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Forever's Just Pretend FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND
The second novel in the Edgar®/Anthony nominated Hector Lassiter series
Now available for the first time ever from Betimes Books

"A must read for series fans and a solid introduction for new readers."
Publishers Weekly

"I loved Brinke Devlin the first time she came on the page and I loved her at the end, too. She's a fascinating character."
James Sallis

"The competition for the future of crime fiction is fierce, as it should be, but don't take your eyes off Craig McDonald. He's wily, talented and—rarest of the rare—a true original. I am always eager to see what he's going to do next."
Laura Lippman


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Key West, 1925—the southernmost point and most un-American of American locales. A rowdy border town surrounded by water and populated by sports fishermen, navy veterans and Cuban revolutionists. Misfits and mavericks, all.

After several years in Paris, novelist Hector Lassiter returns to the United States and arrives on "Bone Key" to reunite with his lost love Brinke Devlin (introduced in One True Sentence), a fellow author and the woman destined to become the first Mrs. Lassiter.

Hector finds an island under siege, wracked by fatal fires and savage attacks against islanders the local press attributes to a baseball bat-wielding fiend dubbed "The Key West Clubber."

When one of the Clubber's murders hits too close to home—literally next-door to the Lassiters' love nest—the newlyweds begin to poke around the crimes. What they find casts doubt on the possibility of a single culprit, pointing instead to a vast and far-reaching criminal conspiracy.

By turns sexy, sly and seductively sinister, Forever's Just Pretend barrels along at a page-turning pace to a shattering conclusion that sheds new light on the origins of the internationally and critically acclaimed character Hector Lassiter and his larger-than-life legend.

Drawing on dark historical events and rich in atmosphere and character, Forever's Just Pretend will thrill readers of the series BookPage has called "wildly inventive" and The Chicago Tribune calls "most unusual, and readable crime fiction to come along in years."

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Order now!
Amazon

Betimes Books, trade paperback, August 2014: ISBN: 978-0992655297



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PRAISE FOR FOREVER'S JUST PRETEND

"Set in 1925, Edgar-finalist McDonald's entertaining fifth Hector Lassiter novel (after 2011's One True Sentence) takes the crime writer and reluctant sleuth, who's following his love, Brinke Devlin, to Key West, Fla., where rapacious developers have turned to arson and murder to advance their aims. Key West isn't much of a tourist place—yet—but with suspicious fires clearing large tracts of mostly wooden buildings, that situation is changing rapidly. Brinke arranges for Hector to meet Rose Thorpe, whose 26-year-old daughter, a schoolteacher, was murdered a month earlier by a serial killer dubbed the Key West Clubber. Rose needs Hector's help because Sheriff Melvin Hoyt has done nothing to solve the crime. Meanwhile, Hector's grandfather, Beauregard Stryder, arrives from Texas for his grandson's wedding. A consummate con man, Beau steals the show as he puts together one clever scheme after another to confound greedy and corrupt targets. This is a must read for series fans and a solid introduction for new readers."
   —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY



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