novels
Savannah may appear to be “some town out of a fable”, with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city’s history. But look deeper and you’ll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It’s the story at the heart of George Dawes Green’s chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah.
It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared”. An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths - truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core.
Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family.
"The Kingdoms of Savannah is a novel about a place and the people in that place that reads like a thriller, but could only have been written by someone who knows Savannah and its stories intimately and wants them to be told. It’s the apotheosis of Southern Gothic Noir." NEIL GAIMAN
“Deeply rooted in Savannah’s at times horrific history, yet looking hopefully toward the future, this provocative page-turner is sure to enthrall a broad spectrum of readers. Green is writing at the top of his game.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
“Compelling characters and vivid settings make this impressive Southern narrative stand out among the best. The Kingdoms of Savannah is not to be missed.” KARIN SLAUGHTER
The long awaited, "fast-paced psycho-comedic thrill-ride" from the "master storyteller" [Jonathan Ames] behind The Juror and The Caveman's Valentine. The Boatwrights just won 318 million dollars in the Georgia State lottery. It's going to be the worst day of their lives.
When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida-away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a 318,000,000 million dollar Jackpot ticket has just been sold - and when a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: He and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize.
That night, he visits the Boatwright home and takes the family hostage, while Romeo patrols the streets nearby, prepared to murder the Boatwrights' loved ones at any sign of resistance. At first, the family offers none. But Shaw's plot depends on maintaining constant fear-merciless, unfaltering terror-and soon, under the pressure, everyone's sanity begins to unravel....
At once frightening, comic, and suspenseful, Ravens is a wholly original and utterly compelling novel from one of our most talented writers.
Annie Laird is Juror 224. A sculptor with a career going nowhere. A single mother struggling to raise a son. A good citizen who has been summoned to what looks like a rountine tour of civic duty. But the trial she is called to serve on is no ordinary trial. It is a mob trial, whose outcome has been meticulously orchestrated by a man of insidious power and deadly precision. A man who lives by the teachings of Lao Tsu...whose magnetism is irresistible...whose mind is as brilliant as it is twisted.
He is known to some as the Teacher, and he's set his sights on Annie Laird. Pulled into the most chilling depths of the criminal underworld, Annie will be seduced by double-edged promises, stalked by the spector of terror, then, finally, driven to a shocking decision by the most basic motivation a woman can know.
The Juror is a tour de force of crime and obsession, evil and innocence -- a story that taps into fears so primal they linger long after the last word.
“George Dawes Green is as good as they come.” -Andrew Klavan, author of True Crime
“Gripping . . . Take a deep breath, find a nice reading spot, and go for it.” -San Mateo Times
“Rush out and buy it . . . a gripping courtroom drama . . . Green’s Teacher is easily the most chilling psychotic since Hannibal Lecter.” -Times (London)
“Emotionally sophisticated, powerful, angry, sarcastic, written with great verve.” -Guardian
“Terrifying . . . If you buy THE JUROR for a weekend’s read, don’t make any other plans.” -High Point Enterprise (NC)
Romulus Ledbetter wasn't always homeless. He once was a devoted husband, father, and musician with a bright future. He now forages for food in the trash cans of the city's better neighborhoods and wages a strenuous one-man war against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, an evil -- and imaginary -- power broker who is responsible for society's ills, as well as the sinister Y- and Z-rays that are corrupting humankind. Then one wintry night, Rom finds a corpse at the mouth of his cave that rouses his well-defined sense of ethics and launches him on an obsessive quest for answers. Forced to reconnect with society, Rom leaves his world and journeys through a spiraling web of clues and hunches, straight into a sinister den of money, temptation, and murder--otherwise known as the "civilized" world.
“Mesmerizing . . . a stunning detective character you won’t easily forget.” -San Francisco Chronicle
“Amplitude, great vocal agility, profound subject matter, wit, and that gruff , riskful way with language . . . George Dawes Green has a great feel for what the American novel should be, and he isn’t intimidated by it.” -D. Keith Mano, New York Times Book Review
“So much fun ... wild and unpredictable, powerful and funny ... one of those unique characters you’ll not soon forget. Mr. Green has a wonderfully quirky sense of humor... a voice so new and interesting, it screams for attention.” -Washington Times
“Buy this book . . . It is moving, sad, hilarious . . . The first-time author has taken big chances and gotten away with them.” -Calgary Herald