Jason Starr

Page Updated: 09/09/02

Jason Starr

Hard Feelings

Fake I.D.

Nothing Personal

Cold Caller

WebPage: http://www.jasonstarr.com

by Jason Starr

About the Author (Photo by Jerry Bauer)

Bibliography

British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (2002)

Hard Feelings
1,000 copies numbered and signed by the author
For computer-networking salesman Richard Segal, life has been tough lately. He hasn't made a sale in months, his wife might be sleeping with an old boyfriend, and he's starting to drink again. On his way home from work one evening, he spots a familiar face across Fifth Avenue, Michael Rudnick, a guy who grew up across the street from him in Brooklyn. What seems like a harmless encounter becomes anything but when Richard is haunted by a terrifying memory. As the stress in Richard's life builds, he becomes obsessed with two questions: What exactly happened in Michael Rudnick's basement twenty-two years ago? and What is he going to do about it now?
In the classic tradition of Jim Thompson and Patricia Highsmith, Hard Feelings is a gripping, original novel of paranoia, obsession, and revenge.
In the USA, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is publishing Hard Feelings as a paperback original for the first time in its ten-year history.
'In his psychological thriller Hard Feelings...Starr has plumbed the shallows of his brittle characters and their selfish lives, depicting them in a hard-edged style that is clean, cold and extremely chilling.' New York Times Book Review
'Jason Starr is the first writer of his generation to convincingly update the modern crime novel by giving it provocative new spins and Hard Feelings is his most accomplished thriller yet. It might be new-school noir but like the classics of the genre it has a brutal escalation of tension, pungent dialogue, a hardboiled simplicity and grace, and a whopper of an ending. It's also darkly funny and a pure pleasure to read. As you race through it you realize that Jim Thompson has just moved to Manhattan.' Bret Easton Ellis
'a powerfully written, thoroughly involving novel of paranoia, obsession and revenge' Publishing News
'[An] effectively bleak successor to Jim Thompson and David Goodis....fans of noir bump into another author who can bring them down and cut loose with a savage kick to the ribs.' Publishers Weekly
'Convincing and entertaining . . . Hard Feelings dances a mesmerizing tango between reality and its menacing shadow.' Time Out New York

British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (2000)

Fake I.D.
At 32 years old, Tommy Russo’s dream of becoming a famous actor is fading fast, and he is splitting his time between gambling during the day and working nights as a bouncer at a Manhattan bar. When an opportunity comes along to join a smalltime horse-owning syndicate, Tommy jumps at the chance. Suddenly, he has a new dream - he could be a famous racehorse owner, in the winner’s circle at Hollywood Park. The only problem is that he needs ten thousand dollars to join the syndicate. What begins with white lies and petty crime, quickly escalates to robbery and murder, as Tommy loses touch with reality in a terrifying quest for fame.
In the tradition of The Killer Inside Me and The Talented Mr. Ripley, Jason Starr has created a horrifying, memorable protagonist who will go to any extent to achieve his ‘deserved’ portion of the American dream. A chilling narrative of lies, mind games, and the forces that guide pure evil, Fake I.D. is destined to become a roman noir classic. Praise for novels by Jason Starr:
Nothing Personal:
'An original modern noir tale reminiscent of Jim Thompson or David Goodis'- The Irish Times
Cold Caller:
'Cool, deadpan, a rollercoaster ride to hell'- The Guardian

Jason Starr is the author of Cold Caller and Nothing Personal. He lives with his wife in New York City.
Praise for Jason Starr
'Tough, composed and about as noir as you can go. Starr is a worthy successor to Charles Willeford' Literary Review
‘Cool, deadpan, a rollercoaster ride to hell’ The Guardian
'Starr is a worthy successor to Charles Willeford' Literary Review

First British Edition No Exit Press (1998)

Paperback - No Exit Press (2000)

Nothing Personal
From the acclaimed author of Cold Caller comes Nothing Personal, a hilariously dark thriller about two very different New York couples.
The DePinos are miserable, living in a tiny rundown apartment above a deli on Tenth Avenue. The Sussmans live in a posh building on the Upper East Side. When Joey DePino loses his job and is threatened by his bookies and loan shark he involves the Sussmans in a sick, desperate plan to pay off his gambling debts. But ad exec David Sussman has his own problems, trying to stop his suddenly psychopathic Asian mistress form ruining him, and won't go down without a fight. As the lives of the DePinos and the Sussmans become increasingly intertwined, Joey and David plunge their families into a moral-less world where anything is possible and nothing is personal…
Part crime novel, part unflinching satire of compulsive gambling, eating disorders and cold-blooded evil, Nothing Personal firmly establishes Jason Starr as one of the most exciting young noir novelists around.
'An original modern noir tale reminiscent of Jim Thompson or David Goodis' The Irish Times
'A diabolically well-plotted noir thriller' The Literary Review
'For a walk on the dark side, there's no better companion than the talented Jason Starr. He leads you to the lowest rungs of human experience, puts you on a first-name basis with despair and corruption, and somehow makes it all seem fun' Martha C. Lawrence, author of Pisces Rising
'The king of noir is back. It doesn't get any darker or funnier than this' Bookends

British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (1999)

Cold Caller
See Review by Andrew Taylor - author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series
First World Publication
Jason Starr's Cold Caller is darkly brilliant noir of the old school - a bleak, angry, funny, passingly offensive and a damning indictment of things we take for normal. In terms of atmosphere, characterisation, plot and most of all the sense of gloom and inherent evil which suffuses the book it is reminiscent of Jim Thompson or Charles Willeford at their existential best.
Once Bill Moss was a rising VP at a topflight ad agency, but now he works as a "cold caller" at a telemarketing firm in the Times Square area. he's got a bad case of the urban blues. Still, he's good at his work and (he thinks) about to be promoted, when out of the blue he's fired. So Bill snaps...and then next thing he knows he has a dead supervisor on his hands and problems no career counselor can help him with.
Movie rights for Cold Caller have been optioned by Altman Entertainment, producer of the forthcoming movie - "Fight Club", starring Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Kevin Alien (Twin Town) will direct Cold Caller.
"Tough, dark, elegant...Cold Caller is pure 90's white collar noir. Read It!" Eddie Bunker
"Well crafted and very scary" The Times
"Darkly brilliant noir of the old school" Richmond Review
"At the cutting edge of the revival of classic American noir fiction" Daily Telegraph

About The Author
Jason Starr was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1966. His novel Cold Caller is published by No Exit Press in the U.K. and W.W. Norton & Company in the U.S. and Canada. Later in 1998, Cold Caller will be published in French and German editions. His second novel, Nothing Personal, will be published by No Exit in late 1998. He lives with his wife in New York City.
Nothing Personal is a dark thriller set in New York about the colliding lives (and problems) of a compulsive gambler and an advertising executive. In style, it is very different than Cold Caller (it is told from seven different points of view) but there are some familiar themes. In October, I will have a short story appearing in the Millennium anthology, published by The Do-Not Press in the U.K., and I am currently at work on what I hope will be my third novel. Please stop by my web page (http://www.Jasonstarr.com) and say hello.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Hard Feelings (No Exit Press Pbk, 2002) No Exit Press Apr 02

Fake I.D. (No Exit Press Pbk, 2000)

Nothing Personal (No Exit Press, 1998) No Exit Press Pbk Mar 00 (Joey "The Jinx" DePino)

Cold Caller (No Exit Press Pbk, 1997) (Bill Moss)