Cripple Creek [Paperback]

James Sallis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2007

In "Cypress Grove", James Sallis introduced his compelling new protagonist - Turner. Susannah Yager of "The Telegraph" said: "Sallis' deceptively easy style disguises the skill with which he has produced a satisfyingly complete portrait of a man's life" - Now Turner is back in "Cripple Creek", a novel as atmospheric and eventful as anything Sallis has written. A year or so has passed since the events of Cypress Grove. Ex-policeman, ex-con, former therapist, Turner has become Deputy Sheriff in the small town within driving distance of Memphis, Tennessee, to which he had migrated in hopes of escaping his past. His life is mending as he and Val Bjorn grow closer. And then a young man, arrested on a routine traffic stop with more than $200,000 in his trunk, is forcibly sprung from jail after Sheriff Don Lee is brutally assaulted. Throwing caution aside, Turner goes in pursuit to Memphis, unleashing ghosts he thought he had left behind, and endangering all that matters to him now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In Sallis's beautifully written second book to feature Turner, an ex-cop and ex-con (after 2004's Cypress Grove), Turner is working as a deputy sheriff in Cripple Creek, Tenn., a small town where crime is minor and strictly local. Then, late one night, Sheriff Don Lee arrests drunk driver Judd Kurtz with $200,000 in a nylon gym bag hidden in the trunk of his car. Kurtz breaks out of the town jail, seriously wounding two officers in the process. Turner's investigation leads him to an organized crime connection in nearby Memphis that enmeshes him in a web of escalating violence. Sallis's working method is to simply let the cameras roll, depicting the lives of Turner, his banjo-picking girlfriend, his eccentric co-workers and Cripple Creek itself, as everyone goes about their business. Small moments are recorded as faithfully as large, and stories from earlier days mix with the ongoing crimes and misdemeanors of the present. A structural sleight of hand toward the end may at first confuse but is pretty amazing once the reader catches on. Author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Sallis is really on a roll. Last October saw the arrival of his dynamite noir novella Drive, and now we have the superb second entry in his new Turner series. As this tale opens, Turner, ex-cop, ex-con, and ex-psychotherapist, remains on the lam in rural Cypress Grove, Tennessee, escaping the demons of past lives in Memphis, but he is starting to mend. There's a developing relationship with Val Bjorn, teacher and country musician; there's the appearance of his daughter from Seattle; and there's the fact that he has come out of hibernation to accept the job as deputy sheriff of Cypress Grove. Then his boss, the kindly sheriff, is assaulted by a gang of mobbed-up toughs in the act of breaking one of their own out of the small-town jail. Turner pursues the thugs to Memphis, confronting his past and giving vent to his suppressed blood lust. Every action prompts a reaction, however, and soon the thugs return to Cypress Grove looking for some blood of their own. Sallis tells the violent tale quietly, effectively using jump cuts, flashbacks, and flashforwards to generate both suspense and, simultaneously, a sense of inevitability. The stunning finale makes clear that Turner has a lot more healing to do. Sallis' Lew Griffin series remains a cult favorite among devoted hard-boiled fans, but don't be surprised if the Turner novels eventually claim pride of place in the author's oeuvre. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: No Exit Press (September 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842432346
• ISBN-13: 978-1842432341
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "All my life I'd lived out of step and synch with the larger world, forever tottering on borders and fault lines.", April 21, 2006

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cripple Creek: A Novel (Hardcover)

In spare, minimalist prose, James Sallis continues the story of John Turner, whom he introduced in his previous novel, _Cypress Grove_. Turner, a former policeman, convict, and psychotherapist, has left his job in Memphis after several traumatic experiences and moved to Cripple Creek, deep in the Tennessee countryside. There he seeks solitude and an escape from big-city crime. Because Turner is as enigmatic in this novel as he was in Cypress Grove, a man not willing to share his innermost thoughts with the reader or anyone else, the reader must piece together a character sketch from the clues Turner drops during the course of the novel.

A Memphis man arrested for speeding in Cripple Creek has been found with two hundred thousand dollars in a sports bag in his car. Jailed while he is being investigated, he has been sprung from the local jail by "goombahs" from Memphis, who, in a daring assault, have attacked and seriously injured the acting sheriff and the daughter of Turner's best friend. Turner, deputized, returns to Memphis for the first time in two years, asking for help from Memphis police and discovering that the "Aleche network" has been behind the jailbreak. By the time Turner returns to Cripple Creek a few days later, blood has been shed and Turner has made some very serious enemies.

Though the plot is filled with violence and dark twists, the plot is not the primary focus of this unusual noir crime novel. Sallis keeps the reader firmly focused on Turner and his point of view as Turner tries to escape the demons of his past. Matching his own lean style to Turner's uncommunicative personality, Sallis is spare with details, sometimes dropping passing hints about Turner's time in jail and his past police work, though he does not explain them. Through flashbacks and flashforwards, most of these episodes unconnected to the rest of the narrative, he shows Turner in action--a genuinely kind and empathetic person, at the same time that he is violent and filled with bloodlust.

One of the most unusual and intelligent mysteries I've read in years, Cripple Creek is unique, a novel in which every word counts, even when those words are not adding to the plot. Sallis's lean, mean style reflects both his main character, who is not interested in sharing personal information, and that style of noir writing in which events are presented and the reader is left to draw conclusions. Beautifully crafted, carefully written, and stylistically unforgettable, Cripple Creek will surely be on the list of best written and most intriguing mysteries of the year. n Mary Whipple

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite writing overcomes questionable plotting, April 21, 2006

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cripple Creek: A Novel (Hardcover)

James Sallis is without a doubt one of the finest writers at work today. Every word he writes seem to mesh perfectly with the one before and the one after. What Sallis does with words is magic and nothing less.

This is a sequel to his "Cypress Groved" (2004) which was also lyrical and a better story.

Once again we have Turner, VietNam combat vet, a cop with a past, a convicted felon, a psychotherapist who gave up his practice to live alone in Cripple Creek, Tennessee, somewhere far off the beaten path.

Turner is intensely introspective, given to flashbacks, flashforwards and something of a magnet for violence. Sallis spins Turner's story in the context of the very rural locale and the people who populate it, most of them rough-hewn, very down to earth characters. Sallis in very few words sketches strong portraits of every character he introduces. Turner, of course, is the strongest character, followed by Val, his lawyer girlfriend; Don Lee, the kindly sheriff who convinces Turner to become a deputy; Nathan, the old man in the woods; and a host of other townspeople, all of whom are just a bit eccentric.

Sallis's writing is strong enough to overcome the poverty of his plot. It begins with Don Lee pulling over a speeder who just happens to have $200,000 in cash in the trunk of his car. Twos thugs break the driver out of jail, beating up Don Lee and his daughter. The trail leads Turner to Memphis, where he had once been a cop before heading off to prison. In Memphis, things start getting weird. Turner - far removed from his character in "Cypress Grove" - engages in some gratuitous violence and winds up in a jam, only to be rescued by his long lost daughter who simply shows up. It's way too much a stretch.

I don't like to get into the details of a novel because I don't want to ruin it for someone else, so I'll just say the appearance of the surprise daughter is only the beginning of a series of hard to swallow events. For any other author, this plot would probably be fatal: but not with Sallis; his writing is powerful to keep you riveted.

Ultimately "Cripple Creek" is pure noir, perhaps perfect noir. Yes, the plot does get bizarre, but Sallis' taughtly drawn characters and the pure beauty of his writing overcome the plot. It's classically good reading, though his "Cypress Grove" and "Drive" had better plots.

Jerry

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Farther along we'll all know about it...", May 29, 2006

By 

Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cripple Creek: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is American writing about as good as it gets - a bittersweet little novel served raw. James Sallis may be Faulkner reborn, his homespun wisdom and beautifully warped passages may play of Cormac McCarthy; his "Turner" may recall James Lee Burke's moody Dave Robicheaux and rotting Gulf coast Bayous. He may be some of all of these, but James Sallis' style is all his own, mastering that rare ability to look as easily into the soul as he can into a cypress swamp or down a small southern town Main Street. Yet at the same time, he can spin a crime drama as gritty and violent and gripping as Lehane, Crais, or Child.

The story of "Cripple Creek" may back a back seat to the power of Sallis' prose, but not by much. Turner, ex-cop, ex-con, ex-therapist, is serving as deputy sheriff in backwoods Cripple Creek, Tennessee. A young punk is pulled over in a traffic stop, but with two hundred thousand dollars of likely mob money in the trunk, Sheriff Don Lee locks him up over night. The rightful thieves pull a brazen break-in to spring the kid, brutally beating Lee and the office secretary in the process, leading Turner to Memphis to bust the mob and return order to Cripple Creek. Simple enough, and were Sallis just an ordinary writer, done, done again, and boring. But there is nothing ordinary about Sallis and the characters he plumbs, nothing ordinary about the nonlinear story line he spins or the tangents in time and place and psyche over which Sallis rambles with a practiced ease making it all feel natural. And there is definitely nothing ordinary about the stunning climax that sneaks behind you like a Tennessee mountain mist and then sucker punches with the subtlety of pry bar.

This is writing you'll want to savor, but anyway, it just can't be rushed - too allegorical, too subtle, too clever. I read James Sallis, and I realize that I've never really understood the English language at all. But don't take my word for it - no review can do it justice - it must be read to be appreciated.