The Smack

'[A] riveting, violent caper' Wall Street Journal

Rowan Petty is a conman down on his luck. Tinafey is a hooker who's tired of the streets. Their paths cross one snowy night in Reno, and sparks fly.

When an old friend of Petty's shares a rumour about two million dollars stashed in an apartment in Los Angeles, it seems like a chance at the score of a lifetime.

Petty and Tinafey head south, and soon a wounded vet, a washed-up actor, and Petty's estranged daughter all get dragged into the dangerous game they find themselves playing. For the winner: a fortune. For the loser: a bullet in the head.

“Praise for Richard Lange - .There are books - like Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston - that open with a trigger snap of trouble and blast forward with the propulsive force of a bullet and never stop moving...ANGEL BABY puts Lange in a new category: crime boss - EsquireWhen you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer - New York TimesLange's prose is masterful, his sense of pacing unfaltering, and he writes about characters on the cutting edge of life... They'll call it "unputdownable" and "a page-turner," and they'll be spot on. You won't know exactly how right they are until you pick up Angel Baby and it burns you to set it aside for even a minute. - Los Angeles Review of BooksA film waiting to happen, this book boasts memorable characters, evocative settings and a suspenseful plot. - Kirkus Strong and relentless....Beautifully paced, deftly written, ANGEL BABY is a book about moral compromise, in which we have empathy for everyone (or almost everyone) and no one at once.... As with life, ANGEL BABY offers a story in which motivations are murky and every act is weighted, and the best we can hope for is that the means will be justified by the results - Los Angeles TimesThe story is thrilling and cinematic, told as one long chase scene....Lange inhabits his novel's characters. There's no pure black and white to them, only varying and unexpected shades of gray.... Intense, extreme and definitely grimy and readers will find that's a good thing - CNNAlmost every character in Lange's latest crime novel is made desperate by personal demons, and this struggle creates a fast-paced thrill ride.... A Tarantino-like vortex of mayhem and violence - Daily Beast”

Praise for Richard Lange - .

There are books - like Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston - that open with a trigger snap of trouble and blast forward with the propulsive force of a bullet and never stop moving...ANGEL BABY puts Lange in a new category: crime boss - Esquire

When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer - New York Times

Lange's prose is masterful, his sense of pacing unfaltering, and he writes about characters on the cutting edge of life... They'll call it "unputdownable" and "a page-turner," and they'll be spot on. You won't know exactly how right they are until you pick up Angel Baby and it burns you to set it aside for even a minute. - Los Angeles Review of Books

A film waiting to happen, this book boasts memorable characters, evocative settings and a suspenseful plot. - Kirkus

Strong and relentless....Beautifully paced, deftly written, ANGEL BABY is a book about moral compromise, in which we have empathy for everyone (or almost everyone) and no one at once.... As with life, ANGEL BABY offers a story in which motivations are murky and every act is weighted, and the best we can hope for is that the means will be justified by the results - Los Angeles Times

The story is thrilling and cinematic, told as one long chase scene....Lange inhabits his novel's characters. There's no pure black and white to them, only varying and unexpected shades of gray.... Intense, extreme and definitely grimy and readers will find that's a good thing - CNN

Almost every character in Lange's latest crime novel is made desperate by personal demons, and this struggle creates a fast-paced thrill ride.... A Tarantino-like vortex of mayhem and violence - Daily Beast

Richard Lange is the author of the short story collection Dead Boys and the novel This Wicked World and ANGEL BABY. His stories have appeared in the Sun, the Iowa Review and Best American Mystery Sstories, and as part of the Atlantic Monthly's Fiction for Kindle series. He was the 2008 recipient of the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009. He lives in Los Angeles.

'[A] riveting, violent caper' Wall Street Journal Rowan Petty is a conman down on his luck. Tinafey is a hooker who's tired of the streets. Their paths cross one snowy night in Reno, and sparks fly.When an old friend of Petty's shares a rumour about two million dollars stashed in an apartment in Los Angeles, it seems like a chance at the score of a lifetime. Petty and Tinafey head south, and soon a wounded vet, a washed-up actor, and Petty's estranged daughter all get dragged into the dangerous game they find themselves playing. For the winner: a fortune. For the loser: a bullet in the head.

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