Ingeniously plotted and executed, Print the Legend is an epic masterpiece from Craig McDonald. Beginning to end, I was riveted by this story of character, history and intrigue.--MICHAEL CONNELLY
The competition for the future of crime fiction is fierce, but don't take your eyes off Craig McDonald. He's wily, talented and -- rarest of the rare -- a true original. I am always eager to see what he's going to do next."--LAURA LIPPMANWhat critics might call eclectic, and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness -- and it's the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: "There's a right way, a wrong way, and my way." You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald's novels. He's built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg'lar roads, and he's brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour. --JAMES SALLIS With Print the Legend, with a James Ellroy-like scope and vision of national history, McDonald takes on governmental conspiracy, Hemingway hagiography, the under-history of the FBI, the Death of the Author (literal and figurative) and the tantalizing, destructive mythologization of the Writer's Life. While the scale is immense, McDonald's hand is deft, and we never forget that, at its center, this is a human story, complex and bruising and deeply felt. --MEGAN ABBOTT "Print the Legend is a landmark book. Lassiter for me is the Flashman/Zelig of the new era, but with a ferocious literary knowledge that is worn so lightly. A book beyond genre, stunning." --KEN BRUEN Craig McDonald's debut, Head Games, a relentlessly slick and action packed literary caper novel, was shortlisted for the Edgar, Anthony, Crimespress and Gumshoe awards for Best First Novel. Now, with Print the Legend, McDonald exceeds the extraordinary promise of his debut, delivering a consummate mystery about a conspiracy gone wrong, and the outer edges of creative jealousy and obsessive revenge. It was the shot heard around the world: On July 2, 1961, Ernest Hemingway died from a shotgun blast to the head... 4 years later, two men have come to Idaho to confront the widow Hemingway—men who have doubts about the circumstances of Hemingway's death. One is crime novelist Hector Lassiter, the oldest and best of Hem's friends...the last man standing of the Lost Generation. Hector has heard rumors of some surviving Hemingway manuscripts: a "lost" chapter of A Moveable Feast and a full-length novel written by a deluded Hemingway that Hector fears might compromise his own reputation. The other man is professor Richard Paulson, who along with his pregnant wife Hannah, herself an aspiring writer, is bent on proving that Mary Hemingway murdered Papa. As Hector digs into the mystery of Hemingway's lost writings, he uncovers an audacious, decades-long conspiracy tied to the emergent art movements of 1920's Paris, the most duplicitous of Cold War espionage tactics, and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI...

Print the Legend

Literature & Fiction

McDonald, Craig

Literary

Minotaur Books

Paris, 1924. A city teeming with would-be poets, writers, and painters. Hector Lassiter, fledgling author and best friend of Ernest Hemingway, is crossing the Pont Neuf when he hears a body fall into the icy Seine — the first in a string of brutal murders of literary magazine editors that throw a shroud over the City of Light.
Frantic to stop the killings, Gertrude Stein gathers the most prominent crime and mystery writers in the city, including Hector and the dark, mysterious crime novelist Brinke Devlin. Soon, Hector and Brinke are tangled not only under the sheets, but in a web of murders, each more grisly than the next.
As he is drawn deeper into the hunt, Hector finds himself torn between three women with hidden agendas and dark imaginations. When Hector learns that the murders may be the work of a strange cult of writers who are targeting the literary set, Hemingway, Hector, and Brinke must scramble to find the killer before they become the next victims.
A Moveable Feast meets The Dante Club in this exquisite mystery that takes readers from the cafés of Montparnasse, through the historic graveyards of Paris, to the smoky backrooms of bookstores and salons. As dark as the shadowy banks of the Seine and as addictive as absinthe, this unforgettable book will grab you and never let go.

One True Sentence

United States

James Ellroy, Dan Brown, Ian Rankin, George Pelacanoes, Ken Bruen, Michael Connelly, Ridley Pearson . . . the roster of writers interviewed in these pages includes those who have won Edgar, Shamus, Anthony and Macavity awards. The interviews were conducted in person, or by phone, or both. Significantly, none of the interviews were placed before the authors for approval, massaging or tweaking of answers. The interviews were recorded on tape and are presented without rejuxtaposition or revision on the part of the novelists. This is how the writers spoke, what they said, casually, candidly and, more importantly, on the fly.

Art in the Blood

History & Criticism

Point Blank

Paris, 1924: a city teeming with would-be poets, writers, painters and publishers... the Lost Generation. Hector Lassiter, fledgling author and best friend of Ernest Hemingway, is crossing the Pont Neuf when he hears a body fall into the icy Seine -- the first in a string of brutal murders of literary magazine editors that throw a shroud over the City of Light. Frantic to stop the killings, the literati form their own improbable vigilante band: Gertrude Stein gathers the most prominent crime and mystery writers in the city, including Hector and the dark, mysterious mystery novelist Brinke Devlin. Soon, Hector and Brinke are tangled not only under the sheets, but in a web of murders, each more grisly than the next. "An amazing (and very smart) montage of mystery, murder, meta-fiction, and literary-history, quite unlike anything I've read before." --Craig Holden, "Four Corners of Night" "Vivid, remarkable characters--the historical people as well-drawn as the fictional ones!--in a rich, evocative setting, and a gruesome serial killer with one of the most unusual motives ever. Absolutely gripping!" --Diana Gabaldon "Craig McDonald proves he is a master of literary suspense in this riveting historical thriller set in the 1920s Paris of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Complex protagonists, shocking murders, and a gripping tale will leave you wanting more." --Stefanie Pintoff

One True Sentence: A Hector Lassiter novel

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Betimes Books

Key West, 1925: the USA's southernmost point and the most un-American of American locales; a rowdy border town surrounded by water and populated by sports fishermen, naval veterans and Cuban revolutionists -- misfits and mavericks, all. After several years abroad, crime writer Hector Lassiter arrives on "Bone Key" to reunite with his lost love Brinke Devlin, a fellow author and the woman destined to become the first Mrs. Lassiter. Hector finds an island in turmoil -- beset by fatal fires and savage attacks against women that the local press attributes to a baseball bat-wielding fiend dubbed "The Key West Clubber." When one of the Clubber's murders hits too close to home, the newlyweds begin to poke around the crimes. What they find casts doubt on the possibility of a single culprit. By turns sexy, sly and sinister, "Forever's Just Pretend" barrels along at a page-turning pace to a shattering conclusion that casts new light on Hector Lassiter and his legend."I loved Brinke Devlin the first time she came on the page and I loved her at the end, too. She's a fascinating character." --James Sallis, author of "Drive""The competition for the future of crime fiction is fierce, as it should be, but don't take your eyes off Craig McDonald. He's wily, talented and--rarest of the rare--a true original. I am always eager to see what he's going to do next." --Laura Lippman "James Ellroy + Kerouac + Coen brothers + Tarantino = Craig McDonald" --Amazon.fr

Forever's Just Pretend: A Hector Lassiter novel

Hector Lassiter is a crime novelist who writes what he lives and lives what he writes, frequently drawing those around him into the tawdry and turbulent territory of his novels. In "Toros & Torsos," Hector meets his match in the person of a mysterious killer committed to the craft of murder: an audacious provocateur who leaves a string of increasingly macabre, homicidal tableaus modeled after seminal works of surrealist art. This wildly original noir saga pits Lassiter against the ultimate performance artist in a duel to the death extending across three decades and three continents and ends in a wicked and unexpected climax that shakes the art world to its foundations. Life imitating art... art imitating death, and for some, it isn't truly art until somebody dies."Nothing short of a surrealistic masterwork." --Chicago Tribune"A bold, ambitious, genre-bending novel from the talented Craig McDonald." --George Pelecanos "Crime writer and ladies' man Hector Lassiter (Head Games) makes a return appearance in McDonald's outstanding second series effort. McDonald wows with his writing, which seems effortless despite using many voices, and his book will keep readers rapt." --Library Journal "In TOROS & TORSOS Craig McDonald takes pop culture, real people and invented action to create a powerful novel of suspense. It gives one the slippery sensation of time-travelling with characters you'd always wished you could meet and suddenly you can. McDonald is knowing and artful, and the suspense pushes at a lovely pace until it starts to stomp like Hemingway on an empty bota." --Daniel Woodrell

Toros & Torsos: A Hector Lassiter novel

World War II: the last good fight. In his own words, novelist Hector Lassiter confides the secret history of his clandestine campaigns in the European theatre and beyond, and his long, bloody battle of wits against a Nazi filmmaker. Aided by a beautiful OSS operative and a two-fisted Irish cop-turned-Army intelligence officer, Hector takes on the impossible mission of smuggling a hard-hunted Jewish orphan from France while pursued by the might of Germany's occupying army. The high-stakes chase extends from decadent Berlin to occupied France, from post-war Hollywood to the steaming jungles of Brazil. A dazzling fusion of crime fiction and espionage thriller, "Roll the Credits" is also a haunting study of the birth of film noir and the bloody underbelly of cinematic history, with a supporting cast including icons of the Lost Generation and heroes of the French resistance."A writer of truly unique voice, approach, and ambition, Craig McDonald delivers again with "Roll the Credits." Hector Lassiter is a compelling character but also a fascinating forum for McDonald's historical, social, and artistic observations. For all the wonderful action, slick dialogue, and plot twists McDonald throws at the reader, he's equally interested in saying something substantial about time and place. Not to be missed." --Michael Koryta

Roll the Credits: A Hector Lassiter novel

Nazis, black magic and secret history collide in Craig McDonald's "The Great Pretender." In 2007, McDonald launched the Hector Lassiter series with the Edgar Award-nominated debut, "Head Games," pairing the globetrotting, larger-than-life crime novelist with equally legendary filmmaker and amateur magician Orson Welles. "The Great Pretender" fits the capstone on the Lassiter/Welles legend, spanning their decades-long, uneasy association from the run-up to Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast of 1938" to the set of the noir classic "The Third Man" and the ruins of post-war Vienna. The novel finds the actor and author in a race for a lost holy relic promising its possessor infinite power but a ghastly death if lost. Hector and Orson's competitors in their quest for the 'Spear of Destiny' or 'Holy Lance' include German occultists, members of the Third Reich, a sensuous Creole Voodoo priestess and a strangely obsessed J. Edgar Hoover.PRAISE FOR THE HECTOR LASSITER NOVELS: "With each of his Hector Lassiter novels, Craig McDonald has stretched his canvas wider and unfurled tales of increasingly greater resonance." --Megan Abbott "Reading a Hector Lassiter novel is like having a great uncle pull you aside, pour you a tumbler of rye, and tell you a story about how the 20th century 'really' went down." --Duane Swierczynski "James Ellroy + Kerouac + Coen brothers + Tarantino = Craig McDonald." --Amazon.fr

The Great Pretender: A Hector Lassiter novel

December 1950: A killer blizzard is smothering the Midwest. America is staggering into the Korean War and a Tennessee Senator has the nation riveted by his anticipated televised grilling of mob kingpins—a public spectacle and galling embarrassment to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who has steadfastly denied the existence of the Mafia. In a snowbound hotel bar, crime novelist Hector Lassiter is reunited with old friend Jimmy Hanrahan, an Irish cop committed to catching the one criminal who got away. Jimmy’s in pursuit of America’s most macabre serial killer—the so-called “Torso Slayer” or “Cleveland Headhunter”—a prankish psychotic who has long eluded capture by Jimmy and famed “Untouchable” Eliot Ness. Hector and Jimmy’s reunion is interrupted when a young girl tugs on Hector’s sleeve and says, “Please, mister—my mommy needs help.” The little girl drags Hector and Jimmy from the bar into a deadly crossfire and cross-country chase—pursued by mobsters, corrupt cops, disgruntled federal officials, a fearsome bounty hunter and an army of rogue private investigators. Hector, the maverick, ever “the running kind,” is also confronted with the woman who may be his salvation—the one who offers a prospect of the settled life that has so long eluded Hector, if he can survive through to the New Year. Along the snowbound back roads of lost America, Hector and Jimmy face devastating betrayals, duplicitous women and the prospect of near-certain death in the deserts of Mexico. Hector and Jimmy find themselves locked into a history-changing death race that tests their friendship and bring them in contact with a cast of 20th-Century notables including crooner/mob schmoozer Frank Sinatra and his sultry, soon-to-be wife, Ava Gardner. The Running Kind expertly blends fact and fiction for a darkly humorous, hard-boiled rollick that evokes the feel and pace of Craig McDonald’s highly acclaimed, Edgar &amp; Anthony-nominated debut novel (and forthcoming graphic novel) Head Games. *** “With each of his Hector Lassiter novels, Craig McDonald has stretched his canvas wider and unfurled tales of increasingly greater resonance.” —Megan Abbott “Reading a Hector Lassiter novel is like having a great uncle pull you aside, pour you a tumbler of rye, and tell you a story about how the 20th century ‘really’ went down.” —Duane Swierczynski “What critics might call eclectic, and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness — and it’s the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: “There’s a right way, a wrong way, and my way.” You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald’s novels. He’s built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg’lar roads, and he’s brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour.” —James Sallis “Craig McDonald is wily, talented and – rarest of the rare – a true original. He writes melancholy poetry that actually has melancholy poets wandering around, but don’t turn your backs on them, either.” —Laura Lippman “James Ellroy + Kerouac + Coen brothers + Tarantino = Craig McDonald” —Amazon.fr

The Running Kind: A Hector Lassiter novel

Thrillers & Suspense

This unique Christmas collection, published by Betimes Books to celebrate our first year of publishing, showcases nine stories from our authors, debut novelists and established writers. These stories will take you from today’s New York to 1970’s Indonesia, from Paris in the Roaring Twenties to the Mexican border in 2014, from Kansas City in 1935 to the post-Celtic Tiger Killarney. Some are heart-warming. Some explore the darkest side of the Season. Some will make you laugh. Some might make you cry. All will make you think.

Gifts: Bittersweet Christmas stories

Hawken, Sam

O’Sullivan, Colin

Hogan, David

Stevens, Kevin

Kalich, Richard

Books, Betimes

Colt, Hadley

Mallon, Jackie

Mayo, Donald Finnaeus

Short Stories & Anthologies

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Books by McDonald, Craig