"Everyone knows that California sunshine is the world's loneliest light," says Benny, who inhabits an underworld of desperados and grotesques and spends much of his free time at the Greasy Tuesday, a squalid, southern California neighborhood dive teeming with local legends. One night, one of these legends walks through the door: Gus "Mad Dog" Miller, a huge, tattoo-laden Vietnam vet who sports a necklace of severed ears and is full of bewitching tales of his misadventures. Benny soon finds himself transfixed by this twisted Falstaffian personality, and it isn't long before he's arrested on suspicion of double murder. Combining elements of classic noir, dark comedy, and a misfit's memoir reminiscent of Notes from Underground , Christopher Goffard brings to life the darker side of west coast counter-culture. At once a detective tale whose deeper mysteries are the nature of friendship, machismo, and identity, and a scabrously comic send-up of noir fiction, Snitch Jacket will be a delight for fans of Elmore Leonard, the Coen brothers, Frank Miller, and Charles Bukowski. A FINALIST FOR THE 2008 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL