Bud Clifton – Cutting Edge Books

THE BIG BOLD WEST 2: FOUR FULL NOVELS

Four hard-charging, action-packed western classics in one volume

WILD BLOOD by A.C. Abbott
Jim Dixon returns to the Arizona town he fled years ago after killing a man in a gunfight… the brother of the woman he loved. Now Jim’s father needs his help fighting a bloody range war sparked by that same rancher’s family, who are power mad and land-hungry. The dangers Jim faces are deadlier, than he ever imagined…and more than he can handle with just his grit, his guts and his Colt .45

“The author’s ability to create complex and interesting characters and spin this yarn in tough, very fast-paced prose lifts WILD BLOOD from a run-of-the-mill traditional Western to an excellent novel. I found it really entertaining and compulsive reading, ” James Reasoner, Rough Edges Blog

NAVARRO by Carse Boyd
In the mid-1800s, banditos swarmed into Arizona and Texas from Mexico, driven by the poverty and despair of a divided country, and terrorized homesteaders, ranchers and Indians, looting, burning, raping and killing. Navarro and his band were the worst of the banditos. No ranch, gringo or Indian was safe from his savage cruelty. But that changes when Navarro brutalizes and kills Sis Henshaw. Now her furious brothers are chasing after him, hell-bent on violent and total retribution….and Navarro is discovering what real terror feels like.

“For those who like them fast-moving and brutal. It’s excellent!” San Angelo Times

THE RANGEMASTER by Robert McCaig
Til Edmonton knew that the Dakota prairie he saw through his train window was every bit as bleak as his future. His brand was scattered, his wife and child murdered by marauders. And then a trigger-happy hardcase tries to kill TIl and a woman traveller he’s befriended. Now Til finds himself pitted in a brutal battle for the land, for justice, and ultimately for vengeance with an adversary known only as The Rangemaster…an enemy who won’t quit until one of them is in the dirt.

BRANDED by A.C. Abbott
Rock Kendall is a wanted man, framed for killing a woman, and is intent on clearing his name while being pursued for the big bounty on his head. He has to find Ash Carlton, who committed the murder and has sent killers of his own after Rock to make sure the truth never comes out. Along the way, Rock helps a young, female rancher battling rustlers…which not only complicates his pursuit of vengeance but puts his life in even more danger.

“If you like your books filled with roaring six-guns and continuous action, BRANDED will fill the bill.” Lansing State Journal

“Seethes with strife and killing, BRANDED is a lively western, culls the villain in pages of swift-moving plot that involves woman-killing, cattle-rustling, and romance.” The Cedar Rapids Gazette

THE BAD GIRLS by Bud Clifton (aka David Stacton)

A brutal, startling novel that vividly captures all the yearnings, drama and tragedy of two girls gone bad…innocent teenagers who defy society’s rules for a thrill…and end up on the main line to the gutter.

Teens Allie and Janey leave their small town home for the glamor and excitement of the big city…and find the energy, the bustle, and the hard, neon glare of downtown irresistable. They end up at the Jickey Club, drawn by the hot-jazz-filled atmosphere and the hint of danger. They should have taken the hint…because they soon fall into the dark underworld of drugs and prostitution…and may not get out alive.

“Bud Clifton” was a pseudonym for David Derek Stacton (1923-1968), an acclaimed American poet and author, under various names, of literary fiction, historical novels, and soft-core gay porn. He was a two-time recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and also received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work ranged from lurid tales like D is for Delinquent to a non-fiction book about the fall of Constantinople. His books under his own name include The Bonapartes, The Judges of the Secret Order, A Signal Victory and People of the Book: A Novel of the Thirty Years War. He died in Denmark in 1968.

PRAISE FOR DAVID STACTON (aka BUD CLIFTON):

“A stylistic virtuoso, matching on the typewriter the lightning flashes of such musical masters as Paganini on the violin,” The Chicago Tribune

“John Banville comes to mind as an author who so easily switches gears from fustian to fetid…it is fascinating to watch Stacton working out in the noirs the kind of novelist he would become. From the beginning, Stacton is drawn to a certain kind of person, the kind who is the ‘victim of the propulsive force of his own character.'” Los Angeles Review of Books

“The prose of David Stacton is like that of no other writer. It suggests a corridor in a dark Gothic tower, ill-lit by tapers, at one end of which a gong sounds incessantly.”Time Magazine

“The most unjustly neglected American novelist of the post-war years, David Stacton’s ambitious high style and melodrama have seen him banished. It’s time for a return to favour. Few writers have managed more fully than Stacton to bear out Gore Vidal’s maxim that writers shouldn’t ‘write what they know’ but, rather, what they imagine or suspect.’… and yet, Stacton himself can be seen to hide in plain sight behind everything he wrote.” The Guardian (London)

“His prose reveals great cultural depth and breadth. He uses language lovingly. Almost every sentence contains a striking metaphor or simile. Aphorisms sparkle from paragraph to paragraph.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“David Stacton is a major writer who has the approval of critics but so far lacks the consent of readers at large. In short, it’s the story of literary virtue unrewarded…his novels are enjoyable as well as admirable.” Oakland Tribune

THE BEST PULP NOIR FICTION VOLUME SEVEN: Four Hardboiled Novels

Four complete novels of raw, hard-boiled, pulp noir greatness by three masters of the genre, back-in-print for the first time in sixty years.

THE MURDER SPECIALIST by Bud Clifton * TWO DEATHS MUST DIE by Richard Himmel * THE CHEAT by Robert Dietrich * LET HIM GO HANG by Bud Clifton

THE MURDER SPECIALIST by Bud Clifton
Hal Williams is a specialist with one particular talent to sell: contract murders that appear to be accidents. He’s a professional who does his job with cool, calm, and calculated detachment…or so it seems. It’s all part of a long-term plan for ultimate revenge. But just when everything is coming together…he meets Unne, a mobster’s coldly sensual mistress, a kindred spirit with a dark, devastating secret of her own…and everything changes.

“A tight, lean, nasty little masterpiece of noir.. How is it possible a book this good, this timeless in its cruel brilliance, was unknown and out-of-print for so long? I loved it.” Lee Goldberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author

TWO DEATHS MUST DIE by Richard Himmel
A big movie star’s dark and sordid past in a stag movie comes back to haunt her — it’s up to two-fisted lawyer Johnny Maguire to keep it buried, without getting buried himself.

“Richard Himmel was an outstanding writer… likely to please readers of well-written hardboiled crime who are also comfortable with some romance and human drama in their stories.” The Paperback Warrior

THE CHEAT by Robert Dietrich
Robert Webster goes to Paris to find himself, and his creative soul, after doing hack-work as a Hollywood screenwriter. He finds Hildreath instead — rich, beautiful, dissolute, who fled to France to satisfy deep, carnal desires no American woman would dare admit to feeling. They begin an affair that’s comfortable and warm… until he makes a shocking discovery that reveals her raw, naked lust. There’s no love in what she’s doing. It’s coarse and cruel and undeniable…and it will shatter their lives.

“Dietrich knows his stuff and handles it well,” The Boston Globe

LET HIM GO HANG by Bud Clifton
An innocent man is tried for murder… and the real killer is on the jury.
“A stylistic virtuoso, matching on the typewriter the lightning flashes of such musical masters as Paganini on the violin,” The Chicago Tribune

LET HIM GO HANG by Bud Clifton aka David Stacton

A long-lost noir classic from an unknown master of the craft…a tragic, 1960s literary star hiding behind a pseudonym

The judge bangs his gavel. The murder trial is about to begin. The defendant, Charles Adams is so scared, his knees are shaking..but If he knew how dire his situation really is, he’d be screaming. The defendant’s wife is wiggling with pleasure. She can’t want to see her husband hang. The dead girl’s parents are quaking with fury as they take their seats…they want Adams to die for what he did. But things aren’t quite as they seem. Charles Adams is innocent. And doomed. Because the real killer is one of the jurors…and he’s certain what the verdict will be.

“A stylistic virtuoso, matching on the typewriter the lightning flashes of such musical masters as Paganini on the violin,” The Chicago Tribune

“The most unjustly neglected American novelist of the post-war years.” The Guardian (London)

“John Banville comes to mind as an author who so easily switches gears from fustian to fetid. It is fascinating to watch Stacton working out in the noirs the kind of novelist he would become. From the beginning, Stacton is drawn to a certain kind of person, the kind who is the ‘victim of the propulsive force of his own character.'” Los Angeles Review of Books

THE MURDER SPECIALIST by Bud Clifton (aka David Stacton)

“A stylistic virtuoso, matching on the typewriter the lightning flashes of such musical masters as Paganini on the violin,” The Chicago Tribune

“THE MURDER SPECIALIST is recommended to all fans of noir mysteries, and those who enjoy unexpected twists to an otherwise familiar crime story.” Bookgasm

Hal Williams is a specialist with one particular talent to sell: contract murders that appear to be accidents. He’s a professional who does his job with cool, calm, and calculated detachment…or so it seems. It’s all part of a long-term plan for ultimate revenge. But just when everything is coming together…he meets Unne, a mobster’s coldly sensual mistress, a kindred spirit with a dark, devastating secret of her own…and everything changes.

Bud Clifton was a pseudonym for David Derek Stacton (1923-1968), an acclaimed American poet and author, under various names, of literary fiction, historical novels, and soft-core gay porn. He was a two-time recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and also received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work ranged from lurid tales like D is for Delinquent to a non-fiction book about the fall of Constantinople. His books under his own name include The Bonapartes, The Judges of the Secret Order, A Signal Victory and People of the Book: A Novel of the Thirty Years War. He died in Denmark in 1968.

PRAISE FOR DAVID STACTON (aka BUD CLIFTON):

“John Banville comes to mind as an author who so easily switches gears from fustian to fetid….[his] peculiar blend of the oracular and the mischievously ironic makes him an invaluable cicerone in any setting, ancient or modern….it is fascinating to watch Stacton working out in the noirs the kind of novelist he would become. From the beginning, Stacton is drawn to a certain kind of person, the kind who is the ‘victim of the propulsive force of his own character.'” Los Angeles Review of Books

“The prose of David Stacton is like that of no other writer. It suggests a corridor in a dark Gothic tower, ill-lit by tapers, at one end of which a gong sounds incessantly. Stacton’s gong clashes are malevolent aphorisms, asides spoken to Nemesis, hard little explanations of motive.’ Time Magazaine

“The most unjustly neglected American novelist of the post-war years, David Stacton’s ambitious high style and melodrama have seen him banished. It’s time for a return to favour. Few writers have managed more fully than Stacton to bear out Gore Vidal’s maxim that writers shouldn’t ‘write what they know” but, rather, what they imagine or suspect.’… and yet, Stacton himself can be seen to hide in plain sight behind everything he wrote.” The Guardian (London)