Awards

• Short-listed for Anthony Awards (Novel) 2010
• Short-listed for Edgar Allan Poe Awards (Novel) 2010

Overview

This is a comic novel which is set in Los Angeles. It tells the story of a down-on-his-luck slacker who gets more than he bargained for when he joins a crime scene clean-up crew.

Full Product Details

9780345501110

Table of Contents

Reviews

There are many things to love about Charlie Huston's fiction-he's a brilliant storyteller, and writes the best dialogue since George V. Higgins-but what pushes my personal happy-button is his morbid sense of humor and seemingly effortless ability to create scary/funny bad guys who make Beavis and Butthead look like Rhodes Scholars. [Charlie Huston has] written several very good books, but this is the first authentically great one, a runaway freight that feels like a combination of William Burroughs and James Ellroy. Mystic Arts is, however, fiercely original-very much its own thing. --Stephen King <br> Smoking-hot... scorchingly good dialogue and banner-worthy chapter headings (like Till His Neighbors Smelled Him and To Keep Him From Crushing My Spine. ). And Mr. Huston, whose own brain matter is as much on display as the stuff that gets spattered here, finally delivers a book that anyone can admire. No strong stomach required. -- New York Times <br> Huston has outdone himself by introducing disaster-prone Web Goodhue, the star of a comic masterpiece called The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death...Charlie Huston has for several years been one of the best-kept secrets in American fiction; this novel might move him into the mainstream. If you believe that the world is mad-a position that with each passing day becomes easier to accept-The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death will provide welcome support for your view. The novel had me laughing out loud many times, but of course, like all the best comic fiction ( Catch-22 and Portnoy's Complaint come to mind), at bottom it is deadly serious. Life is violent, messy and all too short, and laughter is the bestrevenge. -- Washington Post <br> Just when you think you've caught up with him on the curve, Charlie Huston drives right off the cliff, landing on a road no one else could see...Shockingly original...The outlandish characters are brazen originals, and the dialogue is the roar of a death-defying talent. -- New York Times Book Review <br> A witty and amusing dark tale of friendship and family and all the problems that come with both. Web is a likeable character in spite of his personality disorder, one that the reader wants to see come out on top, which makes the book that much more fun to read. --bookbitch.com <br> Though most of the characters have all the noir subtlety of Sin City, this hard-shelled novel has a soft, sweet centre. Searching for a measure of healing and to repair the damage done them by their parents and the world, the good characters struggle toward redemption. [Huston] has found a way to cast a whole new generation into the noir genre and that can only be a good thing for its future. --reviewingtheevidence.com <br> Genre writers too often set the hook quickly and hard, glossing over the subtleties of character in their haste to reel in the reader, ultimately using plot as a club. Not so Huston...The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is as darkly funny as it is graceful, not necessarily what you'd expect given that it's a novel about a guy whose livelihood involves mopping up blood and bone fragments...If one tends to find humor in unlikely places, Huston has created a work that is sly, twisted and surprising-one well worth the investment of time. -- Denver Post <br> Huston's novels are among the most imaginative and compelling in the mystery and thrillergenres...In The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Huston finds pathos and the sublime in a story about an occupation for which there is no training or career path. -- Pittsburgh Tribune <br> It's a pretty neat trick to avert your eyes while you read, but The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston is so fresh, funny and original that I managed ...The characters range from the slightly odd to the bizarre-doesn't-even-begin. You might feel ashamed of yourself for laughing, but I won't tell. Just take a bath afterward, and remember to scrub out the tub. -- Cleveland Plain Dealer <br> Hilarious, with the comedy getting darker and funnier as Web falls ever deeper into an intricate, overpowering mess that even he may not be able to clean up. Huston's characters are mostly loons, but his way with characterization and plot are so sure-handed and appealing, you'll find yourself desperately hoping they survive to live another day and star in a sequel, Clorox at the ready. -- Dallas Morning News

There are many things to love about Charlie Huston's fiction-he's a brilliant storyteller, and writes the best dialogue since George V. Higgins-but what pushes my personal happy-button is his morbid sense of humor and seemingly effortless ability to create scary/funny bad guys who make Beavis and Butthead look like Rhodes Scholars. [Charlie Huston has] written several very good books, but this is the first authentically great one, a runaway freight that feels like a combination of William Burroughs and James Ellroy. Mystic Arts is, however, fiercely original-very much its own thing. --Stephen King Smoking-hot... scorchingly good dialogue and banner-worthy chapter headings (like Till His Neighbors Smelled Him and To Keep Him From Crushing My Spine. ). And Mr. Huston, whose own brain matter is as much on display as the stuff that gets spattered here, finally delivers a book that anyone can admire. No strong stomach required. -- New York Times Huston has outdone himself by introducing disaster-prone Web Goodhue, the star of a comic masterpiece called The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death...Charlie Huston has for several years been one of the best-kept secrets in American fiction; this novel might move him into the mainstream. If you believe that the world is mad-a position that with each passing day becomes easier to accept-The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death will provide welcome support for your view. The novel had me laughing out loud many times, but of course, like all the best comic fiction ( Catch-22 and Portnoy's Complaint come to mind), at bottom it is deadly serious. Life is violent, messy and all too short, and laughter is the best revenge. -- Washington Post Just when you think you've caught up with him on the curve, Charlie Huston drives right off the cliff, landing on a road no one else could see...Shockingly original...The outlandish characters are brazen originals, and the dialogue is the roar of a death- In a single tight, smart three-sentence paragraph from his smoking-hot new crime novel, Charlie Huston encapsulates his highly evolved wiseguy methodology. The first sentence sounds tough: I fingered my knife and thought about sticking it in his ear. The second introduces a note of reason: But it was plastic and would probably break before it went deep enough to hit his brain. And the third trumps the threat of violence with a bon mot about a witless adversary: And beside, even if I jammed it in there, I was uncertain it would do any real damage. Not for nothing is Mr. Huston the Darwinian champ who bagged the wildly desirable pulpnoir.com as the domain name for his blog. On that blog Mr. Huston succinctly describes Web Goodhue, his new book's main character. Web is a piece of damaged goods who spends the bulk of his time slacking on the couch in his roommate's tattoo parlor. This would seem to confine Web's appeal to his fellow slackers, to his fellow readers of publications like Fangoria ( folded open to an article about a new wave of Eastern European ultrahorror DVDs ) or to those unfazed by graphic nipple-piercing as a casual part of the tattoo parlor's background atmosphere. So, is Mr. Huston, who has been churning out vampire pulp, comics and horror since he began publishing at a fever pitch in 2004, destined to remain a marginal genre writer (though a darkly uproarious one)? Not anymore. The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is his almost entirely successful leap into crime fiction's mainstream. Despite frequent and literally splashy touches of the grotesque, it takes a tart, quick-witted, sharply funny trip, hijacked only by certain conventional plot touchesand brushes with sentimentality. The vivid hilarity of Mr. Huston's hippies manque and stumblebum, Hollywood-obsessed tough guys is this book's hallmark. - Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES Noir master Huston ( The Shotgun Rule ) should win himself a whole new audience with this bizarre and utterly grotesque stand-alone, told mostly through dialogue that highlights the author's uncanny ear for the spoken word. Former Los Angeles grade school teacher Web Goodhue, now a full-time slacker suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, falls into a job on a crime scene cleanup crew, scrubbing up the remains of the recently deceased. After the crew has finished cleaning up a messy suicide scene in Malibu, Web gets a phone call from the dead man's daughter, Soledad. She and her thug half-brother have another big mess on their hands that needs cleaning, on the QT. Unable to resist the beautiful Soledad, Web soon finds himself in way over his head. Huston, one of his generation's finest and hippest talents, shows in grisly detail what cleaning up after the dead entails. This one should appeal to Chuck Palahniuk fans as well as hard-boiled crime readers. - Publishers Weekly (starred) Praise for Charlie Huston Anyone not acquainted with Charlie Huston's blistering, unputdownable novels will want to tie their sneakers nice and tight, or they are apt to be blasted clean out of them. -Stephen King Among the new voices in twenty-first-century crime fiction, Charlie Huston . . . is where it's at. -The Washington Post Huston writes dialogue so combustible it could fuel a bus and characters crazy enough to take it on the road. -The New York Times BookReview Huston's strengths are the brutal efficiency with which he sets a scene, and the breakneck pace he maintains throughout. -San Francisco Chronicle Noir master Huston ( The Shotgun Rule ) should win himself a whole new audience with this bizarre and utterly grotesque stand-alone, told mostly through dialogue that highlights the author's uncanny ear for the spoken word. Former Los Angeles grade school teacher Web Goodhue, now a full-time slacker suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, falls into a job on a crime scene cleanup crew, scrubbing up the remains of the recently deceased. After the crew has finished cleaning up a messy suicide scene in Malibu, Web gets a phone call from the dead man's daughter, Soledad. She and her thug half-brother have another big mess on their hands that needs cleaning, on the QT. Unable to resist the beautiful Soledad, Web soon finds himself in way over his head. Huston, one of his generation's finest and hippest talents, shows in grisly detail what cleaning up after the dead entails. This one should appeal to Chuck Palahniuk fans as well as hard-boiled crime readers. - Publishers Weekly (starred) Praise for Charlie Huston Anyone not acquainted with Charlie Huston's blistering, unputdownable novels will want to tie their sneakers nice and tight, or they are apt to be blasted clean out of them. -Stephen King Among the new voices in twenty-first-century crime fiction, Charlie Huston . . . is where it's at. -The Washington Post Huston writes dialogue so combustible it could fuel a bus and characters crazy enough to take it on the road. -The New York Times Book Review Huston's strengths are the brutal efficiency with which he sets a scene, and the breakneck pace he maintains throughout. -San Francisco Chronicle Praise for Charlie Huston Anyone not acquainted with Charlie Huston's blistering, unputdownable novels will want to tie their sneakers nice and tight, or they are apt to be blasted clean out of them. -Stephen King Among the new voices in twenty-first-century crime fiction, Charlie Huston . . . is where it's at. -The Washington Post Huston writes dialogue so combustible it could fuel a bus and characters crazy enough to take it on the road. -The New York Times Book Review Huston's strengths are the brutal efficiency with which he sets a scene, and the breakneck pace he maintains throughout. -San Francisco Chronicle

Author Information

Charlie Huston is the author of The Shotgun Rule, the Henry Thompson trilogy: Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things (an Edgar Award nominee), and A Dangerous Man, and the Joe Pitt novels: Already Dead, No Dominion, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, and Every Last Drop. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Virginia Louise Smith. www.pulpnoir.com

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