Dealin’ with the Dead, the New Tough and Uncompromising Suspense Thriller by Mark Crockett

Mark Crockett’s second novel, the noir suspense/thriller, Dealin’ with the Dead (Paddlefoot Press; February 2006; Trade paperback; $12.95), continues the author’s deep desire to keep his growing readership way up past their bedtime. Mark, a public library educated nerd who didn’t get around to writing seriously until his early thirties, presents a gritty grab-you-by-the-throat novel that will never be mistaken for the cookie-cutter corporate approved blubbery that has recently flooded this genre.

Monticello Turquoise’s life circles the drain after a tweaker crew member’s untimely blackout forces him to gun down an ex-cop and the billionaire co-owner of the fourth largest software company in the world, in self defense during a bank heist gone awry. As these two men lay dying on the bank’s marble floor, Monticello and his crew flee to safety. Days later, still shaken by both men’s deaths, Turquoise is lured into a trap by the FBI and is caught and tossed into the worst prison in the country, Bofield State Penitentiary in Gasson, Texas. After years of abuse from corrupt prison guards and convicts alike, a defeated Monticello drops his appeals and limps to his fate —death in Bofield’s electric chair. That’s where minutes after his demise, things get really bad…

Mark’s true-to-life survivor mentality breathes life into the protagonist (one Monticello Turquoise) of his new book, Dealin’ with the Dead –a fast paced read about a bad man-in the wrong place-at the worst possible time. With any kind of luck, he’ll only have to die twice to come out of this alive!

Praise for Mark Crockett …

“Mark Crockett is a visceral, fearless writer who knows how to suck us into his stories and make us root for the unlikeliest of heroes…” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times best-selling author

About the Author

Mark Crockett was the only kid in third grade at Lincoln Elementary School in East Orange, New Jersey with an adult library card (yes, he is that old). Nose buried in a book but fleet on the playground, he was athletic enough to be the #5 schoolboy Intermediate High Hurdler in all of North Jersey as a senior in high school while writing for the school newspaper. Juggling radio voice-overs and TV cameraman duties while a sprinter for the United States Air Force’s International Track team (stationed out of Davis Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona), this multi-tasker was a silk-screener, graphic artist, and romantic greeting card company owner before penning his first novel, Turkey Stuffer (Strebor Books/Simon & Schuster, 2002). He now lives in Mesa, Arizona.

Dealin’ with the Dead is available for purchase now via the author’s website at www.markcrockett.com

Dealin' With the Dead
Mark Crockett
Paddlefoot Press
$12.95; ISBN: 0-9764323-9-0