by Waite, Urban
—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
“In a blood-spattered chase that winds from the Cascade Mountains in central Washington to Seattle and back again, first-novelist Waite never eases the throttle, but even at high speed, it’s the interplay between the characters that gives the novel its power. An outstanding debut.”
—Bill Ott, Booklist (starred review)
“It’s getting harder and harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys in a modern Western, of which Urban Waite’s first novel, The Terror of Living, is one fine specimen. Phil Hunt, thoughtfully described as ‘a good man, made up of all the bad things in the world,’ did a ten-year stretch in prison for killing a shopkeeper during a dumb robbery. But this flawed man was rescued by a strong woman who became his wife, and in the twenty years that Hunt has been out, they’ve made a quiet, decent life together on a small farm south of Seattle where they raise and board horses. The thing is, Hunt can’t make a living without doing a little drug smuggling on the side…. While Waite delivers the story you expect, he does it with more artistry than would seem possible in a conventional thriller. His descriptions of the stark beauty of the mountains have a calming effect on the intensity of the cinematic action scenes. And the surprising delicacy of the writing also makes it easier to bear the raw violence done to man and beast. Waite is most eloquent when he’s probing the interior lives of the men locked in this contest of will and endurance…. No matter who fails to survive, these characters all deserve to be mourned.”
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
“A strong debut novel…. The ‘thriller’ part is a plot crammed with surprises, kinks, suspense, danger, and inventive violence. Though many small mysteries rise and resolve along the way, the propelling question is not whodunit, but whether anyone we’ve come to care about walks out of the fiery furnace at the end…. The action is dynamic and cleverly choreographed, but the lush intricacy of the novel springs from the inner lives of these two men where, woven through the brutal mayhem, there is an odd, indelible core of sweetness.”
—Katherine Dunn, The Oregonian
“The Terror of Living opens with gentle beauty, calm before a bloody storm, before building intensity with swift, jarring, and confident storytelling power. A fine debut from a writer of obvious and substantial talents. Readers—including this one—will certainly be following Urban Waite for years to come.”
—Michael Koryta, author of So Cold the River
“In the tradition of No Country for Old Men, Urban Waite has written a nail-biter that takes off from the get-go and never stops, a book chock full of memorable characters and kick-ass writing. Clear your calendar before reading this one, folks, because once you start there’s no stopping until the end, which arrived much too quickly for this reader. A smashing debut.”
—Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
“A superbly written chase novel set in Washington State…. A cat-and-mouse pursuit, gut-clenching violence (fair warning, the book cannot make the claim ‘no horses were harmed in the making of this story’), loyalties sundered—all come with the genre. What is rarer is the finely honed literary sensibility of the writer, who conveys the sensory reality of his settings with evocative exactitude…. Waite’s considerable talent in general serves him well.”
—P. G. Koch, Houston Chronicle
“A supercharged suspenseful thriller peopled by colorful characters and driven by terrifying events that begin at mach speed and never slow for a moment. Supremely cinematic.”
—Joseph Wambaugh, author of the Hollywood Station novels
“The past is a terrible thing in Urban Waite’s first novel, a crime thriller that will please those who prefer their noirs straightforward and gritty with a minimum of philosophizing. An accidental killing during a burglary twenty years earlier has set horseman turned drug runner Phil Hunt on a course he cannot break. For deputy Bobby Drake, the fate of his father, a disgraced sheriff also involved in the Northwest drug trade, never leaves his mind for long…. Hunt and Drake share a fatal flaw—a sense of honor…. The question is whether Hunt and Drake can face up to the past and still have any kind of future. One cannot help but recall Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men while reading Waite’s novel. Their plots—a manhunt sparked by a drug deal gone bad—and their main characters—a sympathetic lawbreaker, a conflicted lawman, and a disturbed killer—invite comparison. Soon, though, Waite’s own story and his smooth prose take over so completely that all that matters is what happens next.”
—Douglass K. Daniel, San Francisco Chronicle
“From a horse ranch in Auburn to the remote North Cascades and points in between, the book moves at top speed…. But the killer is not the book’s main focus. The Terror of Living is instead the story of two essentially good men who find themselves on opposite sides of the law—but who have more than they might wish in common…. Waite writes convincingly about the joys of the wilderness, and he wisely keeps his focus on the interplay between the two main characters in this sure-footed debut.”
—Adam Woog, Seattle Times
“Waite brings a nimble touch to the material. Throwaway lines are rendered with surprising delicacy, and The Terror of Living’s knife-fetishist villain makes for an oddly endearing sociopath. Also, what a title!”
—Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly
“A fine novel…. The characters are well developed, and the complicated plot is well structured. The action never falters… a remarkable debut, full of character and bleakness and written with vim and intelligence that will linger in the reader’s mind long after the book is laid aside.”
—Seamus Scanlon, Library Journal (starred review)
“Urban Waite is a writer who knows what he’s doing, and this killer novel drives that home every hard-charging step of the way. In Waite’s hands, scenes come at you like bursts of machine-gun fire, and it’s testament to his skill—setting that pops off the page, dialogue that crackles, characters you can’t help but care about—that you won’t want them to stop hitting.”
—Josh Weil, author of The New Valley
“This is the Golden Age of literary crime fiction, and Urban Waite delivers a beautiful and powerful new voice with The Terror of Living. Washington State in his hands comes as alive as Louisiana does in the novels of James Lee Burke.”
—Otto Penzler, editor of Best American Noir of the Century
“Drug smuggling in the Pacific Northwest provides the backdrop for Waite’s promising debut…. Waite eloquently depicts men in turmoil for whom the choice isn’t necessarily between right and wrong but where to draw the line.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A drug deal gone wrong, a determined deputy, a running man, a psycho killer. Don’t forget compelling dialogue, well-developed characters, the Pacific Northwest as backdrop, and a relatively happy ending… an outstanding debut.”
—Allen Pierleoni, Sacramento Bee
“After a drug drop goes awry, ex-cons, drug lords, a psychopath, and law officers play seek and maim in the Pacific Northwest in this debut thriller…. The pursuits that follow are complicated and play out in sharply written, swiftly paced scenes. But as the book’s prose… and its violence—in a stark Cormac McCarthy landscape—suggest, Waite aims for more than a straightforward thriller…. The meticulously calibrated prose, rushing narrative, and sympathetic protagonists mark Waite as a rewarding, promising writer.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The Terror of Living is a breathtaking debut from a thirty-year-old who writes as if he’s been working at it for decades. This is a chase, a thriller, a Western, and a character study that combines everything in a beautiful poetic prose that owes a bit to writers such as James Lee Burke and Cormac McCarthy…. Save this one for a weekend.”
—Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
“Make a note of the name—for this debut heralds the arrival of a thirty-year-old thriller writer who might just become a s
tar. Supremely spare, with cool prose and a bleak eye for character, it creates a vivid world that reminds you of the Coen brothers’ film No Country for Old Men.… Told with a force that lifts off the page, and a sentient clarity about ordinary people trapped in crisis, it’s a superb debut thriller.”
—Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail
Contents
FRONT COVER IMAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
I: BY AIR
II: BY SEA
III: BY LAND
IV: CONFESSIONS
V: SNOW
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
READING GROUP GUIDE
CREATING TERROR IN FICTION
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
URBAN WAITE’S SUGGESTED READING
PRAISE FOR URBAN WAITE’S THE TERROR OF LIVING
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2011 by Urban Waite
Reading group guide copyright © 2011 by Urban Waite and Little, Brown and Company
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Second e-book edition: January 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-12211-5