Zig Zag

"""J.D. O'Brien has written the perfect Country & Western novel.""--Mike Postalakis, author of L.A. By Mouth: The Essential Guide To Eating In Los Angeles ""An at times funny, at times hard-boiled, at times sweetly sad crime romp set in some of the scuzzier pockets of Southern California. J.D. O'Brien lovingly limns these divey bars, rundown motels, and ticky-tacky apartments and brings to life the stoned and soused oddballs who stumble through them. It's Elmore Leonard meets Warren Zevon with a wry sensibility all its own, and I enjoyed every page of it."" - Richard Lange, author of Rovers, The Smack, and Angel Baby ""This country and western novel is set in a sleazy California full of cheats, losers, and the smell of greasy food. The pleasure of the story is seeing the dodgy characters interact, or, rather, collide, and collide they do to humorous but also deadly effect. And the whole is suffused with dope, drink and dishonesty. Very much on the lowlife level, and a world away from both Chandler and Ellroy, this is a southern California hard-baked in grime. Great characters and a good read."" - Jeremy Black for The Critic ""A book that starts with an epigraph from D.C. Berman already has me eating out of its hand but then J.D. O'Brien goes and ups the ante. Zig Zag is a cosmic American crime odyssey that's reminiscent of Barry Gifford, James Crumley, Charles Portis, Elmore Leonard, and Charles Willeford. Wild, funny, and entertaining as hell. Capri Dall and Harry Robatore are characters I won't soon forget."" -William Boyle, author of Shoot the Moonlight Out, City of Margins, and A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself ""A weed-soaked modern western packed with laugh-out-loud digressions and hard luck characters so real I half-expected to find one sitting on a barstool next to me long after I finished the novel. The kind of offbeat book that I can't wait to loan out to friends."" - Duncan Birmingham, author of The Cult In My Garage and writer/director of Who Invited Them"