Hair-Trigger

by Trevor Clark

Well into his forties, Derrick Rowe finds himself chasing stray women and stealing cash from the bookstore he manages. Having decided it's time to stop spinning his wheels, he's recently turned to robbing banks. Meanwhile, he bails his friend Jack Lofton out of jail, a burly fellow in an alcoholic free-fall of his own. Rowe soon enlists both Lofton and a tough young clerk at the bookstore in another heist, setting the stage for an armed bank robbery, a drive-by shooting, and further complications for all. Told from different perspectives in Clark's signature clear, concise prose, Hair-Trigger follows the various trails and exploits that lead to a violent climax involving Rowe, Lofton, the police, and several gangsters.

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2008

About the author

Among other things, Trevor Clark has worked as an oil rig roughneck, editor,
portrait photographer, bookstore manager, and home entertainment coordinator for a TV movie production company in London, where he lived for a number of years.

He is the author of fiction - "Born To Lose" (ECW Press, 1989,) "Dragging The River", "Love On The Killing Floor", "Escape and Other Stories", "Hair-Trigger" and "Damaged At Daybreak", (Now Or Never Publishing, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2019,) and his photographs have appeared in "Designs of Darkness: Interviews With Detective Novelists", (Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1983,) and "Interviews With Contemporary Novelists" (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s Press, 1986,) both by Diana Cooper-Clark, as well as "Ross Macdonald: A Biography", by Tom Nolan, (Scribner’s, 1999,) "Meanwhile There Are Letters", edited by Tom Nolan and Suzanne Marrs, (Arcade, 2015,) "NOW", and "The Globe And Mail". He is from Toronto, has lived in Vancouver, and currently resides in Montreal.

Now Or Never will be publishing another book of his in the spring of 2020, titled "Lonely As a Cloud Plus Two Stories".

Reviews -

“The notes of rebellious despair that run through these stories mix with notes of satisfaction to be experienced in the proud, even rhapsodic, excoriation of society and self. There is no rebel like a self-proclaimed member of the legion of the damned. Clark writes this vision with conviction.”

- "The Canadian Book Review Manual", 1989

"Trevor Clark's sympathy for jailbirds, panhandlers and whores is tempered by keen insight into the complications of their lives. He writes about the 'minor inferno' of their deprivation with a compassion that is lacking where they live. Impressive and recommended."

- "Ottawa Citizen", January, 1990

“Told in clear, understated prose, 'Love On The Killing Floor' is a rare, sharp work of social realism, providing a vivid portrait of Toronto at a precise moment in time. The novel’s frank exploration of race in contemporary Canada will leave many uncomfortable.”

- "Quill & Quire", 2010

"Trevor Clark creates such diverse and complex characters in 'Escape and Other Stories' that it's like reading ten different stories by ten different authors... 'Escape' is all too believable. Life is painfully awkward much of the time. And we disappoint ourselves as much as we disappoint others."

- "BC Bookworld", Autumn 2012

"Unflinching, unapologetic and fast-paced, ("Hair-Trigger") switches effortlessly through unreliable narrators, demanding that the reader parse truth from fiction, good from bad, right from wrong."

- "Publishers Weekly", 2014

“Trevor Clark’s writing is as clean as a flying bullet, his characters are messy and tender, their stories as ragged and bloody as the exit wound.”

- Stephen Reid, author of "A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden: Writing From Prison", 2014

Related links:

http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/...

http://www.thestar.com/article/220657

http://www.abcbookworld.com/view_auth...

http://www.canadianauthors.net/c/clar...

http://intoviews.wordpress.com/2010/0...

http://paperbacksavant.blogspot.com/2...

Article titled "Sex In Fiction" for "Write: The Magazine of the Writers' Union of Canada",
Volume 39, Number 3 -

Review of "Johnny Kicker" by Jeremy Beal on the website "Canadian Books and Authors" -

http://www.canadianauthors.net/b/beal...

Also, "Born To Lose" is discussed in Amy Lavender Harris' book about fiction set in Toronto, titled Imagining Toronto, pages 162-163. (Published by Mansfield Press, Toronto, 2010.)