The Smack: Gritty and gripping LA noir

Praise for Richard Lange - .

There are books - like Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston - that open with a trigger snap of trouble and blast forward with the propulsive force of a bullet and never stop moving...ANGEL BABY puts Lange in a new category: crime boss - Esquire

When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer - New York Times

Lange's prose is masterful, his sense of pacing unfaltering, and he writes about characters on the cutting edge of life... They'll call it "unputdownable" and "a page-turner," and they'll be spot on. You won't know exactly how right they are until you pick up Angel Baby and it burns you to set it aside for even a minute. - Los Angeles Review of Books

A film waiting to happen, this book boasts memorable characters, evocative settings and a suspenseful plot. - Kirkus

Strong and relentless....Beautifully paced, deftly written, ANGEL BABY is a book about moral compromise, in which we have empathy for everyone (or almost everyone) and no one at once.... As with life, ANGEL BABY offers a story in which motivations are murky and every act is weighted, and the best we can hope for is that the means will be justified by the results - Los Angeles Times

The story is thrilling and cinematic, told as one long chase scene....Lange inhabits his novel's characters. There's no pure black and white to them, only varying and unexpected shades of gray.... Intense, extreme and definitely grimy and readers will find that's a good thing - CNN

Almost every character in Lange's latest crime novel is made desperate by personal demons, and this struggle creates a fast-paced thrill ride.... A Tarantino-like vortex of mayhem and violence - Daily Beast