David Lozell Martin Books In Order

The Crying Heart Tattoo

An international cult classic and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, The Crying Heart Tattoo follows the unlikely romance between a young man and a woman more than twice his age. Beginning their relationship when Sonny is just fourteen and Felicity thirty four, the couple share a poignant history together that ends only upon Felicity’s passing despite four marriages, numerous obstacles, and enough misadventures to challenge the most loyal of lovers.

At once heartbreaking and euphoric, their story mirrors the tale that Felicity has passed down to Sonny, a story uncanny in its similarity to their own: when a prehistoric outcast locates her former tribe, she falls in love with a young boy.

A masterful novel first published a quarter of a century ago, The Crying Heart Tattoo keeps the impossible within reach, proving once and for all that the struggle for true love is worth everything.

Lie to Me

A tense, gripping psychological thriller about a cop’s pursuit of a serial killer by the author of The Crying Heart Tattoo.

Love Me to Death

What if your best friend started killing your worst enemies? For Roscoe Bird, this nightmare becomes a reality when an old childhood friend comes knocking at his door. Peter Tummelier talks about past hurts and old enemies as if time has stood still. But when bodies start turning up, murdered in horrifying ways, suspicion is placed on Roscoe. And Roscoe knows the one person the only person who could have committed these deeds. But the question is why? How can he reach into the twisted depths of Peter’s mind to understand his diabolical motives? And how can Roscoe clear his name as the prime suspect of the murders? But most of all, how can Roscoe avoid becoming Peter’s next victim the victim Peter has been waiting for…

Cul-De-Sac

suspenseful, frightening, and gripping thriller about a family secret and a wrongly accused murderer from the author of Lie to Me. Here, David Martin brings back his most engaging hero: retired Detective Teddy Camel a.k.a. ‘The Human Lie Detector’ on his last case.

Pelikan

The journey begins when Charlie Curtis travels to New Orleans on a deathbed assignment from his father. The mission? To find his father’s half brother, James Joseph Pelikan, a criminal ringleader of the French Quarter from midnight until dawn in places where tourists seldom venture. Barely off the train, Charlie witnesses the murder of one of Pelikan‘s cronies at the hand of a woman whose only adornment is a fishhook through her lower lip. And so begins acclaimed thriller writer David Lozell Martin’s carnival ride to enlightenment, the ensuing caper revealing just how far a man will go to find redemption.

Crazy Love

David Martin has proved to be an unusually versatile writer, both of acclaimed thrillers like Lie to Me and of love stories like The Crying Heart Tattoo. Now, in Crazy Love, Martin has created remarkable characters and his richest story yet: a chronicle of passion and heartbreak.

Joseph Long, known locally as Bear, is a farmer ridiculed by neighbors for his strangeness. Lonely nearly to the point of madness and so desperate for human touch, he leans against the hands of the barber giving him a haircut.

Katherine Renault is a successful career woman, wondering why, if she has the perfect job and the perfect fianc , does she feel so hollow inside even before the illness, the disfiguring surgery.

They should have nothing in common though he has a magical touch with animals, he considers them property, while she can’t tolerate their mistreatment. She’s a sophisticated city dweller who can’t abide violence, and he’s never traveled beyond the local town and has blood on his hands. But love is crazy, and soon they are rescuing the injured of the world just as they rescue each other. Enduring violence and loss, they live in a domestic bliss wide and deep enough to dilute most of life’s dramas, until fate tests them again.

Funny, erotic, emotionally powerful, yet surprisingly unsentimental about our relationships with each other and with animals in our care, Crazy Love will heal broken hearts.

Facing Rushmore

The St. Louis Memorial Arch, 630 feet of gleaming stainless steel, twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, built to withstand earthquakes, has been so severely damaged that it’s barely standing. What’s even more unsettling to a nervous nation: The arch was damaged and turned black overnight but without apparent cause no bombs, no guns, no chemicals. There are suspects, however. And Charlie Hart, a clean cut FBI agent in the all American mode, is on the trail of three: Lakota John Brown Dog, an otherworldly who*re, and ‘the grandfather,’ who’s in contact with a shadowy but powerful group known as the allies. And matters only get scarier for America after the arch is damaged…
the four stone presidents on Mount Rushmore come under an attack that a hundred armed agents and a dozen assault helicopters are powerless to stop…
then it’s on to a second battle of the Little Bighorn. The white man’s civilization ends with a lone wolf howling in the desolate forests of Manhattan. The force majeure behind these events is ghost dancing, which began in 1890 as a promise to Indians that America’s original illegal aliens the Europeans and their descendants could be eradicated without war, without killing. How this promise can be fulfilled more than a hundred years later, in present day America, is one of the compelling mysteries at the heart of Facing Rushmore. Martin’s ten novels have given him a cult following. His thriller, Lie to Me, and his eccentric love story, The Crying Heart Tattoo, are adored by fans worldwide. But Facing Rushmore is in a class by itself. The novel’s unforgettable characters dare to consider a provocative question in the post 9/11 world: Can the technological power of the United States, a power that has dominated the world, be overwhelmed by a superior spiritual force? Facing Rushmore will thrill and provoke readers. It’s a history lesson, a page turner, and one hell of a journey. If you’re a Martin fan, the good news is: He’s back. If this is your first trip with him, get ready for the ride of your life.

Our American King

When America fell, she fell hard. Now chaos and calamity fill the vacuum left by a collapsing federal government. The strong and the armed prey on the law abiding. Only the wealthiest Americans, who have bought up and seized every available commodity, get by unscathed. Protected by the United States Army and their own hired guards, the rich have made their deals. But no one is making deals on behalf of the Americans who have not. John and Mary, a long married couple, are starving to death in a suburb of Washington, D.C. In the delirium of starvation, John becomes convinced that an American king has risen up benevolent, uncorrupted, and able to restore faith and prosperity to the nation. Mary walks with her husband into the District of Columbia to see if there’s any truth to this madness of an American king. At the fence bordering the White House, which has been abandoned, overrun, and destroyed, John and Mary find a man who is hanging dead politicians ‘the way they spoke their words,’ upside down and backwards. John convinces this man, Tazza, that he can be king and that the people of America will find as much strength and goodness in serving a king as they did in practicing a democracy. Charismatic, royal, and alpha, Tazza is adored by the American people. He converts marauders to his cause, organizes scavengers to feed the hungry, and seems destined to establish a beloved and benevolent American monarchy. But Tazza cannot escape the inevitability of history, and when the federal government returns, a war ensues that sweeps across America and lasts for decades. In this conflict between forms of government, in a people’s fight for survival, Our American King unearths massive forces and powerful truths and challenges readers with provocative questions: If a calamity destroyed the American government, who among us would survive? Who would die from weakness and fear? What kind of leaders would emerge? In vintage Martin style, Our American King grabs the reader on page one and never lets go. This is a journey by turns dire and thrilling, authoritative and mythical, heartbreaking and magical. For decades now, David Lozell Martin’s novels, including cult favorites Lie to Me and The Crying Heart Tattoo, have set the bar for powerful and eccentric thrillers. This new one is his most powerful yet.

Losing Everything

In Losing Everything, his first book of nonfiction, acclaimed novelist David Lozell Martin tells his wildest, most outlandish story yet his own.

One evening in the mountainous forest of his isolated West Virginia farmhouse, Martin became disoriented when searching for a horse who had wandered off the property. Wading through the dark and guiding his horse with a belt around its neck, Martin felt as though every step was taking him deeper into the mountains. Instead, he unknowingly spent the night walking in a wide circle that brought him back to where he started. This quickly became a metaphor for Martin’s life. ‘The more lost I get, the closer to home I come.’

After growing up with a violent father who nearly killed Martin’s clinically insane mother, Martin pursued a writer’s life with a vengeance, becoming vulnerable to struggles with alcohol, financial ruin, and legal feuds. Then, after a betrayal by his soul mate, Martin’s sanity was in as much jeopardy as his mother’s had ever been a state of mind that in his case led to gunfire, divorce, and at least one trip to the emergency room.

But Losing Everything is less about getting lost and more about finding your way home again. In his pursuit of stability, Martin uncovered lessons that might help others who have encountered loss: take pleasure in something as small as an ampersand, keep a list of people you know who have died, meet your own death like a warrior, and be glad you don’t own a monkey.

Deeply personal yet surprisingly universal, Martin’s story is for anyone who has wandered astray. If not a road map, his journey is a guide, providing hard earned wisdom to illuminate the path home.