading Beautiful, Naked & Dead I marked passages that I thought I may want to quote in this review. In looking back at my notes, however, I realized that if I used everything I marked I'd basically be quoting you half the book. Stallings' prose is that tight, engaging, and memorable. In fact, Beautiful, Naked & Dead is the poster child book for those who love good writing, especially hard-boiled crime writing, to wave as they rage against the publishing machine that gives contracts to people like Snooki while authors who really have the chops and who are paying their dues, authors like Josh Stallings, are somehow left out in the cold.

Moses McGuire is an uncommon lead, but a fitting one for a book that has an uncommon mix of brutality and beauty, sex and love, hate and humor, hopelessness and hope. Uncommon though it all may be, however, under the skillful hand of Josh Stallings it not only works, it makes perfect sense. Make no mistake about it, Beautiful, Naked & Dead is big league crime fiction, and by all means you should step up to the plate ... you'd just better seriously dig in when you do because Stallings is bringing the heat.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent hardboiled fiction March 30, 2011

By psmoz

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Sex, drugs, and violence -- what's not to like? This is an excellent book! Moses McGuire is one of the most sympathetic and original characters I've come across in years. Comparisons to Raymond Chandler in some of the other reviews are not exaggeration. If you like hardboiled fiction, you will love this book.

More About the Author

Josh Stallings is author of the critically acclaimed Moses McGuire crime books. This latest book is All The Wild Children a noir memoir.

He has been in no particular order, a film editor, taxi driver, criminal, father, husband, club bouncer, a trailer editor, a screen writer, a bad actor and a good friend.

He lives in the city of his birth, Los Angeles with his wife Erika, two dogs and a cat.