Sweet Nothing: Stories - Hardcover

PRAISE FOR ANGEL BABY

"When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer. Every character in Richard Lange's "Angel Baby" feels like flesh and bone, even the ones who show up just to be killed."
---Marilyn Stasio, "New York Times Book Review"

"Strong and relentless....Beautifully paced, deftly written....Lange knows his way around the border...but he also recognizes something essential about character....A book that does so much so well."
---David L. Ulin, "Los Angeles Times"

"Thrilling and cinematic....Lange inhabits his characters. There's no pure black and white to them, only varying and unexpected shades of gray.... Intense, extreme and definitely grimy and readers will find that's a good thing."
---Christian DuChateau, CNN

"A fast-paced thrill ride.... A Tarantino-like vortex of mayhem and violence."
---Cameron Martin, "Daily Beast"

"Lange showcases a cast of complicated, multidimensional characters....His unflinching glimpses into people's hearts, where darkness resides alongside the light, make this a riveting read."
-Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, "Shelf Awareness"

"Lange is a writer firing on all cylinders who belongs in the top tier of novelists working today.... Lange calls what he's doing 'grime' fiction. His Los Angeles and Hollywood aren't populated with beautiful people. He's writing about the outcasts and fringe dwellers, and doing so with grace and beauty.... Lange's the real deal, whatever label you choose for him."
---Jason Kuiper, "Omaha World-Herald"

"Lange's prose is sharp throughout and his pacing moves with the momentum of rolling thunder.... No one is good in this superb portrait of wrecked lives, but no one is entirely evil either. Everyone is painfully human and recognizable....A truly great read."
---Derek Hill, "Mystery Scene"

""Angel Baby", a lean novel that leaps and signs with hard-boiled intuition, is Lange's third book, and it's his best work yet.... If "Angel Baby "starts out at a gallop, it pretty quickly settles into a full-on sprint."
---William Boyle, "Los Angeles Review of Books"

Praise for SWEET NOTHING:
"I've been reading Richard Lange's work since "Dead Boys" blew my doors off years ago, and goddamn, the man just keeps getting better. The stories in "Sweet Nothing "traffic in the vagaries of the human heart, those wants and needs that push us down dark paths. His vision is steely-eyed, yet you sense that Lange loves his characters-even the worst of them-and that compassion sharpens your own emotional investment in this powerful brace of stories." Craig Davidson, "author of "Cataract City"""

PRAISE FOR ANGEL BABY
"When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you're in the hands of a real writer. Every character in Richard Lange's "Angel Baby" feels like flesh and bone, even the ones who show up just to be killed."
---Marilyn Stasio, "New York Times Book Review"

Set on the dark side of Los Angeles, the masterful new collection from an award-winning and highly praised "natural-born storyteller" (Ron Rash).

In these gripping and intense stories, Richard Lange returns to the form that first landed him on the literary map.

These are edge-of-your-seat tales: A prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes. A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire. An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot. A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.

SWEET NOTHING is an unforgettable collection that shows once again why T.C. Boyle wrote, "Lange's stories combine the truth-telling and immediacy of Raymond Carver with the casual hip of Denis Johnson. There is a potent artistic sensibility at work here" (on Dead Boys).