Lethal Injection

Jim Nisbet's cult classic Lethal Injection, one of the first Black Lizard Books originals, has been out of print in the United States for an unforgivably long time (though it lives on in France and Germany, where Nisbet has become a true phenomenon). Overlook is remedying that with this paperback- the first of nine publications that will make up a Nisbet revolution.

It's about as noir as you can get. In a bleak Texas prison Royce, an alcoholic doctor administers Bobby Mencken's last "high," convinced that the convicted killer was innocent. When Royce's marriage crumbles he takes off for Dallas to search for the real killer.

Of Nisbet, Germany's Die Welt wrote, "Neither Norman Mailer nor Truman Capote has in their writing been able to produce such an intensity as Nisbet has achieved."

With sharp humor and a poet's ear for language, Nisbet's world may be bleak, but it is frighteningly real. Overlook is proud to bring him to a new generation of readers.

Publishers Weekly

From a publisher whose books ``are dedicated to the roman noir,'' this roman is about as noir as you can get. The first quarter of the tale takes place in a Texas prison, focusing on a grimly detailed execution by lethal injection. Royce, the alcoholic doctor who administers Bobby Mencken's last ``high,'' is convinced that the convicted killer was innocent, and after a fight with his neurotic wife that signals the end of his marriage, Royce takes off for Dallas to search for the real killer. He finds Colleen Valdez, Bobby's ex-lover, and Fast Eddie, Bobby's best friend (and probably ex-lover also), in a slum flat on Dallas's south side. Very quickly Royce joins the two junkies in an odd triangle of booze, drugs and sex. A burglary goes wrong as Eddie kills an old woman and vanishes. Royce and Colleen spend days back in the flat, mainly high on Royce's medicinal morphine. Eddie rejoins them, and the ending, a murderous double revenge, leaves two dead and the third immobilized by drugs. Despite some occasional sharp humor, the total effect of Nisbet's second novel (after The Damned Don't Die) is relentlessly bleak. Not for the squeamish. (December 20)

Jim Nisbet is the author of ten novels. His most recent novel, Windward Passage, is also published by Overlook. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, shortlisted for the Hammett prize, and published in French, German, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Greek. He lives in San Francisco.