Salty: A Novel - Softcover

Mark Haskell Smith is the author of five novels, Moist, Delicious, Salty, Baked, and Raw, and the non-fiction Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Vulture, National Post, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Smith is an award-winning screenwriter and assistant professor in the MFA program for Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside, Palm Desert Graduate Center. He lives in Los Angeles. He likes Mexican food.

Graham Greene meets the Marx Brothers and the result is Salty, Mark Haskell Smith's riveting new novel of unquiet Americans on the loose in Thailand. Profane, endearing, and just absurd enough to be totally convincing, Salty is both a comic thriller and a thoughtful meditation on love, lust, and the American way.” Tom Drury, author of The Driftless Area

For Turk, saving the day is almost as impossible as staying monogamous. Luckily, being funny comes easily to screenwriter Smith, who writes like Carl Hiaasen, cheerfully skewering Homeland Security, heavy metal, compromised Hollywood morals, American arrogance, fetishes and anything else worth taking a shot at, i.e. everything. Through it all, Turk rocks on. Smith just plain rocks.” Miami Herald

[Mark Haskell Smith’s] characters include a not-so-usual suspect lineup of hustlers, sex addicts, supermodels, failed rock stars, wine-buff cops, psychos and flakes. Haskell Smith writes well, especially about sex and food, and the multilayered plots move so fast they feel fresh. Think Elmore Leonard meets Mario Batali.” Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times

There is one word for this farce about a fat alcoholic rock star whose wife is kidnapped by Thai pirates: vulgar . On further thought, a couple of other words describe this book colorful, satirical, and hilarious!” Library Journal

Smith alternates spoofy, lush travel-writer prose with dead-on dialogue and jibes at the lives of the undeservedly privileged. A romp to relish.” Kirkus Reviews

An exquisitely written thriller that is as entertaining as it is intelligent while also being confidently garnished by Smith with copious amounts of humor: a perfect prose concoction that is fit for any literary palate.” Entertainment World

No doubt about it, Smith knows how to spin a good yarn.” Reviewingtheevidence.com

Salty is a loud, drunk, sexy party which, like its main character, reveals a golden heart.” The Calgary Herald

Salty is a delicious blend of humor, intrigue and sexiness. It’s rare to find such an intelligent thriller that balances action with humor.” PopSyndicate

Shady dealings, wry political commentary and a steady dose of humor make the romp a heady treat. Now giddily into its second printing, Salty is a bromide with a beat.” Pasadena Weekly