Craig McDonald is one of those writers like Megan Abbott and Eddie Mueller, who use their knowledge of crime fiction and its history to create great books of their own. He has two published sets of interviews, Art In The Blood and Rogue Males, with the likes of Ellroy, Crumley, and Leonard, and funneled his accumulated study into series character Hector “Lasso” Lassiter; a gun toting, WW1 vet, lost generation member, and pulp crime writer from Texas.
Hector was introduced to us in Head Games. Set in 1957, it put Hector on the Kerouac road with Pancho Villa’s head and several parties, all with guns, wanting to get it. It was a rollicking adventure that turned into a meditation on legacy, writing, friendship, and change for the American male.Print the Legend, his latest book, puts Lassiter in his friend Ernest Hemingway’s home, three years after his “suicide”, and looking into two
missing writings – one Papa’s, the other his own. Circling him are the widow Hemingway (who may have killed her husband), an academic looking for secrets, and a J. Edgar Hoover minion with a grudge against the Lost Generation. McDonald builds tension through the characters as all move in on one another, each with more than one agenda. He also takes an honest look at who a writer is and what their place and duty to history are, creating what could be the most unique thriller of the year.
Come and join us Sunday, February 21st at 2PM for a signing and discussion with Mr. McDonald about his writing, crime fiction, and his creation, Hector Lassiter. He will be giving away a short Lasso chapbook to all that attend.
– Scott Montgomery
