Ridgerunner

Blurbs:

"Rusty Barnes has done it again. Ridgerun­ner is a well-oiled, per­fect­ly craft­ed shot­gun of a nov­el, one that deliv­ers just as much heart as it does gun­pow­der. No one else work­ing today can show­case so much human­i­ty in such dark places. It's a gen­uine thrill to see what Barnes can do with twen­ty-six let­ters and a hand­ful of characters."

—Shel­don Lee Comp­ton, author of The Same Ter­ri­ble Storm and Brown Bot­tle

"With Ridgerun­ner, Rusty Barnes has earned a place at the table with hard­scrab­ble-noir poets like Woodrell, Wol­ven, and–yes–Thompson. This short nov­el packs a wicked punch that will leave you shak­en and want­i­ng more. Drop what­ev­er you're doing and get your hands on it."

—Patrick Shawn Bagley, author of Bit­ter Water Blues

"Rusty Barnes has some­thing spe­cial here—the nar­ra­tive equiv­a­lent of a fist to the gut, fol­lowed up with a well-placed kick in the teeth. You're going to want to get your­self a snack to go with Ridgerun­ner, because once you start read­ing this book you'll for­get to eat. It's a non-stop thrill ride from page one as Barnes blends may­hem and heart in equal dos­es, giv­ing the read­er a tour into the souls of men and their vices, expos­ing the lengths they'll go to pro­tect what's theirs."

CS DeWil­dt, author of Love You to a Pulp

"A gut­tur­al and unre­lent­ing sur­vey of a peo­ple and place that is not law­less, but, rather, gov­erned sole­ly by its own back­coun­try creed. RIDGERUNNER blurs the bound­aries between law­men and out­laws. Barnes has deliv­ered the stuff of fine fiction."

—David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends to Go

"Barnes starts his sto­ry with a fast boil and wrench­es up the gas on every page, nev­er relent­ing until the lid pops off and scalds the hell out of you. Ridgerun­ner is bru­tal, sat­is­fy­ing, and left me look­ing for­ward to his next book."

—Samuel W. Gai­ley, author of Deep Win­ter

"Jim Burke says he works the pages till, when you pick them up, they crack­le in your hand. That's Rusty Barnes' Ridgerun­ner. From the first line it crack­les: it's alive, mov­ing about, and won't be still."

—James Sal­lis

Vis­it Ama­zon to pur­chase Ridgerun­ner.