Jack Wakes Up

Washed-up movie star Jack Palms is knee-deep in a Bay Area drug war and it’ll take the performance of a lifetime to get him through it alive.

In the three years since Jack left Hollywood and kicked his drug habit, he’s added fourteen pounds of muscle, read eighty-three books, and played it as straight as anyone could reasonably ask. But the residual checks are drying up, and the ascetic lifestyle’s starting to wear thin, so

Jack’s happy to cash in on his former celebrity by showing some out-of-town high rollers around San Francisco’s club scene.

Then people start turning up dead, and Jack realizes he’s been playing tour guide to a pack of former KGB agents turned coke dealers. Soon he’s got too many gunmen after him to count–including a South American drug cartel, a mountain-sized Samoan enforcer, and a mobbed-up strip-club owner with an army of thugs. That’s not to mention the gorgeous bartender who may be planning on shooting him in the back and the homicide cop who’s just given Jack twenty-four hours to bring down the Bay Area’s biggest drug dealer.

But the thing that scares Jack the most? He’s starting to enjoy himself.

Praise:

“Jack Wakes Up rocks! It’s a fast, smooth ride on a highway not found on any map.” — Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“The storytelling has vitality and a spirit of rebellion, giving us hope for the future of all those bad girls with dirty faces and bad boys on bikes.” — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Readers who like their hard-boiled crime fiction violent and gritty will cheer Harwood’s debut… taut prose and fast pacing bode well for future entries in the series.” — Publisher’s Weekly

More Fans:

“Combining the lean prose and propulsive momentum of classic pulp with a brash style and action-movie bravado that feels utterly 21st century, Seth Harwood’s exhilarating Jack Wakes Up reads like a long-lost Mickey Spillane tale as directed by Robert Rodriguez.” —Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Queenpin

“A supercool cocktail of chicks, Czechs, cars and coke, JACK WAKES UP is an immaculately paced thrill-ride by a writer to watch.” –Allan Guthrie, author of ‘Savage Night’

“A cold, refreshing slap of glorious mayhem that doesn’t allow you to blink until you turn the last page. With this rip-roaring debut, Seth Harwood arrives on the crime fiction scene with a bullet. Harwood might not take names while he kicks ass, but you’ll sure remember his.” –Jason Pinter, bestselling author of The Mark

“The kind of action-packed fun-filled over-the-top rat-a-tat-tat high-energy book that gets you going on page one and doesn’t let go till the bitter end. Seth Harwood has an ear for dialogue, an eye for detail and an imagination that just won’t quit.” –Jonathan Santlofer, bestselling author of The Death Artist

“Everyone has daydreams about a big score, a big hit, a mother lode that will put them on easy street. Most of us know that it’s just that, a dream. But for Jack Palms, a former movie star and recovering drug addict with nothing left to lose, a chance comes along that may actually be the real thing. A one-time score with some Euro-dealers could put Jack back on the right track, or at least a track that isn’t dead-ending.
Of course this being a work of fiction, a work of dark and noirish fiction at that we know it’s too good to be true. Well, Jack ends up in the middle of a royal clusterf**k and the wrong decision could see him behind bars for good or just plain dead… with Harwood at the wheel this is a ride you won’t forget. Twists and turns to rival a le mans track make this book an edge of your seat read. If this is Jack waking up I can’t wait to see him after his coffee!”–Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

“First he assaulted your eardrums. Now Seth Harwood’s going to bash you in the eyes with the print version of his hardboiled podcast hit, JACK WAKES UP. Britney and Paris are mere pikers compared to fucked-upformer celebrity Jack Palms, who goes sober only to find himself neck-deep in a bigger drug mess then he ever imagined. This is an awesome debut.” –Duane Swierczynski, author of SEVERANCE PACAKGE