For fans of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul comes Max Austin’s latest fast-paced, rollicking Lawbreakers Thriller, a short novel of criminals and lovers, malcontents and madmen—all within the treacherous city limits of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Under a sky full of stars, Dylan James lies sleeping on the roof of a pueblo-style house. He’s a fugitive, and everyone in Albuquerque seems to be looking for him. A murderous Mafia prince wants to kill him. Two FBI agents want to cuff him. A Goth girl wants to make love to him. And a fierce, sexy Chicana just wants to clean up the mess Dylan made.
The trouble started with a drug-addled career criminal named Doc and a bank robbery staged with a garage door opener. Then it all goes off the rails after a little misunderstanding with Dylan’s ex-girlfriend and her jealous, gun-toting new beau.
When the sun comes up, this sleepy, scrawny desperado is going to show the world what he’s made of—all for a one-in-a-million shot at walking out of Duke City alive.
Advance praise for Duke City Desperado
“Duke City Desperado is more fun than a barrel of heavily medicated monkeys. The crime caper novel is not dead, but in the capable hands of Max Austin it takes on a whole new twist. Two inept criminals equal one good time for the reader.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Day Shift and the novels that inspired True Blood
“Duke City Desperado is a page-burner of tart dialogue and breakneck pacing. In lesser hands, this twisty plot could have gone off the rails, but it works because author Max Austin knows it’s all about simple, human relationships, especially the off-kilter relationship at the core of the story.”—Bill Fitzhugh, Lefty Award–winning author of The Exterminators
“With Duke City Desperado, Max Austin again proves to be grand master of the laugh-out-loud noir crime novel. Doc Burnett (“Bank robbery ain’t a matter of brains.”) and his hapless disciple, Dylan, lead readers on a madcap spree that transforms ineptitude into a survival skill.”—Charlie Price, Edgar Award–winning author of Dead Girl Moon
