The Perpetrators [Paperback]

Marley is an expeditor. He moves stuff--or people, if need be--from one location to another. He has 24 hours to move Lina Guzman, heiress to a Mexican drug fortune, from Tijuana into the U.S. What should be a cruise-control Sunday drive turns into a NASCAR-meets-the-WWF spectacle seasoned with enough weaponry to fuel a Third-World insurrection. Chief among the evildoers out to foil Marley is Samson Twelvetrees, who wants Guzman's empire for himself. Stir in corrupt government officials, padded cops, and assorted armed thugs with murky motives, and we have what amounts to a literary video game. In the center of the maelstrom are Marley and Lina, who can't find the time to catalyze their obvious chemistry because they are too busy shooting, punching, kicking, and stabbing. The dialogue between the two is in the best tradition of Tracy-Hepburn distilled to its underlying, four-letter essence. This is no-frills fun for those who like their crime novels brimming with nonstop action and scented with cordite. Here's hoping Marley reloads for another adventure in the future. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

"Gary Phillips is my kind of writer and Ivan Monk my kind of detective....An unbeatable combination." -- Sara Paretsky

"In any game that's high-rise, high-pressure, and high stakes, I want Martha Chainey and Gary Phillips on my side." -- S. J. Rozan, author, Stone Quarry

"Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world. He...makes us feel that he's waging a war for our own salvation." -- Walter Mosely, author, Devil in a Blue Dress

"Seen through the prose of Gary Phillips, L.A. seems a new and much more interesting place." -- Tom Nolan

Implacable expediter Marley has a rep for getting goods from here to there, no questions asked. So when a call from the truly fine and truly rich Colombian drug queen Lina Guzmann reaches him, he gets busy. She needs to get from Tijuana to Sacramento in less than 24 hours, and there's a phat million waiting if he delivers her in one piece. But the conniving Samson Twelvetrees, Lina's once-trusted lieutenant, has guessed our girl's play; she's looking to go legit and sell out the organization to Dakin Saunders, California's law-and-order gubernatorial-hopeful attorney general. And that's a move Twelvetrees will keep from going down at all costs.

From goth creepshow rejects to pop glam killers to Twelvetrees's private army of stone gangsters, the assassins are out looking to earn some serious bounty for Marley and Lina's deaths. Battling damn near every step of the way, the pair leads a frenzied chase through parts of California not found in the Triple A guidebook. And if that weren't enough trouble for Marley, the hot-headed Lina, a woman used to having her way (especially with men), keeps throwing big drama, messing up his carefully constructed plans. But his rep, not to mention his ass, is on the line, and Marley is going to get the job done--no matter how many of The Perpetrators stand in his way.

Things this story is about...

Sharp knives

Semi-naked women

Armored-plated Muscle Cars

Funky attitudes

Shotguns

Pimp slapping

Back-stabbing

Bloodthirsty housewives

Greed

Sex

Sharp teeth

The Players

Marley -- The Expediter. The thinking man's roughneck in a Hugo Boss suit

Lina Guzmann -- The fine ass drug cartel queen who doesn't take shit from anyone

Samson Twelvetrees -- The duplicitous lieutenant out to kill Lina no matter what it takes

Dakin Saunders -- The ambitious California Attorney General

The Furys -- Some bad babes with big guns

The Goth Hit Team -- Murderous dime store bloodsuckers

Coleridge -- The lascivious defrocked doc

Plus an assortment of thugs and shooters looking to get paid by making sure Marley and Ms. Guzmann never reach their goal alive

Gary Phillips has been doing penance at the keyboard since he was impressed by Rod Serling's original Twilight Zone re-runs and borrowed his mother's portable Underwood typewriter to pound out tales of his own.

Paul Pope is one of a handful of promising young cartoonists to emerge in the last few years. His surrealist/science-fiction series, THB, has been a fan-favorite since its debut in 1994. He's just completed a five-year contract with Japan's largest manga publisher, Kodansha. He is also the creator of the science-fiction series Heavy Liquid, released last year from DC/Vertigo. He's currently working on brand new TGB material and a second book-length project for DC/Vertigo--a sci-fi romance called 100%.

In the American press he's been called "an explosion" and "the great white hope." In France he's been called "the Jim Morrison of comics" and 'comics petit prince."