A paperback noir classic, back in print for the first time in over 60 years.
It’s 1953. The dreary smattering of one-room, brick buildings called the Paradise Motel on the outskirts of Tehachapi is a symbol of Teresa “Trace” Conklin’s marriage to her drunken husband Walt, who owns the place… and who haunts cheap bars and cheaper women. But then a quiet stranger breezes into their dead-end California town, a man who sees in Trace’s thin, tired face her lost beauty, her broken dreams, and maybe even a spark of hope. And then everything changes for them all in an earthquake of emotion, violence, and destruction.
“This book describes life on the fringe of American society. The writing style is straightforward and realistic.” Reading California Fiction
“It tells the sorry little tale of a half-abandoned Western town, and the sorry little motel on its outskirts.” Pornokitsch
“A memorable story set in a motel in a crossroads community that could be in any state in America that is hot, dry and likely to have earthquakes.” The Herald Sun
“Fast-moving,” The Ashley Democrat-Herald
Jack Sheridan /
Literary Fiction
