Overview
Pearce, an ex-con and Edinburgh hard man who’s still recovering from the recent loss of his mother, is invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant sixteen-year-old daughter from her martial-arts-expert husband, Wallace—a man ten years her senior with a penchant for killing family pets. Having found out that the baby’s not his, Wallace has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: He’s no babysitter. But when Wallace kills Pearce’s dog, he goes too far. Now it’s personal.
Revenge is part of the grieving process. But has Pearce finally met his match?
Time to find out how many psychedelic drugs one man can take.
Time to find out why Jesus is living in a cage in Wallace’s basement.
Time to find out who the real hard man is.
Synopsis
Pearce, an ex-con and Edinburgh hard man who’s still recovering from the recent loss of his mother, is invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant sixteen-year-old daughter from her martial-arts-expert husband, Wallace—a man ten years her senior with a penchant for killing family pets. Having found out that the baby’s not his, Wallace has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: He’s no babysitter. But when Wallace kills Pearce’s dog, he goes too far. Now it’s personal.
Revenge is part of the grieving process. But has Pearce finally met his match?
Time to find out how many psychedelic drugs one man can take.
Time to find out why Jesus is living in a cage in Wallace’s basement.
Time to find out who the real hard man is.
The Washington Post - Richard Lipez
Guthrie is such a witty and inventive stylist that once you get into Hard Man you grit your teeth and put up with a lot to enjoy the constant flow of lines such as "Jacob couldn't help feeling sorry for his nephew, even if he was a complete animal. Blood was thicker than disgust." And then there's poor May, regretful that she ever got mixed up with murderous Wallace. She just "felt [expletive] filthy, and not in a good way."
Editorials
Washington Post Book World
Like a Buster Keaton movie with bloodshed . . . Guthrie is such a witty and inventive stylist.Richard Lipez
Guthrie is such a witty and inventive stylist that once you get into Hard Man you grit your teeth and put up with a lot to enjoy the constant flow of lines such as "Jacob couldn't help feeling sorry for his nephew, even if he was a complete animal. Blood was thicker than disgust." And then there's poor May, regretful that she ever got mixed up with murderous Wallace. She just "felt [expletive] filthy, and not in a good way."—The Washington Post