Desire Is Death

The man he hires, Cleon, is used to being a mob enforcer but right now he needs work. Cleon confronts Riley in a bar, where Riley pulls a pistol. He fires but Cleon escapes, unscathed and vengeful.

Riley discovers who Cleon is and departs with Maggie, an ex-lover from back east, and Glen. They drive 70 miles south, from Oakland to Santa Cruz. Where Bay Area housing costs are intact, and they decide they need to pull another job. Maggie has one in mind. In Oakland.

The job was her reason to come to Oakland. That and Riley, who she was certain could pull it. It’s a jewel heist. Recon tells Riley the job requires not only a driver, but another man as well. He knows a driver, chooses Glen as the other man.

They pull the job but the Russian fence requires convincing before he’ll pay. Riley’s crew threatens them with guns and takes off with the money. This gets the Russian enforcer, Voronin, on their trail.

Riley, Maggie, and Glen return to Santa Cruz, where Voronin finds them. They escape him, return to Oakland, Voronin hot on their tails. Riley, Maggie, and Glen seem doomed, but who will win the race to kill them? Or will it be Cleon and Voronin who die?

Critical Acclaim for Desire Is Death:

“Rob Pierce's newest is epic, but lean and mean. Stripped to the bone and straight to the point. There's no fat on these sentences and they chug along relentlessly, dragging you into their world. Desire Is Death feels like the novel Richard Stark and Elmore Leonard never got to collaborate on.” —Paul Heatley, author of the Tom Rollins series

“Rob Pierce is a master of hardboiled crime fiction and a true heir to George V. Higgins. His dialogue is as sharp as a whipcrack, his characters are richly drawn, and his stories are brutally engrossing.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of the Tommy Bennett yarns

“Every sentence Rob Pierce writes feels like a small but vital piece of meticulously cut glass, sharp and deadly, with no words wasted. The tightly but vividly composed milieu of his books, particularly his latest, is one of despair, disillusionment, and desperation, sordid souls soaked in blood and booze, driven by fear of death more than love of life. The narrative beats relentlessly with the fragile pulse of Oakland’s fringe dwellers, the characters’ inner and outer lives exposed by probing flashlights throwing harsh light on the darkness of the human condition. This is noir fiction as underground street literature, which is why it rings so true. Desire Is Death is vintage Pierce.” —Will Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me and A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge

“Desire Is Death is a hell ride, chock full of witty dialogue, cleverly drawn characters, and a plot that speeds along on all cylinders. Lovable or loathsome—often both at the same time—Pierce’s characters compel from the outset. I downed it in one sitting.” —Chris McGinley, author of Once These Hills

“Too much alcohol and not enough sex. Or is it too much sex? A life as you age of bitterness, disconnection, and grim financial prospects. We're in the realm of a certain, and not uncommon, American man. It's a type Rob Pierce can delineate very well, and he's back at it in Desire Is Death, his newest excursion into noir novel as an exploration of a particular type of a very American form of loneliness.” —Scott Adlerberg, author of The Screaming Child