Brian Hodge, called “a writer of spectacularly unflinching gifts” by Peter Straub, is the award-winning author of ten novels of horror and crime/noir. He’s also written well over 100 short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and four full-length collections. His first collection, The Convulsion Factory, was ranked by critic Stanley Wiater as among the 113 best books of modern horror.
He lives in Colorado, where he also dabbles in music and photography; loves everything about organic gardening except the thieving squirrels; and trains in Krav Maga, grappling, and kickboxing, which are of no use at all against the squirrels.
One of those books that I purchased cus I liked the cover.
A kind of comic/crime drama with a bit of horror. The book is a depiction of modern life’s underbelly with a reminiscence of Elmore Leonard crime books.
Smooth, smooth, smooth. Very few writers can write that smooth. A very fun and quickly paced tale that was highly entertaining but also had some wonderful moments of the bigger picture in what he means to be human, to hit set backs, pick yourself up, and trudge forward. Lots of nice contrasts and plenty of emotion.
A friend thrust this into my hands with the order 'read it'. It has no slip jacket and I've never heard of the author. I dove in and what a wonderful swim I had. This book is a battle between a whacko plot and whacko characters. Even the 'normal' characters would be whacko's in any other author's hands. But, somehow it all works. I don't even know how to tell you about the plot other than to say it's like Thelma and Louise and Harriette team up with their male counterparts and meet Carl Hiaasen. Treat yourself to this one.
Brian Hodge spent the early half of the nineties being one of the most weirdly original writers of horror fiction of our time. (Impossible to travel through, say Nightlife without saying "where does he GET this stuff?" at least once. Trust me.) So when this-a mainstream (gasp) novel that, from the description, sounds equally reminiscent of John Ridley's Stray Dogs and Doug Winter's Run-hit the shelves, I was a bit leery of it. I have watched other horror authors attempt this transformation and fail miserably. (Exceptions are to be made for such authors as Kathe Koja and Lucius Shepard, who were writing literature to begin with.)
Hodge does the job, and he does it well. His main character is day-care worker Allison Willoughby, who finds out her boyfriend, Boyd, is cheating on her. After a confrontation with Boyd and the ex-showgirl lover, Allison gets ready to move out. Before she does, she cleans out Boyd's laptop. What Allison doesn't know is that one of the things she erased was a file with the information necessary to get seven hundred thousand dollars stored in an offshore account which Boyd and the lover have been skimming from the casino in which Boyd is a dealer. Allison's headed back to her childhood home to settle some old ghosts, blissfully unaware that both Boyd and his new girlfriend, and the lover and her sadistic husband, are after her.
As far as the wonderful world of the crime/suspense thriller goes, if you're looking for a quick way to turn your brain off, get a few good one-liners, and have yourself a merry old time, you need look no further than Wild Horses. Fast-paced, straightforward, sharp, and funny, there is a good deal here to be enjoyed. A few folks who are unfamiliar with Hodge's earlier work in the horror genre might find themselves wincing a time or two at some of his more loving descriptions of damage caused by various characters, but overall you shouldn't have a problem with it. (Just keep reading. He'll stop after a paragraph or so. Honest.)
My only real problem with the book is that every once in a while a two-dimensional character pops up whose sole purpose in the novel is to advance the plot. But they are few, and while they're not far between they disappear pretty quickly once you're into the second half. (Again, keep reading. He'll stop after a chapter or so.) It's certainly not enough to keep you from picking it up if you're looking for a good, action-packed thriller. Fans of Winter and Ridley will definitely want to give this one a look. *** ½
When I found this at a used book store, I thought, Brian Hodge writing a crime/thriller novel? Found out, it was his first after his horror novels. Well for me, he made the move rather smoothly. With a cast of characters, that ranged from the stereotypical looking/acting mob thug, with his female companion in Vegas, the pit boss of a casino. Our heroine with a past she keeps secret, to the former Marine she runs into, while on the run. Add in the snide comments, vicious banter between the bad folks....and you have the recipe for a fun, quick crime thriller. I'll have to find his second effort, Mad Dogs
Another One Book Project find. A Vegas blackjack dealer and his comely female pit boss have an affair and while they're at it conspire to skim lots of money from the house. The dealer's girlfriend discovers the affair, the dealer takes off with the money, the pit boss's scary boyfriend intervenes... Complicated fun crossing state lines.