Lights Out, by Jason Starr

Now Available in Hardcover! (right, top)
St. Martin's Press (US)

Now available in Hardcover and Trade Paperback! (right, below)
Orion Books (UK)

Orion (UK) mass market edition on sale April, 2007!

St. Martin's (US) trade paperback edition on sale June, 2007!

Editions available: US, UK, French (April, 2007), Germany (Fall, 2007)

A Book Sense Notable Selection, October 2006!

A Mystery Bookstore (L.A.) Discovery Club Selection!

One of the top ten mystery novels of 2006!
BN.com
Poisoned Pen, Arizona
Mystery Bookstore, Los Angeles

"'Lights Out' has the New York sound, the energy, dialog that's on the beat...Read it and you'll go hunting for Jason Starr's other books, I promise."
-Elmore Leonard

" Lights Out is a fast, furious page-turner from the git-go. Starr's got a hip style and an ear for crackling dialogue. And he offers up characters that are so real we're sure we know them. This book is a huge treat." -Jeffery Deaver

Ryan Rossetti and Jake Thomas were the two Major League-bound rivals on their high school baseball team, heading straight into history as the first two of Canarsie's favorite sons to make it out and make it big. Until Ryan hurt his pitching arm and landed a $10 dollar an hour life as a house painter. Lucky Jake made it all the way, and he and his $10 million signing
bonus are heading back for a publicity-motivated homecoming weekend that has all of Brooklyn waiting to explode in celebration.

But he's got a nasty surprise in store: Ryan is involved in an intense, addictive relationship with Jake's fiancée Christina, who now faces a choice between love in a Brooklyn tenement or a heartless marriage on Easy Street. None of the three have any idea what's about to play out in the streets they once all called home. Lights Out is vintage Jason Starr, a razor sharp crime novel that brilliantly combines biting social satire, explosive suspense, and honest, revealing human drama.

"Marking his hardcover debut, Starr's latest crime novel sizzles with streetwise dialog and furious emotional energy. His latest contribution to the world of crime fiction is a home run. Highly recommended." -Library Journal (Starred Review)

"This slice of the confused life reads a bit like George Pelecanos or Richard Price...a wickedly entertaining ride down a dead-end street." -Booklist

"A sort of outer-borough Amadeus, Lights Out is a sad, funny, raunchy look at the reality behind the pervasive American idea that all you need to do is work hard to achieve success. Like all the great noir writers, Starr is unafraid to paint in unrelenting shades of gray. Think Horatio Alger on food stamps." -Time Out New York

"Lights Out is a superb contemporary noir with a high body count and some truly funny scenes." -Mystery Scene

"Lights Out will vault Jason Starr into the top ranks of "literary" crime writers, with George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane and Richard Price... Angry and compassionate, funny and bleak. Well done."
-Answer Girl (blogspot)

"Lights Out moves like an out-of-control nitrous oxide–injected muscle car with no brakes. Strap yourself in and prepare for one helluva wild ride." -The Barnes & Noble Review, Paul Goat Allen

"(A) strangely fascinating riff off classic noir.... Starr is a master at portraying Brooklyn as a dark corner of hell." -Publishers Weekly

"If Shakespeare was to author an updated Romeo and Juliet, or if Tom Wolfe was to have written Bonfire of the Vanities more in the noir style, each would have done well to have first read the talented Jason Starr's Lights Out...Jason Starr has a sharp eye and deftly expresses his views of life in a carefully orchestrated noir story that is a "lights out" one for your list reads of 2006." -I Love a Mystery

"Friendship, love, betrayal, greed, narcissism and enough rage that it has to all end up in a frighteningly realistic version of hell. This certainly has the feel of a breakout novel." -Sarah Weinman, Confessions of an Idiosynchratic Mind

"The Rube Goldberg plot hurls these raging citizens together with all the energy of a nuclear-powered kaleidoscope. It's obvious that the end will be violent, but which specific acts of violence are anyone's guess. .. The result is scorching. -Kirkus Reviews

"A scorching thriller... Jason Starr has an excellent ear for dialogue which brings his characters vividly to life." -Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph (U.K.)

"Like George Pelecanos at his best, Jason Starr manages to get inside the heads of his characters, both black and white, and with Lights Out punches more than his weight." -Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday (U.K.)

"An outrageous black comedy." -Bookends (Editor's Pick) (U.K.)

"With "Lights Out" Jason Starr has raised the level of his game by yet another, seemingly impossible notch and created a chrome-shiny-cynical, cautionary tale of hard-head city dwellers, whacked out crack-heads and sports jocks. He is the closest thing you'll ever get to Tarantino in text. Good doesn't begin to describe just how damn good he is." -Paul Blezard, Oneword Radio (U.K.)

"For the perfect guilty pleasure, first acquire a copy of this new book by Jason Starr. Next, lock the door, switch off the television, turn on the answering machine and chill a bottle of your favourite poison. Then read... and continue reading, probably till 3am, as it'll completely hook you. A tight, thrilling novel that won't let go or disappoint." -Ottakar's Bookshop, Recommended Reads (U.K.)

"Jason Starr is the real deal in a world where a lot of people are faking it, a fearless, pitiless writer. The result is a compelling, fierce body of work by a prodigious talent." -Laura Lippman

"Jason Starr is hypnotically good - if you miss him, you're missing some of the best new writing there is." -Lee Child

"Lights Out is compulsively readable, sidesplittingly funny and absolutely merciless....Starr's fresh take on our flawed human condition may bring howls of outrage but in the tradition of the great satirists, you can't stop reading." Denise Hamilton

"Jason Starr is a leader of the new noir movement." - George P. Pelecanos

Available as a PDF.
Available in text format.