James R. Preston

"Am I going to die?" Eighteen-year-old Mary Jane Bailey is sprawled on her back in a weed-choked field, bleeding from a cut on her forehead, when she asks that question to the man in a sharkskin suit standing over her holding a straight razor. It is 1968. Jane is both a student and snitch. A federal agency asks her to keep her eyes open and report on potentially violent activities at Cal State Long Beach. For reasons even she doesn't understand, Jane agrees. Go with her as she encounters vicious thugs, police and pot heads, goes to a beach party where she takes midnight swim through the red tide, all the while trying to infiltrate a radical group and establish whether they're as dangerous as they seem. And the man with a straight razor standing over Jane? He answers her question with a single word."Yes."***"A historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten. Jane, for starters, is a remarkable protagonist . . . The story thoroughly embodies the '60s era, both its anti-war sentiments and pop culture. The decade is also humorously portrayed . . ." - Kirkus ReviewsBuzzkill and its companion novel Crashpad are the latest thrillers by James R. Preston, author of the Surf City Mysteries and two-time recipient of the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Award for Fiction. His works have been described as "beach noir" and "Margaritaville, but with guns.

"It was arterial spray from her roommate Becky that saved Mary Jane's life. There was so much blood he must have thought she was dead too." So begins Crashpad, a story set in the turbulent war year of 1970. Skirts are short, hair is long; we've invaded Southeast Asia and the British have invaded us. College campuses everywhere are erupting with protests; Goldie Hawn go-go dances in a bikini and body paint. Walter Dalrymple is a sophomore at Cal State Long Beach, brilliant, spending his nights doing original research on lasers and his days thinking about a transfer to UC Berkeley and wishing he could get a date. In addition to physics, Walter has grown up with adventure stories -- James Bond, Shell Scott, and Matt Helm -- so he's ready when the nearly-naked girl pounds on his apartment door and asks him to hide her from a crazy guy with a shotgun. It's got to be some kind of gag, right? That's what he thinks until he actually meets the guy with the shotgun. Then Jane takes him to see the body. He's got to help her - after all, she's asked him to take her to the Get-Acquainted Dance. Turn on and tune in. It's time for some sex and drugs and rock and roll. No chicken jokes.