Calabama — Steve Brewer

CALABAMA is hillbilly noir set in the wilds of far Northern California.
It's the story of Eric Newlin, a slacker who works for his father-in-law in the remote town of Redding. A Corvette flies over Eric's head in a freak accident, and he walks away without a scratch. Eric decides it's an omen: His life is about to change. And he's right. His life goes right down the toilet. Within days, he's fallen so far that he finds himself mixed up in a kidnapping scheme with a local crimelord named Rydell Vance.
Leavened with dark humor, CALABAMA takes a wry look at California's rural, redneck interior, a place full of backwoods bitterness, a precarious place where it's easy for an outsider's life to spiral out of control.
"CALABAMA is Steve Brewer at his absolute best. He had me from the opening line, ("Never argue with a man whose tattoos outnumber his teeth.") I mean, how do you argue with that? You can't, even if Brewer still has most of his teeth, which I think he does. Serious laughs, solid plotting, snappy pacing, and finely tuned characters. Hell, I wish I'd written it." --Bill Fitzhugh, award-winning author of "Pest Control."
"Vintage Brewer, another funny hard-boiled page-turner! CALABAMA's a raunchy backroads rumble where good guys and goons all hit the gravel. Sex, drugs, kidnapping, betrayal, double-barrel action … a rollicking read!" --Charlie Price, Edgar-winning author of "The Interrogation of Gabriel James"
"Like Elmore Leonard, the writer whose work his most resembles, Brewer writes with a light and deft touch, bringing style and wit to the crime genre." --David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times