The Ten-Ounce Siesta

Jack Baddalach's Back ...... and he's got a job to do. Well, more of anerrand really ... Escort a Chihuahua named Spike, via stretch limo, from Palm Springs to Las Vegas. Simple. But this isn't just any Chihuahua. Spike is under the protection of Freddie Gemignani, the shady, mobbed up casino owner who pays Jack's salary. When a band of machine-gunning beauties in black leather dognap Spike and leave Jack for dead, he knows there has to be something big in the works. The trouble is figuring out what that something is. Because even if it is a mafia Chihuahua - and one he's on the hook for - it's only a dog ...But Jack's got a soft spot for dogs, and a hard time rolling over, so soon he's up to his fists in lowlifes - including a poison-drinking, rattlesnake-handling Satanic preacher; his bikini-clad and leather-tanned progeny; the newly-crowned, artificially-endowed heavyweight champion of the world with his Nietzschian tattoos and Freudian issues; a mailman-murdering, pimp Prince Charming with a post-graduate degree from Corcoran State's gladiator academy; a diamondback rattlesnake named Cthulhu and maybe even his infernal majesty, the devil hisownself ... But it's the punk rock mafia princess that might just be the most hazardous to Jack's health (either her or the donut holes) -- and she's on his side. Surviving it all could get Jack a real life. And maybe one last shot - either inside the ring or out - at the title of "the baddest man on the whole damn planet" .... But first he'll have to make it out the other side of the the madcap macabre of The Ten-Ounce Siesta.The Critics Rave On:"Partridge may be the best of a small crew of important writers for the nineties. He is outstanding. He is original. He's a writer that future generations of writers will be looking up to." - Joe R. Lansdale"One of the most dependable, exciting and entertaining practitioners of dark suspense ... Emphasis on the dark. When Partridge is hitting on all eight cylinders, he's one tough contender for any ambitious young bravo to beat. Street legal? Yeah, but barely." - Locus"Partridge consistently writes as though his life depends on the world he sets down on the page." - Peter Straub"In every respect, The Ten-Ounce Siesta lives up to the Ken Russell epigraph which precedes it: ‘I don’t believe there’s any virtue in understatement.’ ... a resolutely eccentric novel that is powered by Partridge’s obvious affinity—and affection—for the outrageous and the grotesque." — Cemetery Dance"Partridge gets better with each book, and this off-the-wall, somewhat supernatural detective tale is his best so far." — Mark Graham, Rocky Mountain News