AVAILABLE NOW from New Texture:Two new books by Chris D. : the novel No Evil Star and the short story collection Dragon Wheel Splendor and Other Love Stories of Violence and Dread.
In Dragon Wheel Splendor's title novella, a brilliant, alcoholic woman unable to find her place in Los Angeles' downtown arts community, helps a Japanese-American girl escape forced prostitution, only to ignite a string of violent deaths.
Chris D. delivers more twisted love tales here, populated by desperate, lonely people searching for that intangible something in another person: a British policewoman inadvertently falls-in-love with a hang-gliding serial killer near the white cliffs of Dover; a teen girl's gang rape spurs a vendetta by an estranged male friend in 1971's Southern California Inland Empire; a high school teacher-cum-punk rock journalist is haunted by the beautiful ghost of a junkie suicide in 1977; the gory fate of a reckless drifter and a self-loathing brothel madam spurs a violent strike in a 1948 French mining town; plus two more sagas of amour fou set against private environments of emotional chaos.
"Chris D. writes with a clarity so merciless, reality itself seems to shimmer with menace. Whatever the author survived to render these tales from the stark side informs his prose. His sentences evoke the dark truths of David Goodis and the savage humanity of a 21st century Dostoyevsky or Zola. Already a cult icon, with Dragon Wheel Splendor, the great Chris D. should finally find the audience he deserves. This is a book that can kill the voices in your head — or make you love them."
— Jerry Stahl (author of Permanent Midnight, Plainclothes Naked and Painkillers)
In No Evil Star, recovering addict and 'Nam vet, Milo, is resigned to his spartan life as caretaker of St. Margaret's cathedral in 1989 Manhattan. Guaranteed perpetual employment by Monsignor Aloysius, an old WWII comrade of his dead father, Milo's life starts to unravel when ex-CIA friend Dave goes off the deep end. Not only is Dave the heist man whacking drug dealers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, he's also hatching a hare-brained scheme to plunder Brooklyn mob boss Nunzio's treasure trove of paintings and objets d'art recovered from the Nazis at the end of WWII—which is conveniently stashed in St. Margaret's cellar. Complicating matters is ex-Viet Cong Yuen—a man with a very personal grudge against Milo and Dave—now working for the Hong Kong Triads.
When he arrives in the Big Apple to do business with two-timing underboss, Carmine, throw in hotheaded rehab priest Father Culkin, single mother Marie trying to stay straight, Nunzio's homicidal daughter Sarah, Milo's best friend, writer Jack, and you have a recipe guaranteed to erupt into an out-of-control urban holocaust.
"Chris D. has performed in his own bands, directed his own movie and written books, from Japanese film studies to volumes of his own poetry. Now he has written a crime novel, just another facet of the multi-faceted inside of his head. Some people can do one thing—Chris can do almost anything."
— Mary Woronov, (author of Swimming Underground, Niagara, Blind Love and Snake)
Click HERE to order Dragon Wheel Splendor.
Click HERE to order No Evil Star.
