A noir romp through the worlds of aging rock-and-rollers, live Internet sex shows, abusive psychiatrists, Slavic mobsters, emotional betrayal, deceit, arson, murder and estate planning.
Excerpt
I look through the spyhole. Gloria has a bottle of gin in her hand and a pair of cuffs hanging from her belt loop. A deadly combination.
I open the door. "Evening, Lieutenant. You got a warrant?"
"Here's your warrant." She grabs the back of my head and sticks her tongue down my throat. I'd like it better if she didn't taste like Cheetos.
Professional Reviews
Bookgasm
"...one of the finest and most entertaining crime novels of the year... GO DOWN HARD also shows traces of such contemporary masters as Donald E. Westlake and Elmore Leonard - especially in its combination of abrupt, unexpected violence and laugh-out-loud humor. Anyone curious about the state of or characteristics of the contemporary crime novel need look no further than GO DOWN HARD. Let's hope Craig Faustus Buck doesn't keep us waiting too long for a follow-up"
Booklist
"It's a crime-novel dream. Twenty years ago, a hard-living, hard-loving rocker--a Janis Joplin sort--was murdered and the killer never caught. Now Nob Brown, an ex-cop trying to make a buck as a reporter, gets handed the cold-case file by a detective who's also his lover. Nob's poking brings him into the music world, the porn world, the world of incest and psychiatry, and early on, it's clear that this is the kind of crime novel that will be... appealing to readers as interested in side trips as the main journey. There's suspense and violence here, too, as well as good writing."
Publishers Weekly
"From Hollywood Hills mansions to porn factories in the Valley, freelance journalist Nob Brown uncovers family secrets that lead to murder in Buck's first novel, a solid romp through territory that Raymond Chandler first put on the map. The 20th anniversary of the shooting of pop singer Lana Strain--Nob's teenage dream girl--starts the investigation... including Marlow-esque banter. When a female porn exec who has a movie poster on her wall showing her practically nude asks Nob whether he has never seen a CEO portrait before, he quips, "They're usually wearing a watch."
During the Christmas Season, servants Jane Meyers and Alfie Dawkins search for missing persons from opposite sides of the social spectrum: a homeless man and the Duke's son.
