“Compact, brilliantly detailed” this sixties L. A. noir thriller is “[a] posthumous wild ride from a modern master of crime fiction” (Publishers Weekly).
Ex-con. Author. Actor. Legend. Edward Bunker is one of the acknowledged masters of crime fiction. Written in the late 1960’s and discovered after Bunker’s death in 2005, Stark is his first and perhaps his most explosive novel ever.
1962. Oceanview, California. The girls are beautiful. The dope is cheap. The squares here are ripe for the plucking—easy money for a man with a plan. Ernie Stark is a hophead and a grifter out to make a big score. If he has to screw over everyone in town, he will. The problem is one more misstep will find him locked up for good.
Violent, lightening paced and exotic, filed with the most wonderful cast of lowlifes you’ll ever meet and dialogue that crackles, this is the lost novel for mystery lovers everywhere and the legion of fans of the legendary Edward Bunker.
Praise for Edward Bunker
“Bunker is a true original of American letters.” —James Ellroy, bestselling author of The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential
“The best first person crime novel I have ever read.” —Quentin Tarantino on Little Boy Blue
“Mr. Bunker has written a raw, unromantic, naturalistic crime drama more lurid than anything the noiresque Chandlers or Hammetts ever dreamed up.” —The New York Times on Dog Eat Dog