Just learned that my memoir, ADRENALINE JUNKIE, is available for preordering (paperback edition) on Amazon.
Some early blurbs:
Having survived an American Gothic horror story of a
childhood, unrepentant former thief, dope dealer, hedonist, Navy hellraiser,
and porn actor Les Edgerton—now a writer and teacher—tells a tale of many
tales: If Scheherazade were an
old pirate who got away with the gold, this would be his opus.
Earl Javorsky, Author, Down
to No Good and others.
"Where
to start with Les Edgerton's memoir, ADRENALINE JUNKIE ...? I once said, if
there's a book in everyone, then there's a library in Les - now I may need to
revise that estimation, upwards. No one can accuse Les of being a 'crime
tourist'. He's lived the life, done the bird, and now he's written the book.
ADRENALINE JUNKIE should be on any prospective (or established) crime writer's
list. An entertaining, darkly-rendered tale of one man's adventures in the very
belly of the beast."
-Tony
Black, author of HER COLD EYES
"In
a way, Edgerton already wrote ADRENALIN JUNKIE in his crime novels. With the
veneer of fiction removed, his always entertaining, often enlightening,
sometimes infuriating and unapologetic stories hit even harder. Without any
doubt, Edgerton is one of the great storytellers of fiction - and now non-fiction."
Benjamin
Sobieck, author of the Writer's Digest Guide to Firearms and Knives and the
Maynard Soloman crime humor series
Les
Edgerton's Adrenaline Junkie is the compelling, beautifully written story of an
extraordinary man who has lived on both sides of the tracks, seen through the
bullshit and the hypocrisies, and come out saner and stronger for it. From the
opening jail house scene to the end, this is a ride of heartache and passion,
of tempest and brilliance, like a cross between Genet and Steinbeck, like a
chorus celebrating the underdog, the downtrodden, the criminal, and the
inspired, a chorus that only keeps getting louder and rising in melody, as
Edgerton achieves a sort of sainthood among sinners, an apotheosis of rebellion
and force, much like Harcamone at Fontrevault, or a hero in a Johnny Cash song,
a huge, Promethean work of major significance and scale.
Richard
Godwin.
Author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City,
Meaningful Conversations, and Confessions Of A Hit Man.
Author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City,
Meaningful Conversations, and Confessions Of A Hit Man.
'How often is a memoir genuinely
astounding? A reformed outlaw takes us through his harsh rural childhood,
working harder before he was twelve than most of us ever will.
There follows armed robbery,
pimping, drug dealing, rape in prison, narrowly avoiding a hellcat's castration
attempt, suicide foiled by the rope breaking, a walk on part for Charles Manson
and his creepy serial killer mate - who got short shrift from our host. And so
much more... So many startling sentences:' She was going to be his last fuck
before the operation and I was going to be his first after he became a
woman.' 'It was then Charles Manson started to contact me...' There's
a satisfying twist late on after he becomes a family man so this fascinating
book has just the right ending.'
'Essential reading. Makes
Bukowski seem like Donny Osmond.'
Mark Ramsden, Author, The Dark
Magus and the Sacred Whore, The Dungeon Master's Apprentice, Dread - The Art of Serial Killing, Radical
Desire: Kink and Magical Sex, War School
Les is a real, honest-to-God writer in a world full of
wannabes. So it goes without saying, his memoir Adrenaline Junkie is
better than most novels you’ll read in your life - largely because his real
life is more interesting than most novels. Buy it. Read it. If you don’t like
it that’s your fault, you stick in the mud.
Damien Seaman, Author, The Killing
of Emma Gross
Adrenaline Junkie is
like no memoir I have read. Filled with stories of knifings, armed robberies,
brutal prison fights, and Charles Manson (yes, that Charles Manson!), Edgerton
proves that life can be stranger (and certainly more violent) than fiction. But
Edgerton isn’t just a guy with a tough story to tell. He’s a poet who startles
you with sentences both stark and darkly beautiful. An astonishing
accomplishment.
Jon Bassoff, Author, Corrosion and others
“I’ve known Les Edgerton for going on 25 years. I immediately took to him in writing school, not because he was funny as shit and talented, but because he was the real thing. But it wasn’t until reading his memoir that I realized the extent to which he lived the things he wrote about. Adrenaline Junkie is at once heartbreaking, as it is funny, and just plain sick. I worked up a sweat reading it. It’s sort of like a witnessing a plane crash. You don’t really want to look at the carnage, but you can’t help but stare. A masterful work that will be lauded by both writers and the general reading public alike.”
Vincent Zandri, New York Times and USA Today bestselling Thriller
Award winner of Moonlight Weeps and The Remains.
Adrenaline Junkie by Les Edgerton will be required reading for crime writers one
day, a bible for future authors to study rebellion and the human spirit, that
smart-ass spark inside us all that doesn’t like taking orders from parents,
teachers, and even the law. Author of The Rapist and The Bitch,
two of the most profound noir novels published this decade, an ex-criminal and
former prison inmate, Edgerton knows what makes all of us tick, and how, with
not much of a shove, any one of us could end up behind bars. One of the most
fascinating autobiographies you will ever read: From professional thief and
pimp to award-winning author and teacher.
--Jack Getze, Author of the Award-Winning
Austin Carr Mysteries
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