Hard Twisted

Greaves, C. Joseph
C. Joseph Greaves is a former L.A. trial lawyer now based in Santa Fe. His discovery of two human skulls in a remote Utah canyon would lead, eighteen years later, to the completion of Hard Twisted, named Best Historical Novel of 2010 in the South West Writers international writing contest, in which Greaves was also honored with the grand-prize Storyteller Award. Greaves is also writing an L.A.-based mystery series; the first installment, Hush Money, will be published by Minotaur in spring 2012. www.chuckgreaves.com

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mailer, Capote and Berendt, Greaves has crafted a McCarthy-esque non-fiction novelisation that is, at once, both timeless and classic. A truly extraordinary accomplishment, and a wonderful, wonderful book. I was left speechless R.J. Ellory Now and again you discover a thriller that sweeps you off your feet, it is so unexpected. This is one ... We are in the days of the dustbowls and The Grapes of Wrath ... A delicate mix of poignancy and horror, it is impossible to forget Daily Mail A taut and intriguing thriller ... The novel displays Greave's deft grasp of psychology ... Greave's fictional version of her story is a strange and unsettling read The Sunday Times A superb first novel, based on a true story ... Written in a style that is the prose equivalent of a Dorothea Lange photograph, it is, as much as anything, a coming-of-age story ... Extraordinarily moving reading Guardian Hard Twisted reads like the perfect amalgam of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Thompson: violent, hilarious, and as bracing and painful as the blow of a dog quirt across the face. Utterly irresistible. Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God, The Wrecking Yard, Town Smokes, and Miracle Boy and Other Stories Hard Twisted is fictional crime, with an exceptional true story as its spine, written in a superbly innovative way. Chuck Greaves has penned a remarkably fine novel in prose as stylish and engaging as one will find...[A] compelling saga of murder, mystery, and good and evil at its rawest int he hardscrabble rural Southwest of the 1930s. Vincent Bugliosi, NYT-bestselling author of Helter Skelter, And the Sea Will Tell, and Four Days in November Greaves is the sort of formidable storyteller and mean prose-stylist that makes it look easy. With all the grit, suspense, pathos, and thrills you could ever ask for in a crime novel, Hard Twisted will leave you in knots Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here Greaves's deft prose twinkles like Okie campfires (in the