Josh Weiss is an author from South Jersey. Raised in a proud Jewish home, he was instilled with an appreciation for his cultural heritage from a very young age. Today, Josh is utterly fascinated with the convergence of Judaism and popular culture in film, television, comics, literature, and other media. After college, he became a freelance entertainment journalist, writing stories for SYFY WIRE, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, and Marvel Entertainment. He currently resides in Philadelphia with his fiance e, as well as an extensive collection of graphic T-shirts, movie posters, vinyl records, and a few books, of course.
"The ending is so powerful one looks away from the
page."--Booklist
"In Weiss's superb sequel... Imaginative worldbuilding enhances the
page-turning mystery plot. Fans of Robert Harris's Fatherland will
be enthralled."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Clever... As a practicing Jew--and a guilt-ridden one to
boot--Baker is a rarity in crime fiction."--Kirkus Reviews
Josh's writing is beautifully visual, with characters so perfectly
realized, that his melding of real history and fiction takes on a
poignancy that transcends the 'What If?' genre and makes you worry,
'What If Again?'. I can't wait for another Morris Baker case!--Ben
Parker, writer/director of Burial & The Chamber
"Bright, terrifying, alternate-fiction-that-could-be fact,
detective Morris Baker returns full force to the scene of a
brand-new crime. Pick up Sunset Empire, and you won't put it down
until the very last word."--Paul Lally, author of the Amerika and
Rise Again trilogies
"Another clever collision between history and what-might-have-been,
but this time with the USA's misadventures in East Asia and
Indochina swept into the geopolitical storm. A gripping and
intriguing gumshoe adventure laced with gravitas and wit."--Ian R
MacLeod, Sidewise Award-winning author of Wake Up and Dream
"Beat The Devils by Josh Weiss blew me away. A brilliant alternate
history, a riveting fifties-era noir crime caper, and an edge of
your seat thriller--all wrapped into one! This is a stunning novel
that takes readers for a mind-bending ride with elements that seem
shockingly relevant in our current day and age."--Mark Greaney #1
NYT Bestselling Author of The Gray Man
"Alternate histories are difficult to craft, but the world of Beat
the Devils is built with hair-raising perfection. Weiss holds a
warped mirror to the American Dream -- revealing dark undercurrents
thread through with troubling, yet true, history. I couldn't turn
the pages fast enough!"--Ryan Graudin, award-winning author of Wolf
by Wolf
"Josh Weiss has announced himself as a bold new voice in the world
of pulp noir fiction. One part Raymond Chandler, one part Philip
Roth, a dash of Ben Hecht -- and you're about halfway there."--J.D.
Lifshitz, co-founder of BoulderLight Pictures and producer of The
Vigil
"Reading Josh Weiss's debut novel feels like riding shotgun with a
friend who's driving expertly through a winter storm... Weiss
creates palpable emotional depth, particularly for Baker, whose
yearslong tactic of burying trauma has stopped working."--New York
Times Book Review
"Thrillers involving the 1950s and an L.A. police detective are
close to being a dime-a-dozen, but not so with Josh Weiss's superb
Beat the Devils. It takes place in 1958 Los Angeles, but very
different from our own history, beginning with the shocking twist
that the President of the United States is former Wisconsin Senator
Joe McCarthy. Instead of the relative peace and prosperity of the
Eisenhower years, we're in the nightmare that is the McCarthy
years, filled with Communist hunts among government agencies,
businesses, and the media, as well as a secret police arresting and
sometimes executing those suspected of disloyalty. Into this richly
plotted and detailed novel is Detective Morris Baker, a Holocaust
survivor who must navigate the dangerous times of this place, where
Jews are second-class citizens, subject to pogroms and violence. A
murder involving a prominent journalist and a famed film director
sets him on a course of suspicion, betrayal, and double-crosses
against a background of deep paranoia and permanent war. A
remarkable achievement."--Brendan DuBois, award-winning and New
York Times bestselling author of Resurrection Day and Amerikan
Eagle
"Tight, well-paced, inventive, and inspirational, Weiss' splendid
debut is classic noir tinged with the slightest pinch of science
fiction; readers can thrill to the bits of dissonant history they
recognize, even as they revel in the mayhem and suspense that
permeate the text."--Mystery Scene Magazine
"To my delight, this book surpassed Beat the Devils. Sunset Empire
kept me guessing and I enjoyed all of the story's twists and turns.
If you love noir, crime stories, hard-nosed detectives, history,
and alternate reality, then this book is for you. Although it's a
work of fiction, Sunset Empire is very prescient to what's
currently happening in the world. I'm ready for more Morris Baker
stories!"--Michael Kronenberg Artist, Graphic Designer Film Noir
Foundation/NOIR CITY Magazine
Praise for Beat the Devils----
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