Nobody's Angel

by Jack Clark

Overview

QUENTIN TARANTINO on NOBODY'S ANGEL: “My favorite fiction novel this year was written by a taxi driver who used to hand it out to his passengers. It’s a terrific story and character study of a cabbie in Chicago during a time when a serial killer is robbing and murdering cabbies. Kudos to Hard Case Crime for publishing Mr. Clark’s book.”


TWO KILLERS STALK THE STREETS OF CHICAGO—CAN ONE TAXI DRIVER CORNER THEM BOTH?

Eddie Miles is one of a dying breed: a Windy City hack who knows every street and back alley of his beloved city and takes its recent descent into violence personally. But what can one driver do about a killer targeting streetwalkers or another terrorizing cabbies? Precious little—until the night he witnesses one of them in action...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803367477
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	92,143
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jack Clark was nominated for the Shamus Award for his novel starring private eye Nick Acropolis, Westerfield’s Chain. Nobody’s Angel, the author's first novel, was originally self-published in an edition of only 500 copies that the author sold for five dollars apiece to passengers in the Chicago taxi he drove for a living.

Editorial Reviews

The Washington Post writes, "NOBODY'S ANGEL is a gem... it’s just about perfect."


Chicago Sun-Times on NOBODY’S ANGEL: "Heartbreaking... captivating... each page turn feels like real, authentic Chicago."


Booklist on NOBODY’S ANGEL: "The cynical, melancholy cabbie point of view is perfect for this kind of neon-lit, noir-tinged, saxophone-scored prose poem, and Clark hits all the right notes."


Publishers Weekly on NOBODY’S ANGEL: "[A] slim, sparse, and heartbreaking novel."


‘Hitching a ride in Eddie Miles’ cab is a rewarding experience.’
– Deadly Pleasures


‘A thoroughly satisfying journey into early 1970s Chicago, with the Windy City and its dark environs rising to the level of a living, breathing, vital character.’
– Deadly Pleasures


‘My favorite fiction novel this year.’
– Quentin Tarantino


'Starkly realistic... A wonderful slice of crime noir'
- SF Book Reviews


'Stark, merciless... a remarkable achievement in noir fiction.'
- Ron Fortier, Pulp Fiction Reviews


‘It’s a lean yet fully realized, exceptionally prosed character study’
- Spike Carter, Air Mail


‘Jack Clark has a real knack for telling a story, instilling it with tension, a pitch perfect kind of darkness and unease, as well as giving it that undoubtable sense of authenticity.’
- Jen Lucas, Jen Med’s Book Reviews


‘… the reason a lot of the book feels so real, so effortlessly crafted, is that Jack Clark knows this world.’
- Amy Walker, Trans-Scribe Blog


‘Gritty and suspenseful, with genuine characters and a complex setting, Nobody’s Angel is a captivating crime novel and a worthy addition to any crime fiction fan’s bookshelves.’
- Bookshelf Butterfly Blog

From the Publisher

2023-12-06
A Chicago taxi driver who’s seen it all gets to see it all again, and then some, in a fast-moving thriller first published in 1996.

To the stand-by rules that govern cab driving in the Windy City—don’t go west, don’t go south, don’t go back, don’t go to Cabrini–Green—a new one has been added: Don’t pick up anyone who might be the person who killed three inner-city drivers and has now branched out to the suburbs with a fourth victim. The thing is, when he stops to pick up someone who’s flagged him down, night-shift cabbie Eddie Miles, who’s already got the jitters from the night he found teenage prostitute Relita Brown brutally stabbed in a deserted street and saved her life by calling the cops, never knows where any trip will take him. Maybe his passengers will throw up in his cab. Maybe they’ll try to stiff him for the fare. Maybe they’ll lead him to a tavern, where he’ll spend the hours till closing time drinking with strangers while his cab’s meter chugs along profitably in the parking lot. Maybe they’ll give him legal advice about renegotiating the ruinous divorce settlement that allowed his ex-wife to move to California with their daughter, whom he hasn’t seen for seven years. Maybe they’ll pull a gun on him and tell him his number’s up. Clark plots like a driver with tunnel vision who can’t see beyond the next curve, writes the clipped prose of a caffeine-fueled insomniac, and records every fare and tip, or lack thereof, with the precision of a bookkeeper.

Readers who know better than to worry about whodunit will hurtle from one seat-of-the-pants ride to the next.

Kirkus Reviews

…Nobody's Angel is a gem. For what it is, it's just about perfect. I won't urge would-be novelists to forsake their writing classes and become hackers, but they would do well to read Clark's story, which doesn't contain a wasted word or a false note…[the] crimes add suspense and realism to the novel, but its real beauty lies in Eddie's bittersweet existence and the special romance and danger of the cabdriver's life—lives we often glimpse but rarely give a second thought.
—The Washington Post

Patrick Anderson

Clark (Westerfield's Chain) originally self-published this slim, sparse, and heartbreaking novel, selling it to passengers in his Chicago taxicab, and apparently autobiographical elements add poignant realism at the cost of emotional resolution. Eddie Miles is shaken when fellow nighttime cabbie Lenny Smigelkowski falls victim to a serial killer. Eddie also discovers Relita, a teen prostitute brutally mutilated and abandoned in an alley. As Eddie mourns Lenny's death and Relita's pain and tries to find their assailants, he ponders other losses: his father's real estate investments; the innocence of young women entering prostitution; Eddie's daughter, now in his ex-wife's custody; and his faith in humanity as his fares try to abuse, intimidate, and rob him. Little gems of hope sparkle throughout the gloom, but the bleak conclusion of Eddie's “long trip to nowhere” leaves him and the reader mired in despair. (June)

Publishers Weekly