Nazis, black magic and secret history collide in Craig McDonald’s The Great Pretender. In 2007, McDonald launched the Hector Lassiter series with the Edgar Award-nominated debut, "Head Games", pairing the globetrotting, larger-than-life crime novelist with equally legendary filmmaker and amateur magician Orson Welles. McDonald’s international bestselling and critically acclaimed follow-up, "Toros & Torsos", extended the story of Hector and Orson’s uneasy friendship while exploring the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short, the so-called 'Black Dahlia', whom some came to suspect Welles of actually having killed. "The Great Pretender" fits the capstone on the Lassiter/Welles legend, spanning their decades-long, uneasy association from the run-up to Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds “Panic Broadcast of 1938” to the set of the noir classic "The Third Man" and the ruins of post-war Vienna. The novel finds the actor and author in a race for a lost holy relic promising its possessor infinite power but a ghastly death if lost. Hector and Orson’s competitors in their quest for the 'Spear of Destiny' or 'Holy Lance' include German occultists, members of the Third Reich, a sensuous Creole Voodoo priestess and a strangely obsessed J. Edgar Hoover. Drawing on dark historical legend and rich in atmosphere and character, The Great Pretender is the latest instalment in the series BookPage called “wildly inventive” and The Chicago Tribune declared the “most unusual, and readable” crime fiction “to come along in years.” *** Praise “With each of his Hector Lassiter novels, Craig McDonald has stretched his canvas wider and unfurled tales of increasingly greater resonance.” —Megan Abbott “Reading a Hector Lassiter novel is like having a great uncle pull you aside, pour you a tumbler of rye, and tell you a story about how the 20th century 'really' went down.” —Duane Swierczynski “What critics might call eclectic, and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness -- and it's the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: "There's a right way, a wrong way, and my way." You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald's novels. He's built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg'lar roads, and he's brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour.” —James Sallis “Craig McDonald is wily, talented and - rarest of the rare - a true original. He writes melancholy poetry that actually has melancholy poets wandering around, but don't turn your backs on them, either.” —Laura Lippman “James Ellroy + Kerouac + Coen brothers + Tarantino = Craig McDonald.” —Amazon.fr Welcome to Hector Lassiter #4 in Betimes Books new chronologically-sequenced release of old and new Hector Lassiter titles. "The Great Pretender" is one of the never-before-seen Lassiters, reuniting author/screenwriter Hector Lassiter with the precocious actor/director/magician Orson Welles. Welles and Hector previously crossed paths in "Head Games" on the set of Welles' noir classic "Touch of Evil," and in "Toros & Torsos," where Welles is glimpsed filming "The Lady From Shanghai." "The Great Pretender" covers the larger arc of their friendship from a first meeting in Dublin, Ireland, to a trek across Spain and on to New York City where Welles is seen prepping his infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast. This novel also foreshadows America's entry into World War II, setting the table for Lassiter #5, "Roll the Credits," that opens in occupied Paris. --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.