Tussinland

Addicted to cough syrup, television and Sugar Frosted Flakes, Paul Dunn is living in a state of torpor while staying at his mother's house after the humiliating ending of his third marriage. His inertia is broken when he becomes the chief suspect in the murders of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her new lover. Set in the town of Modesto, deep in California's Central Valley, Tussinland is about sex drugs, addiction, smart phones, Facebook and the internet, digital cable, anti-government militias, reality TV, fundamentalist homophobic Christians, families, 12-step groups, pornography, marriage, death, disease, and love. "Tussinland is a fast trip to the dark side--a world of broken people and desperate dreams. It's violent and propulsive, but in the end it's also strangely--and surprisingly-touching." -- Jake Hinkson, author of Hell on Church Street and The Big Ugly "Mike Monson is in elite company with Jason Starr and Les Edgerton as one of the best pure, unfiltered noir writers alive, and Tussinland is his best novel yet." -- Craig T. McNeely, editor of pulp fiction magazine Dark Corners