Stokoe's first mainstream crime-fiction novel will shock and awe.

"Matthew Stokoe's Empty Mile exemplifies everything that makes good noir so gut-strumming. Surprising, edgy, dangerous, nihilistic, and totally bad-ass."
--Tom Piccirilli, author of Shadow Season

"The tension builds unbearably in this magnificent 'Sierras Noir' novel. Stokoe writes damaged people worthy of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson. His star-crossed lovers and broken families will steal your heart, even as Stokoe drives the knife home. I couldn't stop reading."
--Denise Hamilton, author of the best-selling Eve Diamond series

"No point in turning up the 'brightness' on your set. Empty Mile is a failed-brakes careen of guilt and payback, a Lynchian labyrinth of obsession, secrets, and revenge in small-town America."
--Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black

"Like the best noir, Empty Mile is rife with desire, desperation, and despair. Matthew Stokoe's people have dubious motives, ugly secrets, crushing guilt, and suffer dire consequences. But they're redeemed by the rarest gold in contemporary crime fiction--an author's genuine empathy."
--Eddie Muller, author of Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir

When Johnny Richardson comes home to the town of Oakridge he has one thing on his mind--putting right a terrible mistake he made eight years ago. Revisiting the past, though, is a dark and dangerous game in small town America. When a careless sexual episode leads to the suicide of the town's first lady, Johnny finds himself the target of a revenge campaign that threatens to tear apart the fragile world he's built with his brain-damaged brother and depressive girlfriend among the gold-bearing mountains of Northern California.

Left an unexplained piece of land when his father mysteriously disappears, Johnny must unravel its secrets in a desperate bid to protect those he loves. His efforts to do this, though, have deadly consequences and will ultimately force him to confront not only his own failings, but the very nature of guilt itself.

A searing meditation on the futility of trying to right the wrongs of the past, Empty Mile blends elements of thrilling urban noir with the wide open spaces of outdoor adventure in a story that reflects America's contemporary uncertainty about itself.

Matthew Stokoe was born in England and grew up in Australia. Since then, he has lived in a number of places in between and presently divides his time between Sydney and Northern California. He is the author of the groundbreaking novels Cows and High Life, and is internationally regarded as one of the most daring and innovative writers working today.