City of the Lost: Stephen Blackmoore: 9780756407025: Amazon.com: Books

Review

"The gritty streets of CITY OF THE LOST are filled with snappy dialog, and fascinating characters, as well as a rollercoaster of a plot that doesn't slow down from beginning to end. This is the zombie crime novel we didn't know we were all waiting for."

(- Seanan McGuire, author of DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON )

"CITY OF THE LOST is the best kind of paranormal noir: gritty, breakneck- paced, and impossible to put down. Joe Sunday is a new antihero to watch, and the next installment can't come soon enough."

(- Caitlin Kittredge, author of THE IRON THORN )

"Bruja, demons, bloodsuckers, the living dead and bucketloads of bloody magic - you'll find all of those in CITY OF THE LOST, but the real magic is how Blackmoore deftly breathes secret supernatural life into the City of Angels. This is an auspicious debut that's at turns violent, hilarious, and tragic. Can't wait make a return trip to Blackmoore's voodoo version of L.A."

(- Chuck Wendig, author of BLACKBIRDS )

"For a debut author, Stephen Blackmoore knows perfectly well how to snatch up his readers and barrel away with them from page one. In Joe Sunday, he's created the perfect hard-boiled anti-hero - an inexorable protagonist who's short on tongue-wagging and long on visceral brutality, yet is totally sympathetic due to his singular narrative voice. Oh, yeah. He's also dead. CITY OF THE LOST is one hell of a fast and thoroughly enjoyable ride. The perfect book for fans of crime noir, urban fantasy, and horror. One of my favorite reads of the year."

(- John Hornor Jacobs, author of SOUTHERN GODS )

"The funhouse reflection of L.A. Blackmoore conjures is at once vibrant, seedy, and mysterious - streets so mean, they feel as though plucked straight from Chandler's DT nightmares. CITY OF THE LOST effortlessly blends the grit with the fantastical, and paints a world in which magic is to be feared - but not nearly so much as the people behind it."

(- Chris F. Holm, author of DEAD HARVEST )

From the Back Cover

Sunday's a thug, an enforcer, a leg-breaker for hire. When his boss sends him to kill a mysterious new business partner, his target strikes back in ways Sunday could never have imagined. Murdered, brought back to a twisted half-life, Sunday finds himself stuck in the middle of a race to find an ancient stone with the power to grant immortality. With it, he might live forever. Without it, he's just another rotting extra in a George Romero flick.

Everyone's got a stake, from a psycho Nazi wizard and a razor-toothed midget, to a nympho-demon bartender, a too-powerful witch who just wants to help her homeless vampires, and the one woman who might have all the answers -- if only Sunday can figure out what her angle is.

Before the week is out he's going to find out just what lengths people will go to for immortality. And just how long somebody can hold a grudge.

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Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: DAW Trade; 1 edition (January 3, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0756407028
ISBN-13: 978-0756407025
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #707,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Stephen Blackmoore Page

Stephen Blackmoore is a pulp writer of little to no renown who once thought lighting things on fire was one of the best things a kid could do with his time. Until he discovered that eyebrows don't grow back very quickly.

As a writer he strives to be a hack. Hacks get paid.

He's not sure if hacks talk about themselves in the third person, though. That might just be a side effect of his meds.

His first novel, a dark urban fantasy titled CITY OF THE LOST will be coming out January 3rd, 2012 through DAW Books and will be available at all the fashionable bookstores. Hopefully some of the seedier ones, too.

His short stories and poetry have appeared in Plots With Guns, Needle, Spinetingler, Thrilling Detective, Shots, Demolition, Clean Sheets , Flashing In The Gutters and a couple of anthologies with authors far better than he is.

Occasionally he helps edit NEEDLE: A MAGAZINE OF NOIR. You should buy a copy. Really. It's good.

He is represented by Allan Guthrie at Jenny Brown Associates

You can even stalk him on Twitter (@sblackmoore)

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

(19)

4.6 out of 5 stars

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“ I especially love well-written pulp, and this is great pulp. ” Thomas Pluck | 8 reviewers made a similar statement

“ So to sum up - damn good book, don't have to like zombies to love it, may cause you to want more zombies in your life. ” J. Stallings | 5 reviewers made a similar statement

“ There's a large slew of rather interesting characters after the stone as well, which certainly gave the book a unique flavor. ” Joshua Palmatier | 2 reviewers made a similar statement

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A rip-roaring zombie noir debut! January 3, 2012

By MyBookishWays

Format:Paperback

Whew! Lemme tell ya, if you're in the mood for some down and dirty noir action with your supernatural fun, City of the Lost is where it's at! Joe Sunday is your all around tough-as-nails L. A. enforcer who knocks heads and makes a pretty good living at it. All of this comes to a rather abrupt hault when his main employer hires him to knock off someone that is way off the normal meter. When he witnesses his best friend and co-worker kill himself (in a rather spectacular way), he knows things are a bit...off kilter. Sure enough, his newest mark is out for blood, and takes Joe out. But wait, Joe's not dead. Now, Joe is a zombie; not the rambling, rotting type, but if he doesn't do certain, er, things, the rotting definitely will commence, unless he gets his hands on a stone that may hold the key to immortality.

Told in Joe's wry voice, City of the Lost grabs you hard on page one and keeps you rapt until the last page. Backed by a supporting cast including a young bruja that counts a bar tending demon as a friend, and a cop with his own agenda, Joe must fine the stone and figure out how to fix his little problem, before it fixes him. On his tail is an ancient man that's been chasing the stone's secret for hundreds of years, a beautiful woman that he may or may not be able to trust, a Nazi doctor that wants the stone for his own, and his henchmen, a skull cracker that has a sharp-toothed midget (we're not talking human here) on a leash. Stephen Blackmoore writes like an old pro, and doesn't flinch from some of the more violent characteristics of his anti-hero. He's really, really good at writing gray characters, and yet manages to infuse his creations with humanity, even if they aren't themselves human, which is a neat trick.... Read more ›

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning debut! February 17, 2012

By CFH

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Full disclosure: I blurbed this book. Even fuller disclosure: I blurbed this book because I was lucky enough to read it early, and it totally blew me away.

The LA Blackmoore conjures in his novel is at once nightmarish and utterly believable. His characters are so well drawn, you'll see 'em when your eyes are closed. And my God, what a story.

If you dig old-fashioned pulp, or tales about the seamy side of the City of Angels, this book is for you. If you dig zombies and magical McGuffins, this book is for you. But those may damn it with faint praise. The fact is, this is a cracking good book, and if you're a fan of cracking good books, then do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today. Oh, and clear your schedule, 'cause once you start, there's no turning back...

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Saturday Matinee March 5, 2012

By Steve Weddle

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is chock-full of so many fantastic characters, it's tough to know where to start.

Tough-guy Joe Saturday finds himself kinda undead, or at least unkillable, and in the middle of a centuries-long quest for a magical stone. If this were all there were to the book, it would be a matinee of great fun, maybe one of those odd movies on the sci-fi channel every so often. But this book is so much more than that -- thanks to a well developed and detailed cast of characters -- the cool, demon bartender; the hippie/Red Cross-ish vampire, the Nazi wizard.

The story is so full of momentum, you'll be carried along with everyone else. Great stuff.

Here's hoping this is the first in a long series.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm in Love With a Zombie Named... Joe! February 16, 2012

By Sabrina Ogden

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've never met a zombie that I didn't like.

That is so not true. Zombies are gross, disgusting. They stink like rotten meat baking in the desert sun, and they're always oozing all kinds of bodily fluids while dripping flesh all over the freakin' place.

I've never met a zombie that didn't make me puke... would be more accurate.

Well, not until I met Joe Sunday, that is!

One look at the cover for City Of The Lost and I knew, just knew, that I was going to fall in love with Joe Sunday. I mean, come on... look at him. Look. At. Him. He's a hottie... with a perfectly kissable jaw line, messed up hair that my fingers long to touch, eyebrows with a sexy but distinctive arch, and a hole in his chest large enough to see the street lamp just down the road from where he's standing.

Yeah, about that -

Joe Sunday is your average "leg-breaker for hire," the kind of guy that most of us wouldn't date, and definitely not the kind of guy that if you did choose to date, you'd take home to meet your Mamma. We first meet up with Joe at Henry's Bar and Grill checking up on his friend, and coworker, Julio. Julio had been sent by their back-stabbing boss, Simon, to retrieve an ancient stone from some guy named Giavetti. But ever since meeting with Giavetti, Julio's been acting a little strange. Mumbling about his hands not being his hands, breaking his bottle of beer, attacking the bartender, attacking Joe, and ending the very first scene in this novel by jamming the broken bottle into his throat and... dying, I'd say Julio isn't quite himself anymore.

Now, Julio's behavior and death doesn't just have Joe asking questions, it has his boss, Simon, confessing to knowing and killing Giavetti back in his younger days.... After telling some pretty unbelievable stories, Simon puts Joe in charge of getting rid of this Giavetti guy, finding the stone, and breaking the news to Julio's wife about Julio's death. That last part would have been easy to do had Julio not shown up at his home as a newly risen member of the walking dead, and a puppet being pulled by the tight strings of Giavetti.

After walking into a world of chaos and total disbelief, Joe finds himself battling it out with Julio, losing his life, waking to find himself the best zombie Giavetti has ever created, and on the hunt for an ancient stone with the power to grant immortality.

In this story you'll read about the one thing Joe needs to eat every day to keep from rotting; a social-working witch that wants to save all the little, not-so-human misfits in Los Angeles; an incredibly crazy Nazi wizard named Dr. Neumann, who happens to know the secrets behind the ancient stone's power; a midget with razor-sharp teeth; a demon tending bar that likes to talk in riddles; an officer seeking revenge; the truth behind Giavetti's beauty secrets; and a beautiful woman named Samantha Morgan... holding one hell of a grudge.

And the stone - wanted by all the characters cast in this deliciously written book - not only has the power to grant immortality to those that seek it, but has the power to destroy the magical world Mr. Blackmoore has so perfectly hidden in plain sight within the City of Angels. Some want the stone to save others. Some want the stone so they can live forever. And one person is willing to do anything to use the stone for the purpose of destroying another... even if it means killing Joe Sunday in the process.

While there might not be any love scenes in City Of The Lost, there's definitely enough sexual tension between Joe Sunday and Samantha Morgan for Joe Sunday to be add to my list of Favorite Men! I mean, honestly, I'd gladly let Joe Sunday eat the heart out of my chest... as long as he doesn't shoot me in the head and have my body crushed into pulp at a gravel quarry. Well, actually, knowing me... I'd probably give my heart to him anyway. Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Los Angeles - Through a Glass, Darkly

As a native Angeleno, I love Blackmoore's noire take on LA in both City of the Lost and Dead Things. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Christiaan Van den Akker

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading

Can't wait on Stephen Blackmoore next book. All in all great fun and I hope he keeps up with the dead thing.

Published 2 months ago by s.k. currry

4.0 out of 5 stars zombies plus noir

good read, would make a good movie. i would have liked it to have moved into more original territory occasionally rather than staying on the noir trail, but what the hell i was... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Chriistopher Quigley

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure-grade noir with an irresistible, bloody twist

Joe Sunday is a mean son of a bitch. Thug, enforcer, murderer, he and his partner, Julio, bloody their hands for an L.A. crime boss. Read more

Published 6 months ago by David J Turner

4.0 out of 5 stars fun and fresh noir tale

Sunday, bloody Joe Sunday. A retro mystery and adventure tale of the not-quite-dead. Interesting and unique characters. Read more

Published 9 months ago by MC

4.0 out of 5 stars City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore

In Stephen Blackmoore's City of the Lost, we have a gritty, noir-inspired tale set in modern Los Angeles. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Epheros Aldor

5.0 out of 5 stars Like nothing else

Part detective novel, part vampire tale and 100% unique. This book creates a whole world and makes it real, exciting and intriguing. It's the details that make it. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Noirguy

5.0 out of 5 stars Eating Abd Breaking Hearts In The City of Angels

Tarentino meets Romero and every other pulp novel writer you ever loved in a hilarious, foot stomping romp that'tl leave you breathless. Read more

Published 11 months ago by A. J. Hayes

4.0 out of 5 stars Great pulp and a wild ride through the underworld

I love pulp. I especially love well-written pulp, and this is great pulp. It's also my kind of urban fantasy: a kick-butt hard-boiled crime tale that begins with a living death... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Thomas Pluck

5.0 out of 5 stars So good it may cause you to want more zombies in your life.

Zombies, noir, shades of Casa Blanca? How in the name of all that is holy can the this wild stew work. Well, quite well thank you very much. Read more

Published 15 months ago by J. Stallings

Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!

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