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The Giveaway: The Clay Blackburn Story
Clay Blackburn—poet, book scout, and sometimes detective—cruises the mean, and sometimes not so mean, streets of Berkeley. With his accomplices, a soldier of fortune, a “defrocked” FBI agent, and a smooth and sexy con man, he lives a life of bisexual sensation with a little crime solving on the side. As such, Blackburn is a sly, witty, and more or less reliable raconteur of the last thirty something years of the Bay Area’s radical bohemia and bookselling. And in the tradition of Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh, and Jean-Claude Izzo’s Marseilles, bears uncomfortable witness to Berkeley’s descent from countercultural paradise to neoliberal inferno.
This omnibus collection collects the novels The Chandler Apartments (2002), The Incredible Double (2010), and the previously unpublished Mayakovsky's Bugatti (2025), and includes the Blackburn short story “Righteous Kill” (2021).
“Yet the more we get to know him, the more we’re persuaded Blackburn is a Pure Product of Berkeley. He’s not only queer, but a queer sort of all else he declares himself to a queer sort of detective, a queer sort of Communist or Anarchist, and beyond—a queer sort of gourmet, ethical thinker, cat owner, and—for certain—a queer sort of narrator.”—Jonathan Lethem, from the Foreword
This omnibus collection collects the novels The Chandler Apartments (2002), The Incredible Double (2010), and the previously unpublished Mayakovsky's Bugatti (2025), and includes the Blackburn short story “Righteous Kill” (2021).
“Yet the more we get to know him, the more we’re persuaded Blackburn is a Pure Product of Berkeley. He’s not only queer, but a queer sort of all else he declares himself to a queer sort of detective, a queer sort of Communist or Anarchist, and beyond—a queer sort of gourmet, ethical thinker, cat owner, and—for certain—a queer sort of narrator.”—Jonathan Lethem, from the Foreword
352 pages, Paperback
Published May 27, 2025
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Owen Hill
29 books17 followersPoet/novelist Owen Hill lives in Berkeley, California.
Has been co-editing and co-annotating the new edition of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep for Vintage Crime. After years of work, the book is set for release in the coming weeks
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/boo... .
He is the author of seven small collections of poetry (The latest is A Walk Among the Bogus, from Lavender Ink Press
https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Among-Bog...)
and Loose Ends, a book of short stories. His first novel, The Chandler Apartments was called one of the best mysteries of 2002 by the Chicago Tribune. In his Tribune review Dick Adler wrote, “Berkeley, California poet Owen Hill captures the taste & texture of the yeasty street & bed life of his native turf with an eye that manages to be fresh & appropriately amoral." The Chandler Apartments prominently featured The Chandler Building, Hill's residence during the writing of the book.
His second Clay Blackburn mystery, The Incredible Double, features the same characters and locale. It is available from PM Press in Oakland. David Ulin, in his LA Times review, wrote, "Here we have the essence of noir, a sense of life lived at the edges, which is, come to think of it, a pretty good description of Clay's world."
Mr. Hill is currently working on his third Clay Blackburn mystery novel.
He works as a book buyer and events coordinator at Berkeley's literary landmark, Moe’s Books.
Has been co-editing and co-annotating the new edition of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep for Vintage Crime. After years of work, the book is set for release in the coming weeks
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/boo... .
He is the author of seven small collections of poetry (The latest is A Walk Among the Bogus, from Lavender Ink Press
https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Among-Bog...)
and Loose Ends, a book of short stories. His first novel, The Chandler Apartments was called one of the best mysteries of 2002 by the Chicago Tribune. In his Tribune review Dick Adler wrote, “Berkeley, California poet Owen Hill captures the taste & texture of the yeasty street & bed life of his native turf with an eye that manages to be fresh & appropriately amoral." The Chandler Apartments prominently featured The Chandler Building, Hill's residence during the writing of the book.
His second Clay Blackburn mystery, The Incredible Double, features the same characters and locale. It is available from PM Press in Oakland. David Ulin, in his LA Times review, wrote, "Here we have the essence of noir, a sense of life lived at the edges, which is, come to think of it, a pretty good description of Clay's world."
Mr. Hill is currently working on his third Clay Blackburn mystery novel.
He works as a book buyer and events coordinator at Berkeley's literary landmark, Moe’s Books.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 7, 2025
In graduate school, we would sometimes get stoned and make
a casserole pan of One Good Thing After Another, which, was
a delectable sweet. You butter up your graham cracker crumbs
and press them into the bottom of the pan, then you sprinkle
chocolate chips all over, then you sprinkle shredded coconut
over that, then you sprinkle more chocolate chips over that,
and then you pour a can of sweetened condense milk over the
whole shebang, and bake for 15 minutes at who can remember the
oven temperature. You take it out, let it cool for a ½ hour, and
slice the o too solid flesh into 3" squares. By this time you
need another toke, then at last you daintily arrange the squares
on a plate and take your first bite of One Good Thing After Another!
Why am I remembering that ancient delectable right after finishing
The Giveaway? Because each book is one good thing after another!
And the finale Mayakovsky's Bugatti is Hill's best noir ever, certainly
the best wildly adventurous noir I've read. I literally had a hard time
putting it down. This book conducts its murders off the page and its
sumptuous dinners on the page! (Clay seems to have an unlimited
supply of fine wine in his cupboards, And in true Italian style,
a remarkable knowledge of what to do with pasta! My only complaint
is that his guests never acknowledge his culinary skill.)
For those who read right by the remarkable literary allusions, well,
I pity you. You are not well educated. And while the books are chock
full of places in Berkeley, some of which n'existe pas anymore, don't worry.
Navigating this small city has only grown more chaotic.
I want to see this book reviewed almost as much as I want my own
books to enjoy the honor, so Publisher's Weekly needs to step up to
the plate and make good.
Not only does Owen Hill have an encyclopedic memory of mystery
and noir, he knows how to use it and turn the genre on its head!
Harry Bosch's love of jazz does not escape the afficionado.
The Giveaway gives from beginning to end. Long live the unlicensed
private eye!
a casserole pan of One Good Thing After Another, which, was
a delectable sweet. You butter up your graham cracker crumbs
and press them into the bottom of the pan, then you sprinkle
chocolate chips all over, then you sprinkle shredded coconut
over that, then you sprinkle more chocolate chips over that,
and then you pour a can of sweetened condense milk over the
whole shebang, and bake for 15 minutes at who can remember the
oven temperature. You take it out, let it cool for a ½ hour, and
slice the o too solid flesh into 3" squares. By this time you
need another toke, then at last you daintily arrange the squares
on a plate and take your first bite of One Good Thing After Another!
Why am I remembering that ancient delectable right after finishing
The Giveaway? Because each book is one good thing after another!
And the finale Mayakovsky's Bugatti is Hill's best noir ever, certainly
the best wildly adventurous noir I've read. I literally had a hard time
putting it down. This book conducts its murders off the page and its
sumptuous dinners on the page! (Clay seems to have an unlimited
supply of fine wine in his cupboards, And in true Italian style,
a remarkable knowledge of what to do with pasta! My only complaint
is that his guests never acknowledge his culinary skill.)
For those who read right by the remarkable literary allusions, well,
I pity you. You are not well educated. And while the books are chock
full of places in Berkeley, some of which n'existe pas anymore, don't worry.
Navigating this small city has only grown more chaotic.
I want to see this book reviewed almost as much as I want my own
books to enjoy the honor, so Publisher's Weekly needs to step up to
the plate and make good.
Not only does Owen Hill have an encyclopedic memory of mystery
and noir, he knows how to use it and turn the genre on its head!
Harry Bosch's love of jazz does not escape the afficionado.
The Giveaway gives from beginning to end. Long live the unlicensed
private eye!
August 9, 2025
Owen Hill's new omnibus of Clay Blackburn stories is a gas! Not only great fun but filled with brilliant social critique. Blackburn himself is a disillusioned romantic, not quite world weary but disappointed daily with human greed and its wake of ruin. He's an anarchist with gourmet taste, subsisting on a modest income from book-selling and dectective gigs, always falling in or out of love with an elusive man or woman, always ready for a delectable morsel of food and drink, and always dropping nuggets of poetry. This impressive book is a joy to read by its sheer intelligence.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews