Shifty's Boys

Selling and Marketing Points

• SHIFTY'S BOYS is a thriller whose pacing thrums like a guitar string, and it is an assured, appealing, and larger-canvas story than The Killing Hills. In other words, this is Chris's strongest book to date.

• A literary master across genres, Chris's work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays and he's written several screenplays. The recipient of a Lannan and a Guggenheim fellowship, he is well respected & acclaimed in the literary world thus far. Offutt's return to fiction, Country Dark, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and an Indie Next Selection.

• The Killing Hills, the first book in the Mick Hardin series, was hailed with excitement and widely reviewed; it's sales have been strong and TKH is one of Chris's best performing books in recent years. We anticipate an enthusiastic reception for this second installment in the series.

• We succeeded in translating Chris to a different audience with The Killing Hills and have a strong commitment to building this series, with book 3 already under contract. Chris himself says it's the most fun he's had as a writer.

• Critics have lauded the vibrant sense of culture and place in Chris's fiction, reverently referred to as "holler noir,” and SHIFTY'S BOYS brings us back to this fascinating rural vista of the Kentucky backwoods.

• With this vibrant and engrossing thriller, Chris contributes his singular storytelling to the genre of rural working class fiction, spotlighting an important perspective in the landscape of American literature and combining it with a thrilling murderous twist.

• Chris was committed to promoting The Killing Hills widely and was an asset on the road. He was a featured author on a panel entitled "The Rough South” at the Mississippi Book Festival in 2018 and also participated in SIBA (Southern Independent Bookseller Alliance) events, as well as carrying out a virtual tour for The Killing Hills.