Floodgate

Johnny Shaw is the author of the novels Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco and Big Maria. He is also the editor of the online fiction quarterly Blood & Tacos. Johnny received his MFA in screenwriting from UCLA and over the course of his writing career has seen his screenplays optioned, sold, and produced. For the last dozen years, Johnny has taught screenwriting. He has lectured at both Santa Barbara City College and UC Santa Barbara. Johnny lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, artist Roxanne Patruznick.

“Shaw (Plaster City) deftly mixes the odd and the humorous with cinematic action.” —Publishers Weekly

“Floodgate is at once hilarious, relentless, wicked, gritty, sardonic, and earnest. In other words, it’s a Johnny Shaw novel, which means it’s guaranteed to make your day vanish in a headlong rush of joy.” —Marcus Sakey, author of the bestselling Brilliance trilogy

“Darkly comic, marvelously inventive, and thrumming with the promise of cataclysmic violence no more than a page turn away, Floodgate is a runaway freight train. Auction City is a fantastic creation, equal to Frank Miller’s Sin City in the scope of its mythology—and in the godless depravity that lives within its borders.” —Owen Laukkanen, author of The Stolen Ones

“It’s well established that Johnny Shaw’s got a knack for character and a facility with language, but in Floodgate, Shaw tackles his most sweeping, epic tale to date—without sacrificing an iota of his trademark humor. It reads like The Warriors broke out in Dashiell Hammett’s Poisonville and The Untouchables were too hungover to take the call. Bottom line: I loved this book—and I think anybody with working eyeballs and a pulse is gonna, too.” —Chris Holm, author of The Killing Kind

“Johnny Shaw has crafted a uniquely devilish world with its delightfully memorable inhabitants and their odd histories, married with a page-turning plot full of surprises and twists down the scary back alleys of the mythical city of Auction, USA.” —Gregory Widen, author of Blood Makes Noise and screenwriter of Highlander

“Floodgate is dark and violent, twisted and funny in the way that makes you wonder if you should be laughing. Writing with equal parts gallows humor, history, and mayhem, Johnny Shaw recasts the police procedural as an exploration of corruption that gets weirder—yet makes more sense—at every turn.” —Dana Cameron, author of the Fangborn series

“Every new Johnny Shaw novel is a cause for celebration, and Floodgate may be his best yet. A tilt-a-whirl ride of crime and conspiracy that turns on a dime from madcap comedy, to high-octane thriller, to touching family drama. I absolutely loved it. Johnny Shaw is a mad genius.” —Sean Chercover, author of The Devil’s Game

“I hate Johnny Shaw. He's funny, and smart, and he makes me jealous. Floodgate is a noir novel by way of Big Trouble In Little China, and I wish I'd thought of it first. But don't take my word for it. Go read the book, and hate him your own self.” —Jay Stringer, author of Ways to Die in Glasgow