More Better Deals

Joe Lansdale, the Edgar award-winning author, returns with the hard-boiled story of a no-nonsense car dealer ready to turn his life around Ed Edwards is in the used car business. A business that is built on adjusted odometers, strategic exaggerations and the belief that the buyers better beware. Ed is tired of the game: he wants out. Little does Ed know that when Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss, and the namesake of Smiling Dave's, sends him to repossess a car, he is about to get his chance. The Cadillac in question, one of the nicest on the lot, was bought by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy- the owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. But when Frank stops making payments and hits the road to sell encyclopedias door to door, it's Nancy who is left on the hook. She's fed up with her deadbeat husband, his drinking, and his violence, and she suggests to Ed, in the throes of their own salacious affair, that they kill Frank to claim the insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer-the woman, the car, not one but two businesses and a way out of his miserable life at the lot. Ed could say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even get some help for his aging, alcoholic mother. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through? Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define East Texas.