Key West, 1925: the USA’s southernmost point and the most un-American of American locales; a rowdy border town surrounded by water and populated by sports fishermen, naval veterans and Cuban revolutionists – misfits and mavericks, all. After several years abroad, crime writer Hector Lassiter arrives on “Bone Key” to reunite with his lost love Brinke Devlin, a fellow author and the woman destined to become the first Mrs. Lassiter. Hector finds an island in turmoil — beset by fatal fires and savage attacks against women that the local press attributes to a baseball bat-wielding fiend dubbed “The Key West Clubber.” When one of the Clubber’s murders hits too close to home, the newlyweds begin to poke around the crimes. What they find casts doubt on the possibility of a single culprit. By turns sexy, sly and sinister, Forever’s Just Pretend barrels along at a page-turning pace to a shattering conclusion that casts new light on Hector Lassiter and his legend. “I loved Brinke Devlin the first time she came on the page and I loved her at the end, too. She’s a fascinating character.” —James Sallis, author of DRIVE "Entertaining...a must read for series fans and a solid introduction for new readers."-- Publishers Weekly The Hector Lassiter series was conceived as a broader story to be told over several novels from its inception. Before the second Lassiter novel was even published, Hector's arc was established and almost all of the novels were set in first draft, a highly unusual move in series fiction. "Forever's Just Pretend" can be read as a standalone novel, but taken with its predecessor, "One True Sentence," the two novels are the closest thing to sequels in the Lassiter canon. OTS introduced Hector's literary counterpart and great love, novelist Brinke Devlin, the woman who more or less "creates" the Hector Lassiter we come to know in subsequent novels. Brinke's biography is partially modeled after that of actress-turned-author Louise Brooks. Brinke was also inspired by the great female crime novelist Craig Rice. Insider's trivia: This novel marks the only Lassiter book where we meet a Hector blood-relative. The novel is also atypically devoid of historical figures, but does turn on several historical crimes, moved just a bit geographically. --Craig McDonald Craig McDonald is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hector Lassiter series has been published to international acclaim in numerous languages. McDonald's debut novel was nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Gumshoe awards in the U.S. and the 2011 Sélection du prix polar Saint-Maur en Poche in France. The Lassiter series has been enthusiastically endorsed by a who's who of crime fiction authors including Michael Connelly, Laura Lippmann, Daniel Woodrell, James Crumley, James Sallis, Diana Gabaldon, and Ken Bruen, among many others. McDonald is also the author of two highly praised non-fiction volumes on the subject of mystery and crime fiction writing, "Art in the Blood" and "Rogue Males," nominated for the Macavity Award.