STRAY DOGS

N.Y.: Ballanntine Books, 1997. First trade paperback edition, October 1997, so stated with complete number line beginning with 1. A fine, unread copy. Basis for the 1997 American neo-noir crime thriller film "U Turn" directed by Oliver Stone, and starring Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Powers Boothe, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Nick Nolte. Ridley also wrote the screenplay. A loner, a drifter, a gambler--John Stewart asks little of life. But when his '64 Mustang busts a radiator hose in the middle of the empty Nevada desert, he prays to God, Buddha, L. Ron. And rolls into the tiny town of Sierra. Where he finds . . . nothing. A gas station whose former owner is lying low in the cemetery. A strip of barren, dust-blown store fronts. A truck stop cafe with more flies than customers. Stewart wants out. Sucker-punched in a rigged poker game, he's got to get to Vegas to settle a debt. Or else. Then in walks Grace, a seductive knockout who can read fortunes in faces. In the next twenty-four hours, Stewart becomes ensnared in a web of dirty double-crosses, cold propositions, and desperate souls--deadly ground where murder is just one gasp away. A stunning, fast-paced novel, Stray Dogs unfolds with unrelenting tension, memorable characters, and shocking twists of plot. John Ridley has created a hypnotic story that is pure noir, from its first page until its shattering climax.. First Printing. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine/No Jacket. Book.