The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club by Brian A. Hopkins

"...Imagine Joe Lansdale's city cuz crossbred with one of Andrew Vacchs' surlier rural relatives, but with a whole lot of genetic material from the real author, Brian Hopkins . . . This is an in-your-face tale of today's weird science, bad behavior, and human cussedness that kicks butt. Hopkins' P.I. Martin Zolotow is a cranky and tenacious guy who tries hard not to be likable, but you gotta admit he always gets his man -- or, more frequently, his woman. To read about him is to wince, and then eventually to grin. Plenty."

"Coon Hunters -- the newest edition to the adventures of Martin Zolotow -- delivers Brian Hopkins at his finest. Wise-cracking and eloquent, poetic and ready to kick ass at a moment's notice, Zolotow and his cross-wired brain are the perfect answer to a craving for suspense and mystery. Hopkins is one of the true new talents."

"...a first class romp throughout the wilds of Oklahoma with a bunch of good ole boys who have more than met their match in Martin Zolotow, the only private eye I would ever hire."

"There's something about Oklahoma, and it's not the wind whistling down the plain, though the wind -- and the rain -- does have a significant role to play in The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club as Brian Hopkins, who, perhaps, knows more about the state than he'd really like, paints a vivid panorama of violence, depravity and just a hint of things that just ain't the way they're supposed to be. You've heard of the fire and you've heard of the frying pan, now fasten your seat-belts and join Martin Zolotow, memory-impaired PI, for a visit to the Panhandle."

"This is a very entertaining book. It has everything a P.I. book should . . . a hard-boiled but chivalrous P.I., lovely ladies in distress, quirky villains who repeatedly beat the hero to a pulp, and a plot that cracks along at the speed of a bullet. PLUS vampires and a science-fiction twist. Who could ask for anything more?"

"Imagine a parallel universe wherein Davis Grubb and Andrew Vachss had written a chase film for Sam Peckinpah and you may have some idea of the surprising scope and depth of this short but damned impressive novel; suspenseful, violent, lean, poetic, and even thoughtful, The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club is a return to what originally made the thriller great, before brutality and shock were mistaken for action and suspense. Don't be fooled by the length of this novel; Brian Hopkins packs more action, humor, and feeling into his streamlined narrative than any half-dozen of the so-called 'suspense novels' on the shelves today. And what a refreshing change to find a central character who can easily take his place alongside Philip Marlowe or John Rambo -- simply because he's a little of both, with a touch of Jung thrown in for good measure."

"Vivid, colorful, and blackly humorous throughout, this one entertains in spades..."

-- Richard Wright, author of Cuckoo

"Gumshoe suspense with a touch of humor and a drop of vampire blood, award winning author Brian A. Hopkins' novel, The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club, definitely places his work on the shelf with big boys like Crichton and Koontz. But you might also want to give him a shelf of his own, because I predict he'll be back again and again, and you're going to like that."

--D.E. Davidson, Night Terrors Publications

"...This is one of those lean, mean roller-coaster novels that could easily transfer to a Tarantino, Woo, or Rodriguez film -- the nail-biter action flick kind, where you leave the theater drenched because you were never allowed to catch your breath ... Highly recommended."

-- William D. Gagliani, from a review at Chiaroscuro

"...Hopkins delivers a fine and consistently readable hybrid of hard-boiled and horror, perhaps the closest comparison being an urbanized Joe Lansdale. Recommended, of course!"

-- Noel K. Hannon, from a review at Infinity Plus

"...overall the book is a kick-ass romp featuring a cool character and a group of baddies just asking to get the crap beaten out of them."

-- Mike Oliveri, from a review at FeoAmante.com

"This is horror in the way that Lansdale's Hap and Leonard mysteries are horror, or the way Brian Hodge's Wild Horses is horror: it's menfolk getting involved in bad shit, shit that makes them have to run around and bleed and get shot at ... Hopkins presents humor, violence, loss, and nobility with natural ease, and he gives us quite a ride. Underneath all the mayhem and double-crosses, though, there is a really good heart, one which believes in loyalty and chivalry and respect."

-- Mehitobel Wilson, from a review at Gothic.Net

"...incredibly entertaining ... one of the tightest, fast pace reads I can remember."

-- Weston Ochse, coauthor of Scary Rednecks and Other Inbred Horrors