CRIMINAL PARADISE

Book ID/图书代码： 01240007B18742

English Summary/英文概要： Robert Rivers is an honorable thief ("My friends call me Rob, which has become ironic.") who, with the help of his partner Switch, has made a living conducting well planned heists on the various businesses that dot the idyllic environs of southern California. But it is during one of these robberies -- a stick-up of a local Cow Town steak house -- Rivers comes across something that shakes him from his comfortable existence.
Stuffed inside the restaurant’s safe along with a pile of money is a six-by-eight black-and-white photograph of a Vietnamese girl who looks to be somewhere in her late teens. Though he tries to enjoy the money and move on with his life, he finds himself haunted by the picture. He thinks about it even after he’s hidden it away and he begins trying to figure out how it got into that safe and what it means. Soon, he comes face to face with the realization that there are dark things afoot in Orange County, California -- deeds that make his and Switch’s look like fun and games, and dudes who make him and Switch look like boy scouts.
But as it turns out, the fun is only beginning, as Rivers’s old friend and accomplice Reggie shows up out of nowhere, hoping to get in on Rivers’s and Switch’s successful little syndicate, and Rivers is forced to wrestle with questions of loyalty even as questions of conscience inspired by the photograph lead him down a disturbing, darkly hilarious, and highly eventful path to a certain sort of redemption.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： Steven M. Thomas筆下的Rob Rivers是個開著凱迪拉克古董車(Cadillac Sedan Deville)，崇尚和平具有格調的竊賊。Rob(真諷刺)與他的好搭檔Switch卻在一次作案的過程中，在保險箱中發現一張小女孩的黑白照片，漂亮的臉龐卻帶著恐懼眼神，更糟的是小女孩是全裸。這下已超越Rob的道德尺度了…(VC)

Awards/获奖情况：“CRIMINAL PARADISE is a powerful 4.5 liter, fuel-injected V8 Cadillac Sedan Deville of a novel. And with Steven M. Thomas behind the wheel, it’s an absolute joyride—an enormously satisfying debut.” — Martin J. Smith, Edgar Award finalist and author of “Time Release,” “Shadow Image,” and “Straw Men”
"Both Steven M. Thomas and his case-hardened but humane thief Rob Rivers make striking debuts in this suspenseful slice of Southern California noir. The plot, involving murder, human trafficking, insanity and ill-fated romance, is the kind of gritty tale James M. Cain would have admired. And the hard-boiled yet poetic descriptions of Orange County flora, fauna and criminal depravity read as if Raymond Chandler had somehow re-emerged and moved his action a little to the south." — Dick Lochte, author of “Sleeping Dog” and “Croaked!”
“Like all good thrillers, the pacing at the end rears back like a spooked horse and roars through the story with fire and surprise.” — Paula Brandes
“Criminal Paradise is one hell of a story. Robert Rivers is a superb character: the wry voice, so full of compassion and weary knowledge; women would kill for this guy. The style is truly like Elmore Leonard. Send me anything Steven M. Thomas writes; he’s the rare and real deal.”–Ken Bruen, author of The Guards
“Dark, violent, twisted, yet with a heartwarming understanding of an intelligent criminal mind–Thomas snags you from the robbery on page 1, convincing you that felony is a regular day job, and defining greed as a man’s deserved dreams.”–Vicki Hendricks, author of Cruel Poetry
“Steven M. Thomas, master of the nugget of wisdom, is a perfect tour guide for the underside of Orange County, California. From comic lowlifes and menacing sociopaths to thoughtful, literate burglars, Thomas knows his people. He is a welcome addition to the ranks of Chandler, MacDonald, and Kellerman, a talented writer whose SoCal characters walk–or rather drive–right off the page.”–David Carkeet, author of Double Negative
“Both Steven M. Thomas and his case-hardened but humane thief Rob Rivers make striking debuts in this suspenseful slice of Southern California noir. The plot is the kind of gritty tale James M. Cain would have admired. And the hard-boiled yet poetic descriptions of Orange County flora, fauna, and criminal depravity read as if Raymond Chandler had somehow reemerged and moved his action a little to the south.”–Dick Lochte, author of Sleeping Dog

About the Author/作者介绍： Steven M. Thomas is the award-winning author of many short stories, essays, and poems that have been published in more than fifty literary and small-press magazines in the United States and England. Until recently, he served as editor of OC Metro, a high-circulation magazine based in Orange County, California, where he lives. Criminal Paradise is his first novel.

Format:HARDCOVER

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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