Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red (USA 2010)

From the Publisher:
A dark noir novel set in West Table, Missouri, featuring nineteen-year-old Jamalee, her gorgeous gay brother, Jason, and Sammy Barlach, the young man passing through West Table, who just may be their ticket out.

"Three pages into Tomato Red I got that inexplicable head rush that comes from wondering how I'd never heard of the book or of Daniel Woodrell, and regretting the years I was ignorant of both. Woodrell writes with a poetic, lyrical, breezy style that reminds me of authentic country artists like George Jones or Hank Williams but he somehow does it on the page. He packs an entire world into a short book and leaves you yearning for more. Thank you, Busted Flush Press, for introducing me to Woodrell. Now others won't make the mistake I made." -- C. J. Box, Edgar-winning author of Nowhere to Run

Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red. New foreword by Megan Abbott. Busted Flush Press, ISBN: 9781935415060 (August, 2010), 169 p., $15.00.

Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
For Bev Merridew, who can turn a trick as easily as she can roll a joint, life in Venus Holler is tolerable. For her 19-year-old daughter, Jamalee, a life guaranteed to be the replica of her mother's isn't good enough. With her tomato-red hair and her barely contained rage, she has plans, and they don't include Venus Holler. What they do include -- indeed, depend on -- is her drop-dead beautiful brother, Jason. But Jason may just be a country queer, and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks, that is about the most dangerous thing a man could be.

Into their midst comes Sammy Barlach. With too many entries on his rap sheet, he's passing through on his way to nowhere, looking to be a loser in new surroundings. Jamalee thinks he might be the muscle she and Jason need.

Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red. Plume Books, ISBN: 0452281946 (October, 2000), 225 p., $13.00.

Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
In small Ozark towns like West Table, Missouri, what you are is where you're born and in Venus Holler what you are isn't much. For Bev Merridew who can turn a trick as easily as roll a joint, life in Venus Holler is tolerable. For her 19 year old and angry daughter, a life like Bev's isn't good enough. Jamalee Merridew with her tomato red hair and her barely suppressed rage has plans and they don't include Venus Holler or especially Bev. In fact they depend on her drop dead beautiful brother, Jason, the object of adoring libidinous attention from every West Table female. Jamalee thinks he's her ticket out. But Jason may just be the country queer and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks that is about the most dangerous and also the most courageous thing a man could be. Into their midst comes Sammy Barlach, a man with too many file numbers on his record who's is passing through West Table on the way to nowhere, looking to be a loser some place else. Jamalee thinks he might just be the muscle she and Jason need. But Sammy is better at botched burglaries than security and when Jason turns up dead and the cops call it an accident even Bev is roused from her easy going acceptance of the system. Pooling their talents the misfit threesome set out to expose the solid citizens who thought it was no harm, no foul to kill a country queer...

Daniel Woodrell: Tomato Red. No Exit Press, ISBN: 1901982122 (January, 1999), 225 p.,£10.00.