Drive

‘I drive. That’s what I do. All I do.’ ‘Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there’d be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn’s late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room….’

Thus begins Drive, a new novella by James Sallis. Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., the story is, according to Sallis, “…about a guy who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. In classic noir fashion, he is double-crossed and, though before he has never participated in the violence (‘I drive. That’s all.’), he goes after the ones who doublecrossed and tried to kill him.”

• Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., Drive is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night.
• Sallis combines murder, treachery and payback in a sinister plot with resonances of 1940s pulp fiction and film noir
• Told through a cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver’s near-existential moral foundations, intercut with moments of bloody violence
• Now a major film starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan
• Drive received rave reviews from literary heavyweights in the UK and US; the sequel, Driven, is also published by No Exit Press
• Sallis has a keen and loyal fan base that is growing with every new title. He has received a lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, the Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing, and the Grand Prix de Littérature policière