CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Chris is 32 years old Californian and has been nominated for the Pulitzer for his investigative journalism twice. He is a crime and courts reporter on `The Los Angeles Times', having previously been a reporter for the `St Petersburg Times', Florida's largest circulation daily.
He won Cornell University's Arthur Lynn Andrew Awards for his first novel, `King of the Past'. Chris lives in Southern California with his wife and family.
Nominations:
2007: Pulitzer for Journalism for Best Feature:
Runner-up
2008: Mystery Writers of America EDGAR AWARD. Finalist for Best American Novel
2008: T Jefferson Parker Mystery Award, SoCal Independent Booksellers Association
SNITCH JACKET (Harvill Secker, 1st February 2007, Vintage, February 2008)
EDGAR AWARD Finalist for Best American Novel 2008
SNITCH JACKET combines elements of classic noir, dark comedy, and a misfit's
memoir reminiscent of `Notes from the Underground'. It is both a literary
crime novel and a sustained character study of a complex and morally ambiguous
hero.
It is part buddy-buddy road novel, West Coast slacker, noir crime, part absurdist morality tale. This is Bukowski, with a dash of Hiassen, a pinch of Hunter S. Thompson and a snifter of D.B.C. Pierre as told by the Cohen Bros.
SNITCH JACKET is narrated by Benny Bunt to his attorney, Goins, as he sits awaiting trial for a hit. Benny, a small-time police informer, damaged by years on the street and failing manfully in his relationship with neurotic wife, Donna. Benny is a `mole man', taking up near-permanent residence in `the Greasy Tuesday' a low-life bar in southern California. In walks Gus `Mad Dog' Miller, `Nam Vet, ex-Airborne with the 173rd, a man who knows what is to take a "Gut-first plunge into a pungi-staked Cong trap". To Benny he represents everything he wants to be, a man of action, a man who knows what it is to live life on the edge, a man who has done time, a man who knows what it is to take another man's life.
When Miller tells Benny that he is a contract killer he invites him to join him on the road to find the odious Gecko. Off they drive deep into the Mojave Desert to find their mark amongst the freaks and grotesques of the Howling Head Festival, "North America's Edgiest Counter-culture Party'™".
This is a novel with an incredible voice that is fresh and energetic, rib-achingly funny and painful in turn. It is a sometimes dark tale of the failed American Dream, of people on the margins of society.
US rights: Rookery Press
Film rights: Under option
Italian rights: Newton Compton
Norwegian rights: Baskerville
Translation: Marjacq Scripts
Praise for Christopher Goffard:
" classily written caper with an authentically touching streak of melancholy." Sam Leith, `Saturday Telegraph'
"It's funny and fast-moving, with regular dips into a better class of writing than (Elmore) Leonard, for one, would allow into his work." Jonathan Gibbs, `Independent on Sunday'
"This is a remarkably assured debut from Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard, who writes like an angel and plots like a demon." Matthew Lewin, `The Guardian'
"Goffard's prose shimmers with intelligence and humor, and he has a keen ear for telling detail." `Publishers Weekly', starred review
