The Electric “Slide”?

It’s easy to go on and on about U.S. paperback pulp publisher Hard Case Crime (as I have here, here, and here). But if that house didn’t keep turning out such interesting and handsome works, I would have a hell of a lot less to say. Last night brought what seems like more good news to my e-mailbox: The release of Slide, the sequel to last year’s much-lauded Ken Bruen-Jason Starr collaboration, Bust, has been scheduled for October 2007. The Hard Case Web site gives this suggestive synopsis of Slide’s plot:

Max Fisher used to run a computer company; Angela Petrakos was his assistant and mistress. But that was last year. Now Max is reinventing himself as a hip-hop crack dealer and Angela’s back in Ireland, hooking up with a would-be record-setter ... in the field of serial killing. Will their paths cross again? What do you think?

The cover illustration for this sequel (“showing lovely Angela Petrakos and an unfortunate soul chained to a chair,” as editor Charles Ardai explains) was done by Richard B. Farrell, whose work also graced the Bust jacket.

More news from Ardai: “At the end of this year we’ll be bringing you Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins, the first-ever novel about his comic book detective ‘Ms. Tree’ (featuring a cover painted by ‘Ms. Tree’ co-creator Terry Beatty). ‘Ms. Tree’ is the longest-running crime comic in the history of comics, and it’s a treat to bring her to a new medium.”