Oceanview, Los Angeles, 1962. Stark is a rat and a con-artist. Nobody's friend. The kind of guy Eddie Bunker met in San Quentin. Stark thinks he can beat the suckers and outsmart the cops. When a big score comes his way, he's lucky to escape with his life. Four others are not so lucky. Eddie Bunker described Stark as a story about a con man. Eddie didn't think much of con-men, because, as a rule, they preyed upon people weaker than themselves. But he understood them. Stark was Eddie Bunker's first novel, written in the early 60s and a harbinger of the books that brought him critical acclaim such as No Beast So Fierce. Never published during his life time, the manuscript was only rediscovered after his death and is published in English for the first time by No Exit.From Publishers WeeklyErnie Stark, self-confessed two-bit hustler, con artist, junkie, rides the razor in this rediscovered early novel from Bunker (1933–2005), who was once on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, but achieved true cult status playing Mr. Blue in Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs. Compact, brilliantly detailed, set in the beach community of Oceanview, Calif., in 1962, this effort predates Bunker's sensational fictional debut, No Beast So Fierce (1973). A staccato introductory burst by James Ellroy aptly compares the action to a Gold Medal paperback original of the '50s. As a drug addict, Stark needs to keep clear his supply line from his dealer, Momo Mendoza, even as the brutal cop Patrick Crowley pressures him into setting up Momo. The mute killer Dummy lends some menace, and the beautiful Dorie Williams some allure. Stark thinks that Dorie has about her something childish and undefiled—or perhaps only half defiled. The scams, shoot-outs and sweat of desperation come straight from the street in this posthumous wild ride from a modern master of crime fiction. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review"The best first person crime novel I have ever read." --Quentin Tarantino on Little Boy Blue"Bunker is a true original of American letters." --James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia"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

Raised within the confines of a system that has done nothing but provide him with pain, Alex Hamilton's frustration and anger are completely natural—and inherently dangerous.Since his parents split up, Alex has been constantly running from foster homes and institutions, yearning to be with his father, a broken man who cannot give his son the home he desperately needs. The only constant in Alex's life is no-good, criminally-minded peers, who are all too ready to plant illegal ideas in an intelligent mind. Bunker writes, "His unique potential would develop into unique destructiveness."

Seven stories from the papers of one of America's finest crime authors Roger doesn't mean for the preacher and his wife to die. Released less than a year earlier from San Quentin, he's trying to make a living the only way he knows how: theft. His latest heist goes perfectly until his car breaks down. Sirens are closing in when an old black preacher stops to give him a lift. The police at the roadblock kill the elderly couple, but in the eyes of the law it's Roger's fault. And he will die in the gas chamber at San Quentin—unless he can break out first.   Roger's incredible story anchors this collection of short fiction by Edward Bunker, who knew better than anyone what it means to be a criminal, inside and outside of prison. In these stories, which were unpublished at the time of his death in 2005, he shows again the talent that made him such a remarkable writer.

An ex-con struggles to adjust to life outside prison walls After eight years spent locked up, Max has gotten very good at being a prisoner. He knows the guards, the inmates, and how to survive. But the parole board has decided that he has sufficiently reformed, and it's time for him to say goodbye. When Max reaches the outside world, he finds that freedom doesn't make anything easier. Based on his own experiences in prison, Edward Bunker first drafted No Beast So Fierce in the 1950s, while incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison. He spent the next two decades in and out of jail, writing essays for various magazines and working on the novel, which was finally published in 1973. Eighteen months later, the book was used as evidence that he was fit to leave jail. He received parole, and spent the rest of his life a free man.