Ridgerunner

Ridgerunner

For fans of Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, Scott Smith, Donald Ray Pollock and Scott Phillips, this rural noir set in northern Pennsylvania features a world in which the natural gas industry has raped the land and made billionaires out of farmers and small time criminals alike.<br /><br />Investigating a deer-poaching incident that lands him in deep trouble—with a broken ankle and multiple bullet wounds—wildlife conservation officer Matt Rider finds himself at odds with members of the renegade Pittman family, including clan leader Soldier Pittman.<br /><br />When a large sum of Pittman’s drug money comes up missing, Soldier Pittman is convinced Rider stole it. Rider’s instincts are to call on his trusted brother Randy and his friend Dean Blackwell to help him out, but none of them imagine the lengths to which Soldier Pittman will go to get his drug money back.<br /><br />PRAISE FOR RIDGERUNNER:<br /><br />“Jim Burke says he works the pages till, when you pick them up, they crackle in your hand. That's Rusty Barnes' Ridgerunner. From the first line it crackles: it's alive, moving about, and won't be still.”<br />James Sallis, author of Drive<br /><br />“A guttural and unrelenting survey of a people and place that is not lawless, but, rather, governed solely by its own backcountry creed. Ridgerunner blurs the boundaries between lawmen and outlaws. Barnes has delivered the stuff of fine fiction.”<br />David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends to Go<br /><br />“A hard, fast and thrilling ride through the new Appalachia, full of drugs, money and sudden violence. It’s a wonderfully well crafted novel that you won’t want to put down. If you’re making a list of today’s best young writers, be sure Rusty Barnes is on it.”<br />Thomas Cobb, author of Crazy Heart and Darkness the Color of Snow<br /><br />“Barnes starts his story with a fast boil and wrenches up the gas on every page, never relenting until the lid pops off and scalds the hell out of you.”<br />Samuel W. Gailey, author of Deep Winter