Slide (Mass Market Paperback)

by Ken Bruen (Author), Jason Starr (Author)
Key Phrases: kidnapping biz, New York, Max Fisher, Señor Lopez (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Bruen and Starr follow up last year's Bust with another dark, twisted, no-holds-barred tale that hits all the noir buttons and then some. Since he was betrayed by his mistress/former assistant, Angela Petrakos, who left him with nothing to his name but a bad case of herpes, New York businessman Max Fisher has been on a drunken downward spiral. When Max, waking up in Alabama, meets bumpkin Kyle Jordan, a hotel clerk and local crack cocaine dealer, he sees his chance to get back on top. Using Kyle's Colombian suppliers, Max begins selling crack to his old business associates. Soon, this Scarface wannabe has a luxurious Manhattan penthouse and is calling himself The M.A.X. Meanwhile, Angela's got a new boyfriend, an Irish psychopath named Slide (life's ambition: to become history's greatest serial killer), and she isn't done with Max. As this warped cast of characters cross and recross paths, events violent, bloody, crude and hilarious unfold at a rapid, almost stream-of-consciousness pace. Though this pitch-black comedy isn't for everyone, those with a taste for it will have as much fun reading this novel as the authors obviously had writing it. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Bruen and Starr have concocted a wild, remarkably vulgar, and very funny ode to mindless violence, drugs, down-and-dirty sex, and self-delusion. Most of the violence comes courtesy of the title character. Slide is a handsome young Irish psychopath whose life goal is joining the pantheon of American serial killers: Dahmer, Bundy, Berkowitz, . . . Slide. The drugs and self-delusion are the essence of Max Fisher, a silly little git whose first hit from a crack pipe turns him into The M.A.X., a hip-hop gangsta crack dealer and legend in his own mind. The connection between the two men is sexy Angela Petrakos. Angela just wants a house in the suburbs and a couple of kids, but her otherworldly bad tastes in men keeps betraying her. She was once Max's fiancée. Now she's Slide's squeeze, and you just know she's going to bring these two bizarros together. There's good reason to believe Bruen and Starr had as much fun writing Slide as crime fans will have reading it. Gaughan, Thomas

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Hard Case Crime (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 084395776X
• ISBN-13: 978-0843957761
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #4 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Starr, Jason

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A madcap ride with a one of the world' great sleezeballs, a serial killer, and a real operator, January 11, 2008

By	Jeff "Jeff" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

Following up where Bust leaves off, Slide is a rollicking good time ride with two of the main protagonists from the first book; Max Fisher, a hustler so driven he hustles himself first, and Angela Petrakos, a VERY calculating accomplice. They are joined by a plethora for characters who are well writ and capture the zeitgeist of a culture shot through with drugs, absolute worship of money, and the worst excesses of popular culture.

There are so many great lines in this book. Bruen has always been good at the throwaway gem, but Starr seems to have kicked him up to a whole new level. Dozens of times in the book Max starts to get a clue that maybe he isn't quite as a) appealing to women, b) controlled in his use of drugs, or c) quite the criminal mastermind he conceives himself to be. But then with a wonderful turn of phrase he dismissed any self doubt and jumps back in on his own Teflon chuted sleigh ride to hell. Only George Pelecanos does these wry asides as well, although Starr/Breun's drip with sarcasm as opposed to the irony of Pelecanos. But then, the authors are on very different missions with their works.

Of course, there has to be another protagonist and Starr and Bruen introduced Slide, a captivating, totally amoral psychopath who has delusional problems of his own.

The plot that ensues is just this side of far fetched, just this side of madcap, and a heck of a lot of fun. I read this book on a 6 hour flight from Newark to San Francisco, and laughed for the whole three hours it took to read.

So it is a lot of fun, but if you step back and think about it, it takes damn good writers to publish something this tightly plotted, this economical with words, and this ironic. Not only a great read, but also a very well constructed work.

If you read this, you must read Bust first, or you will miss a lot of the plot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hardcase fun, October 9, 2007

By	Michael J. Smith (Nashville) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Here is another great Hard Case Crime book. Nearly every book in the series is memorable. This one is all about the characters. If you like Bust then you should like Slide. Several of the characters are back in this hysterical sequel,including Max and Angela. The character of T.H.E. Max is the best part of the book. A very fun and fast read.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, Noirsh Speed Read, November 25, 2007

By	Howard R. Malis "Voracious Reader" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you love Ken Bruen and Jason Starr like I do (even though I thought Starr's latest was disappointing), this is for you. You can crank this one out in a couple of hours. Never mind that the plot doesn't make much sense. That's not the point. This is all about memorable characters and terrific prose. The action is fast and furious and none of the main characters have any redeeming values. The subject matter is money, drugs and, stangely enough, looking for love in all of the wrong places. This is the second outing for Angela and Max (Read "Bust" by the same authors)and hopefully we haven't heard the last from them. If you like tasting the grit in your reading, don't mind ultra-violence and having some laughs along the way, this is for you.