Sequel to the Anthony Award nominee for Best Paperback Original, BAD BOY BOOGIE

All Jay Desmarteaux wanted was to find his family. Now he has to kill them.

“as wild as a night in a cage with an amorous monkey. So smart and tense and relentless. Pluck decides on his premise, and stays true to it until the rowdy end, but the real star here is his control of style, both hardboiled and poetic at the same time. Impressed.”—Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap and Leonard novels

Jay Desmarteaux raised a whole lot of hell in New Jersey after he was released from prison after 25 years for the murder of a rapist bully at his school. Now he’s on the run in his home state of Louisiana, where he traces his roots to an evil family tree that’s grown large and lush, watered with the blood of the innocent. Jay’s hunt for his parents will take him to the doors of stately plantation homes built by the enslaved, through the deadly and gorgeous heart of the bayou, to his greatest nightmare—a cell in the infamous state prison, where his only escape is the wildest show in the South—the Angola Prison Rodeo.

Scarred and shell-shocked, Jay faces his deadliest adversaries yet: the demons within himself and the brutality wrought by his privileged ancestors. The Boy from County Hell is coming home…

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Praise:

“Wow. THE BOY FROM COUNTY HELL by Thomas Pluck is as wild as a night in a cage with an amorous monkey. So smart and tense and relentless. Pluck decides on his premise, and stays true to it until the rowdy end, but the real star here is his control of style, both hardboiled and poetic at the same time. Impressed.”—Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap and Leonard novels

“Gripping, fast-paced, and stacked with deranged villains and brutal heroes, The Boy From Country Hell is not to be missed. Jay Desmarteaux is back, this time in the bayou with a mission to locate his parents and halt his family’s line of generational damage and horrific ills. Pluck’s new novel will break your heart at times, and make you root loudly for the flawed good guys. A wild ride of cool cars, guns, tough-ass southern women, and so many gators, The Boy From Country Hell is an action-packed, hell-raising trip that kicks you in the gut while warming your heart.”—Jen Conley, author of Seven Ways to Get Rid of Harry

“Thomas Pluck’s The Boy From County Hell is raucous and rollicking, just like The Pogues song it adapts its name from. There are echoes of James Lee Burke, Barry Gifford, and Joe R. Lansdale, but Pluck’s book burns hot and bright with its own indomitable punk spirit. Joyous, wild, dark fun.” -William Boyle, author of City of Margins, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, The Lonely Witness, and Gravesend
“Blistering, violent, and written with Technicolor flourishes that are Pluck’s unmistakable signature. The Boy from County Hell is a hell of a book.” Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase
“Pluck has crafted a hard-charging thriller that stomps the pedal from page one and never lets up. Crackling with exciting characters and language that pops off the page, THE BOY FROM COUNTY HELL is a mad tale of rage, retribution, and no small helping of heart and soul. I loved it.”—Bill Loehfelm, author of the Maureen Coughlin series