Jim Nisbet – författare

Acclaimed crime fiction writer Jim Nisbet sets forth a noir gem that lays bare the foibles of modern-day America with tremendous force.

Banerjhee Rolf, a bright, levelheaded Indian American scientist, is content to spend his days with his wife, tending his garden and studying his beloved astronomy. When Rolf ''s relationship with Toby Pride, his seedy, drug-dealing neighbor, and Pride''s stoner girlfriend takes a weird turn, Rolf''s placid world is shattered and he becomes a fugitive from justice.

Crime, cosmology, politics, philosophy, physics, and more enter into this cautionary tale, which climaxes with the suddenness of a cobra strike and then delivers a denouement that''s both stunning and absolutely perfect.

Jim Nisbet''s cult classic Lethal Injection, one of the first Black Lizard Books originals, has been out of print in the United States for an unforgivably long time—but now it''s back, and on audio.

It''s about as noir as you can get. In a bleak Texas prison, Franklin Royce, an alcoholic doctor, is given the odious task of administering inmate Bobby Mencken''s last "high." The young black man on the other end of the needle seems remarkably indifferent to his fate—but Royce is convinced that the convicted killer was innocent. When Royce''s marriage crumbles, he takes off for Dallas to search for the real killer.

Of Nisbet, Germany''s Die Welt wrote, "Neither Norman Mailer nor Truman Capote has in their writing been able to produce such an intensity as Nisbet has achieved." With sharp humor and a poet''s ear for language, Nisbet has created a world that is assuredly bleak—but frighteningly real.

From the writer whose work has been called "truly, hellishly gritty" (Los Angeles Times) comes a gnarled mystery with shades of Philip K. Dick and James Ellroy.

In a parallel near future, a ship named for a jellyfish sinks into the Caribbean with its captain chained to the mast. Left behind is a logbook missing ten pages, presidential DNA hidden in a brick of smuggled cocaine, and a nearly completed novel. Tipsy, the dead sailor''s sister, and Red Means, his erstwhile employer, travel from San Francisco to the Caribbean and back as they attempt to unravel a mystery that rapidly widens from death at sea to international conspiracy.

With verve and humor to match the Illuminatus! trilogy, Nisbet has fashioned an engaging facsimile of our modern world, albeit with snappier dialogue, amped-up technology, and even more clearly stated political prejudices. "Neither Norman Mailer nor Truman Capote has in their writing been able to produce such an intensity as Nisbet has achieved," writes Germany''s Die Welt. Pick up Windward Passage and see why.