“ Sick City is fun, twisted and brutal….O’Neill could be our generation’s Jim Thompson.” — James Frey, author of Bright Shiny Morning   “Tony O’Neill works his L.A. people the way Dutch Leonard had his hand down the pants of every degenerate in his great Detroit novels.” — Barry Gifford, author of Wild at Heart   From Tony O’Neill, the author of Down and Out on Murder Mile and coauthor of the Neon Angel and the New York Times bestselling Hero of the Underground , comes Sick City —a wild adventure of two junkies, Hollywood, and the Sharon Tate sex tape. Readers of Elmore Leonard ( Get Shorty ) and Irvine Welsh ( Trainspotting ) will take great delight in Sick City, “ a disturbingly twisted ride through Hollywood’s underbelly with a degenerate cast of colorfully interwoven characters” (Slash). Former heroin addict O’Neill works a similar vein to his previous titles, which include Down and Out on the Murder Mile (2008). Here, aging, drug-snarfing rent boy Jeffrey inherits one hell of a hand-me-down from his suddenly dead ex-cop lover: a 16mm film featuring Sharon Tate at the center of an all-star Hollywood gangbang. Checking himself into rehab, Jeffrey meets Randal, a meth-using son of movie-industry royalty, and the two of them plot to fence the film. For them, this is honest work, but their utter lack of willpower means they keep shooting themselves in the foot (and arm, leg, and neck). Although the maguffin provides forward momentum, this ensemble of grotesques stumbles through skid-row L.A. like a Robert Altman film scripted by Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs. The plot could use tightening—one subplot goes nowhere, while another is essential—but the characters are unforgettable; they live and breathe, and you sure as hell wouldn’t want them to breathe on you. Sick City is appealing in its unsentimentalism, disgusting in its details—and, almost unbelievably, funny. --Keir Graff “Tony O’Neill is one of my favorite new writers, and DOWN AND OUT ON MURDER MILE is his best book yet. In O’Neill’s wizardlike hands, all the drugs and sex, the fierce fights and shouts and blaring rock & roll, amount to a story both horrifying and beautiful.” - Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear “Told with unwavering honesty, it is the perfect description of the lifestyle, and not surprising from a man who has lived it. Down and Out on Murder Mile is a force to be reckoned with.” - Sacramento Bee “Reading it, I could taste the LA smog. Here pain comes at you like a mack truck―relentless and unavoidable. Don’t blink―keep reading.” - Dan Fante, author of Chump Change, Mooch, and Spitting of Tall Buildings “Like the bastard child of Dashiell Hammett and Evelyn Waugh....With Sick City , Tony O’Neil confirms his comic voice....If dark humor, punk sensibility, literary sophistication and pointed satire are among your addictions, you should find Sick City a rewarding read.” - The Rumpus.net “Like a Robert Altman film scripted by Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs... Sick City is appealing in its unsentimentalism, disgusting in its details--and, almost unbelievably, funny.” - Booklist “Addictive Noir! Rarely do you find a novel that is both fast paced and well observed, action packed, yet high-grade poetic. Once you start it, just try putting it down.” - Arthur Nersesian, author of The F*ck Up “[An] inspired comedy of errors…a post-punk crack at Hollywood’s legacy that’s funnier than its predecessor, and just as cringe-inducing…infused with enough black humor to make Bill Burroughs choke on his apple” - Kirkus Reviews “A wildly fun read.” - Willamette Week “You may feel disturbed by this very realistic account of addicts on a mission.” - CurledUp.com “What Sick City does is takes the grit and grime of, say, Naked Lunch by William Burroughs and makes it coherent…within the context of a caper novel, as imagined by Elmore Leonard…. Sick City makes Jim Thompson’s novels look like Little Golden Books.” - Bookreporter.com “Tony O’Neill writes about the Hollywood I know as well as any writer alive. His characters are a punch in the face, scorchingly real. His dialogue is note-perfect and could only have been lived in the moment-by-moment life of one who has sat on a curb and pondered his next jive and shuck while searching for cigarette butts” - Dan Fante, author of 86'd “Reading Tony O’Neill is like traveling downhill in a car with no lights at terrific speed and driven by a four-year-old child on meth. The signposts along the way are all marked ‘Nowhere.’” - Sebastian Horsley, author of Dandy in the Underworld “Tony O’Neill writes about the Hollywood I know as well as any writer alive. His characters are a punch in the face, scorchingly real. His dialogue is note-perfect.” - Dan Fante, author of 86'd “Tony O’Neill works his L.A. people the way Dutch Leonard had his hand down the pants of every degenerate in his great Detroit novels. Cover your ears, ladies; thanks to O’