Winner of the Watertower Press Novel Prize. Release date: 2/14/2023
Burnett has created an unconventional and magnetic character who makes a memorable first impression. Strong characterizations will keep readers engaged in what happens next in this murder tale. — Kirkus Reviews
“Tony Burnett’s novel, Watermelon Tattoo, is one wild ride. This Texas hill country bildungsroman features Jacqui Benderman, a feral, beautiful, and musically talented eighteen-year-old on her journey from daddy Sarge’s watermelon farm to international stardom. Fast-paced, lusty, and chocked full of wry and insightful commentary on self-discovery, the music industry, and religion, this is one great read by a seasoned author.”
—Gary V. Powell, author of Lucky Bastard, Beyond Redemption, and Super Blood Wolf Moon
In his debut novel Watermelon Tattoo, Tony Burnett serves up the fecundity of Texas in temperatures hovering just above triple digits. Part high octane thriller, part love story, the reader moves fluidly between rural earthiness and Austin’s scintillating music scene. We follow Burnett’s protagonist Jaqui, a gorgeous 18-year-old with an Ella Fitzgerald voice from a tractor seat to the open mic stage and beyond. Her meth-fueled antagonist is never far behind. The author has an eye for detail, an ear for dialogue, but what’s so extraordinary is the novel’s ease at blending pacing, plotting, and supple syntax. Spinning cones of dust briefly appeared and disintegrated. This season had ended, for melons, for rain, for redemption. Burnett’s characters all seem set on a kind of liberation, a release from or a rescue of the self. His body-on-body scenes—and be forewarned Burnett writes of coupling in myriad forms—are breathtaking, some down and dirty, others beautifully transcendent. A thriller that Don Winslow would not be ashamed to claim, the pages turn by themselves.
–Stephanie Dickinson, author of Razor Wire Wilderness
Watermelon Tattoo by Tony Burnett
$19.95
Description
Burnett has created an unconventional and magnetic character who makes a memorable first impression. Strong characterizations will keep readers engaged in what happens next in this murder tale. — Kirkus Reviews
“Tony Burnett’s novel, Watermelon Tattoo, is one wild ride. This Texas hill country bildungsroman features Jacqui Benderman, a feral, beautiful, and musically talented eighteen-year-old on her journey from daddy Sarge’s watermelon farm to international stardom. Fast-paced, lusty, and chocked full of wry and insightful commentary on self-discovery, the music industry, and religion, this is one great read by a seasoned author.”
—Gary V. Powell, author of Lucky Bastard, Beyond Redemption, and Super Blood Wolf Moon
In his debut novel Watermelon Tattoo, Tony Burnett serves up the fecundity of Texas in temperatures hovering just above triple digits. Part high octane thriller, part love story, the reader moves fluidly between rural earthiness and Austin’s scintillating music scene. We follow Burnett’s protagonist Jaqui, a gorgeous 18-year-old with an Ella Fitzgerald voice from a tractor seat to the open mic stage and beyond. Her meth-fueled antagonist is never far behind. The author has an eye for detail, an ear for dialogue, but what’s so extraordinary is the novel’s ease at blending pacing, plotting, and supple syntax. Spinning cones of dust briefly appeared and disintegrated. This season had ended, for melons, for rain, for redemption. Burnett’s characters all seem set on a kind of liberation, a release from or a rescue of the self. His body-on-body scenes—and be forewarned Burnett writes of coupling in myriad forms—are breathtaking, some down and dirty, others beautifully transcendent. A thriller that Don Winslow would not be ashamed to claim, the pages turn by themselves.
–Stephanie Dickinson, author of Razor Wire Wilderness
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$15.95