“At first Eric Red’s novel seems like a typical coming of age story, but very quickly it develops into a dark thriller which sucks every reader into it.” – Deadline.

Available at your favorite bookstores or at https://amzn.to/3xlVOOP

It’s publication day for my novel DON’T STAND SO CLOSE from Seidelman & Company.  The brand new book trailer drops today exclusively on JoBlo Movie Trailers!

https://bit.ly/3fna6Zp

The novel is available in trade paperback and Kindle editions at your favorite bookstore or on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3xlVOOP

I’m thrilled to announce three of my novels that have been out of print have found an excellent new publisher and later this year will be re-released in fine-quality trade paperback editions and Kindle editions available internationally. The books will feature brand new cover art by my friend the brilliantly talented illustrator, John Gallagher.

More to come…

Watch the YouTube video at: https://bit.ly/3po8uAX

I’m honored WHITE KNUCKLE received the Planet Award.

The novel was recently published in a beautiful new German translation edition from Berlin publisher Savage Types.

From the publisher’s description:  “There’s a killer on the road… He’s a big rig truck driver who goes by the CB handle White Knuckle, and he’s Jack the Ripper on eighteen wheels. For thirty years he has murdered hundreds of women in unimaginable ways, imprisoning them in a secret compartment in his truck, abducting them in one state and dumping their dead bodies across the country. Dedicated FBI agent Sharon Ormsby is on a mission to hunt down and stop White Knuckle. She goes undercover as a truck driver with a helpful long hauler named Rudy in a cross-country pursuit that will ultimately bring her face-to-face with White Knuckle in a pedal-to-the-metal, high-octane climax on a highway to Hell.”

Here’s what people had to say about WHITE KNUCKLE:

“Eric Red is the successor to Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch. And he proves it once again here in WHITE KNUCKLE with a “road” story that is every bit as memorable as Matheson’s DUEL. Partly horror with a psycho on the loose, partly police procedural, it’s a taut suspense story, and a welcome return to the road horror story by the man who defined this genre with his screenplays NEAR DARK and HITCHER. There is no padding in the story, the pacing moves as relentlessly as White Knuckle’s black Kenworth truck. Literally, no filler – all killer.”  – Robin Pierce, Starburst Magazine. (9/10 stars)

“The character of White Knuckle himself is one of the most gruesome and terrifying ever imagined. Like Thomas Harris did in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Red demonstrates that the scariest monsters are flesh-and-blood humans we might see on any given day, with an altogether different attitude about the value of life. Eric Red is an author to discover and enjoy, and WHITE KNUCKLE is highly recommended for those who prefer their horror with a huge dose of reality. But avoid reading it before taking a road trip, unless you’re prepared to alter your route before hitting the road.” – Bookgasm.

“Absolutely compelling reading…While WHITE KNUCKLE is punctuated by brutal violence and high action, it’s really powered by its characters. FBI Agent Sharon Ormsby is an effective protagonist that really comes to life, a strong and smart woman with a real life and a past that she will have to confront. The action of the story rests on her able shoulders…You can’t be sure what the future has in store for any character, and you can’t get comfortable with anything or take anyone’s fate for granted.” – Tim Potter, The Horror Review.

“Rip-roaring, knuckle-biting, constantly suspenseful adventure in this riveting mystery thriller by the author of IT WAITS BELOW, WHITE KNUCKLE pits a probationary FBI Special Agent with a sad background and finely tuned intuition against a human monster–a long hauler trucker who began killing and torturing animals at age six and who has slaughtered women and girls in interstate rampages for four decades. Rife with high-octane tension, WHITE KNUCKLE is a Don t Miss, but don’t read while traveling the highways, or sleeping alone.” – Mallory Heart Reviews (Five star review)

“Red’s prose is hammer down all the way. If you’re looking for a good, solid read to wile away a few summer hours, WHITE KNUCKLE is certainly worth a look.” – Cemetery Dance.

“WHITE KNUCKLE is a tautly gripping thriller that keeps you on edge throughout the entire cross-country trek. It’s a heart-thudding thrill-ride that must be taken this summer.” – Arrow In The Head at JoBlo.com.

“WHITE KNUCKLE is one mean mutha truck driver.” – Jack Ketchum.

The Western, I believe, is the ultimate genre.

The epic nomenclature of tough, strong cowboys in big hats with guns and horses pitted in physical and psychological contests of good versus evil fought on rugged frontier landscapes that externally mirror their own jagged internal natures is mythic and timeless. But while the entire world loves westerns, the U.S. owns the brand, and westerns remain our own uniquely American mythology and true contribution to pop culture. Westerns are the American Arthurian Legend.

Born from the harsh realities of the Old West, bred through a century of thrilling popular culture in novels and film that fired the public imagination, imprinted by books and movies that cross-pollinated each other to create a grand mythology that remains popular as ever today; it’s hard to tell now where the reality ends and myth begins with westerns, but cowboy good guys and bad guys are baked into our collective consciousness.

While there is a certain mystery to the mystique of the western, some things are certain: it’s a heroic genre, full of honor and nobility with bigger-than-life heroes and villains; it’s a physical genre, action-packed on the purest level with riding and fistfights and shooting; and it’s a cathartic genre, where morality tales about good versus evil end in a decisive, satisfying showdown at the climax that gives us a vicarious sense of triumph we rarely achieve in our complicated real world where right and wrong is not always clear.

Some part of us needs this as human beings on the deepest level, which is the appeal of all heroic mythologies going back forever. Reading or watching a western, however briefly, we experience the wish fulfillment of becoming the cowboys we played at being as kids and heroes we want to be as adults if only real life were as simple as saddling your horse, grabbing your guns, and riding to the rescue.

One of the things as a screenwriter and novelist I appreciate most about westerns is the genre can absorb every other genre into the storytelling; elements of other genres like thriller, mystery, crime, even horror, all can be injected into a western story. There is even a thriving genre of romance westerns! The classic template of cowboys and guns and horses and landscapes is a canvas that can be painted with many brushes; this very adaptability makes it such an exciting genre for a writer to explore.

While many folks know me for my horror and thriller films and books, in actuality westerns are my favorite genre and the genre I’ve worked the most in, having written and produced western movies, written western novels and even created a western comic book. The movie was an HBO film called The Last Outlaw starring Mickey Rourke, a gritty, bloody adventure about a gang of outlaws pursued by a posse led by their leader who they had left for dead.

Mixing the horror and western literary genres became the inspiration for my novels The Guns Of Santa Sangre and its sequel The Wolves Of El Diablo from SST Publications, about three tough American gunfighters battling several generations of werewolves who are bandits by day in Old Mexico.

My bestselling current western book series, the Joe Noose Westerns from Pinnacle Books & Kensington Books, revolves around the adventures of a tough and complex bounty hunter in 1800s Wyoming. With Noose, Hanging Fire, Branded and The Crimson Trail, the Noose series is on its fourth book with more to come.

My lifelong love of the Western genre continues to inspire me endlessly as a creative open range of possibilities always offering new frontiers in storytelling.

Saddle up.