Publishers Weekly
05/27/2024
Allen (All or Nothing) takes readers inside the mind of a serial killer in this ambitious if ultimately disappointing thriller. The lead character, a Miami pizza delivery man who insists victims call him “Periwinkle” (he leaves the flowers at his crime scenes as a calling card) is introduced in the midst of slaughtering domestic abuser Eduardo Gomez in 2001. Like Dexter Morgan before him, Allen’s “hunter” operates under a strict moral code, only killing people he believes have violated the social contract—an adulterer, a crooked cop, a pedophile. As the hunter’s bodies pile up, police close in on him, but he continues to taunt them with phone calls. Meanwhile, he returns home after each murder to his children and argues with his pregnant wife about baby names, considering whether he might kill her, too. In flashbacks, Allen digs into the hunter’s difficult childhood, during which he was bullied for being overweight. Allen aims for something lyrical and elevated, and while he occasionally achieves a kind of hypnotic grace, the overall effect fails to make much of an impression. Ponderous prose (“Slow and joyless are the footfalls of Eduardo”) doesn’t help. Allen’s reach exceeds his grasp. Agent: Eleanor Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Apr.)
Anjanette Delgado
"What if you're a good person—kind, sensitive, funny—but evil won't let you be? I Disappeared Them is the story of a good man tormented, fervently wrestling right and wrong, life and murder. His battle against the demons of a secret mental chaos is a contest he can't win, and yet we can't help but enjoy the fight, every round, blood seeping out like love to its masterful end. What I mean is that Preston L. Allen kills so good, you've never seen such desperate beauty in the grisly, lovely, fleshy pages of murder that is as groundbreaking as it is gloriously literary."
Grimoire of Horror
"I Disappeared Them is a riveting exploration of human complexity, blending elements of mystery, psychological depth, and societal commentary into a compelling narrative . . . [The novel] eats away at you slowly, lingering in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page."
on Jesus Boy New York Times Book Review
"Generations of illicit sex run through this clever and wide-ranging book in which the flesh always triumphs . . . Surely no one does church sexy like Allen . . . Allen's writing by turns is solemn and funny . . . It would be easy for Jesus Boy to become fluffy satire but Allen keeps his characters real."
Vicki Hendricks
"Preston L. Allen's Hunter is an Everyman Dexter, a pizza-delivery guy, seething at times, sadly longing at others. A complexing hybrid of nature and nurture, defying analysis, governed by principled passion. He'll crawl into your heart and chill you from the inside out. I love it."
on All or Nothing New York Times Book Review
"As a cartographer of auto-degradation, Allen takes his place on a continuum that begins, perhaps, with Dostoyevsky's Gambler, courses through Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William S. Burroughs's Junky, the collected works of Charles Bukowski and Hubert Selby Jr., and persists in countless novels and (occasionally fabricated) memoirs of our puritanical, therapized present. Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu—the chained (mis)fortunes of the players, their vanities and grotesqueries, their quasi-philosophical ruminations on chance. Like Burroughs, he is a dispassionate chronicler of the addict's daily ritual, neither glorifying nor vilifying the matter at hand."
Dennis Lehane
"Heartfelt and occasionally hilarious, Jesus Boy is a tender masterpiece."
on Every Boy Should Have a Man Booklist
"Imaginative, versatile, and daring, Allen raids the realms of myth and fairy tales in this topsy-turvy speculative fable . . . With canny improvisations on 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' 'The Epic of Gilgamesh,' and Alice in Wonderland, Allen sharpens our perceptions of class divides, racism, enslavement, and abrupt and devastating climate change to create a delectably adventurous, wily, funny, and wise cautionary parable."
Geoffrey Philp
"Set in the urban landscape of South Florida, I Disappeared Them is a gripping novel about a serial killer who enacts his twisted sense of ethics and biblical justice on his victims. Preston L. Allen masterfully creates an obsessive character with a chillingly complex blend of darkness and humanity, even as the body count rises. With a captivating tone and often wry humor, the novel offers a portrait of a killer who loves his children that will linger in readers’ minds long after the last page."
Telegram Newspaper Detroit
"I Disappeared Them is a fun, thrilling . . . novel. Preston’s unique format of storytelling . . . explores ideas of nature vs nurture, generational curses, and environment. He braids them together with the taboo of infidelity, and how it affects the family structure of any child. I Disappeared Them is ideal for readers who seek a classic crime thriller. But craves a new flavor that is unique to the perspective of the genre."
From the Publisher
"What if you're a good person—kind, sensitive, funny—but evil won't let you be? I Disappeared Them is the story of a good man tormented, fervently wrestling right and wrong, life and murder. His battle against the demons of a secret mental chaos is a contest he can't win, and yet we can't help but enjoy the fight, every round, blood seeping out like love to its masterful end. What I mean is that Preston L. Allen kills so good, you've never seen such desperate beauty in the grisly, lovely, fleshy pages of murder that is as groundbreaking as it is gloriously literary."
Vicki Hendricks author of Miami Purity
"Preston L. Allen's Hunter is an Everyman Dexter, a pizza-delivery guy, seething at times, sadly longing at others. A complexing hybrid of nature and nurture, defying analysis, governed by principled passion. He'll crawl into your heart and chill you from the inside out. I love it."
