The Man in the Middle – Coming Soon! by David Wagoner
The first book by acclaimed novelist and poet David Wagoner, back in print for the first time in 70 years, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ”a breathtaking novel filled with terror and pathos.”
Middle-aged Charlie Bell, a crippled watchman at a railroad crossing, sees a woman thrown out of passing train. He takes the injured woman, and the briefcase she was clutching, with him in search of a phone. She’s a reporter, and the briefcase contains papers that could destroy a corrupt Senator. But before Charlie can get her help, a thug attacks them and kills her. Now Charlie is relentlessly pursued through the Chicago underworld by cops who think he’s a murderer…and killers intent on silencing him.
Books by David Wagoner
The Escape Artist
Danny Masters is a teenage magician, pick-pocket and escape artist who learned it all from his late father. All he wants to do is make it in the big city. But along the way he picks the wrong pocket, stealing a wallet full of stolen cash, and finds himself having to use all of his skills just to stay alive… while still chasing his dreams.
The Man in the Middle – Coming Soon!
The first book by acclaimed novelist and poet David Wagoner, back in print for the first time in 70 years, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ”a breathtaking novel filled with terror and pathos.”
Middle-aged Charlie Bell, a crippled watchman at a railroad crossing, sees a woman thrown out of passing train. He takes the injured woman, and the briefcase she was clutching, with him in search of a phone. She’s a reporter, and the briefcase contains papers that could destroy a corrupt Senator. But before Charlie can get her help, a thug attacks them and kills her. Now Charlie is relentlessly pursued through the Chicago underworld by cops who think he’s a murderer…and killers intent on silencing him.
Money Money Money
“Bizarre and disturbing.” New York Times
Big, generous Willie Grier is swimming in Lake Michigan one summer night in 1955 when he finds the dead body of a man. The horrifying experience leads him into bed with a ruthlessly seductive woman, pits him against vicious gangsters, and hurls him into a whirlwind of cold cash, hot sex, and bloody violence.
Rock
It is 1958. Max Fallon, fleeing the wreckage of his marriage and career, returns to his lakeside home town and a job as a beach lifeguard. He discovers that his old neighborhood, beneath its seemingly unchanged veneer, is seething with violence, ruled by a brutal group of young men, including his own teenage brother, that is led by a hard woman who uses her ruthless sexuality as a deadly weapon.
Reviews For The Man in the Middle – Coming Soon!
A remarkable first novel by a powerful new writer. Compassion, sustained excitement, and acute observation of the Chicago locale make for a moving story.
It has everything a mystery should have, but it goes one step further.
Wagoner’s story is just as relentless as the forces groping and clutching for the doomed man.
