SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Gambler’s Quartet, a novel by local author Brad Summerhill, will be launched through a series of events beginning on July 21. Described as “the city of free will,” Reno is the setting for a tale that takes readers on a brief, dark journey into the lives of characters struggling to be more than they are. Part Dostoyevsky and part crime noir, Gambler’s Quartet winds its way through a neon dreamworld toward an ending both shocking and inevitable.
This marks the first published novel for Summerhill, a writer and professor of English at Truckee Meadows College. The July 21 event will be held at Sundance Books, and the July 22 event will be held at the Sierra Tap House. Both events will include a reading by the author, who will also be available to sign copies of the book.
Gambler’s Quartet, which will retail for $12, will be available locally and online at Amazon.com.
Details
Sundance Books–6 p.m., July 21
1155 West 4th Street
Reno, Nevada
Sierra Tap House–6 p.m., July 22
253 West 1st Street
Reno, Nevada
What others are saying about Gambler’s Quartet
Gambler’s Quartet is a solid debut novel that exposes Reno and Nevada in authentic ways as it plays upon standard perceptions and cliches of the underworld of crime and addiction. Brad Summerhill understands the tragic seduction of gambling, and his work introduces that bleak and complex world in a tight, often tense but ultimately redemptive narrative that challenges our notion of human strength and vulnerability. At the same time, he renders characters who are less than endearing but whose weaknesses are forgivable.
— H. Lee Barnes, 2010 inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and author of Dummy Up and Deal and The Lucky
Brad Summerhill writes a story of obsession and betrayal with an intensity that burns like neon. His characters move through a surreal landscape of desire, terror and loneliness. You will move into a country few pass through alive. You will be surprised what you find when you emerge.
— Mary Sojourner, author of Going through Ghosts and She Bets Her Life: A True Story of Gambling Addiction
Brad Summerhill brings his city, Reno, alive in his debut book, Gambler’s Quartet. It is a bleak and spare novel that pits his characters against each other, and at the same time, unites them against the traps and trappings of their settings. Even as his characters allow everything they love, from family to money, to slip helplessly through his fingers, his rhythms and descriptions grab a hold of you like a clenched fist.
–Joe McCoy, Editor, The Nevada Review
About Virginia Avenue Press
Named after the Tom Waits’ song that erroneously identifies a major thoroughfare through Reno, Virginia Avenue Press was created to provide an additional outlet for aspiring and published authors alike that draw from western and Nevada culture.
For more information, please vist our website at www.ExtraditionMusicReno.com.
