Lowdown Road

It's the summer of 1974, and Chuck Melville has just been released from state prison for aggravated assault in this all-action outing from Von Doviak (Charlesgate Confidential). Rough and reckless, Chuck immediately winds up in the middle of a double murder, and while he's on the run from the law, his lothario cousin Dean convinces him to help steal 250 pounds of marijuana from Dean's boss, big-time dope peddler Antoine Lynch. Intending to sell the weed to a swarm of biker groupies gathered for an Evel Knievel stunt show at Idaho's Snake, the duo embarks on a wild cross-country drive from Texas, attracting lusty women and ruthless psychopaths at almost every stop along the way; with a vengeful sheriff and pissed-off Antoine in hot pursuit, the cousins barrel, grinning, toward a grim finale. Though the story occasionally gets sidelined in favor of ever-escalating grindhouse madness, Von Doviak never drops the ball. Razor-sharp dialogue and high-octane action keep this entertaining pulp novel afloat. (July)

In 1974, a pair of Texas cousins embark on a felonious road trip guaranteed to force them into contact with endless lowlifes even more unscrupulous than them. Six months out of prison, Chuck Melville steals his cousin Dean's Dodge Challenger, comes on to bad girl Gwen Harlan at a local bar, and suddenly finds himself fleeing a murder charge. Naturally, he stops long enough to pick up Dean, whose best chance of paying salvage yard owner Antoine Lynch the money he owes him vanished along with his car. But there's another possibility, though it's something of a long shot: The two can heist some hefty bricks of marijuana Antoine's planning to sell, drive them to Snake River Canyon, Idaho, where daredevil biker Evel Knievel has announced his latest stunt, and arrange through Chuck's prison buddy Double H (now Triple H) Hendricks, to retail them through Bob Dillon, Knievel's events manager, to the crowds assembled at this "redneck Woodstock." The cousins are soon pursued by Antoine, Ivor County Sheriff Bud Giddings, and Uptown Mike, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Chuck polished off a 72-ounce steak. As the feckless crooks and the nemeses on their tails make their way through New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, Von Doviak keeps things equally shaggy and pulpy by constantly bringing Chuck and Dean up against new waves of largely unconnected miscreants determined to force them into further criminal enterprises, fleece them, kill them, or sometimes all three. A wild ride that can't end well for anyone but readers whose nostalgia includes a hearty appetite for violence. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.