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Eryk Pruitt

Biography

Eryk Pruitt

Eryk Pruitt is a filmmaker, novelist and screenwriter living in Durham, North Carolina. His films have earned top prizes at film festivals around the world, and his novel WHAT WE RECKON was a nominee for the Anthony Award. He can be found either at his desk, hard at work on another story, or mixing drinks at his bar, Yonder, in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Eryk Pruitt

Books by Eryk Pruitt

by Eryk Pruitt - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Hot on the heels of her podcast debut, Jess Keeler looks for another unsolved crime to investigate --- this time with a documentary crew in tow. But she can’t seem to find the right case…until a handsome stranger approaches her in a bar in Lake Castor, Virginia, with an incredible story about wrongful conviction. The Lake Castor sniper struck in 1984. Terrorizing the historically Black part of the old mill town, the killer claimed five lives. No one seemed worried about the first four victims. But when journalist Hal Broadstreet was killed, the police were suddenly interested. They arrested a suspect two days later. But did they get the right man? As evidence emerges pointing to a false confession and a murky connection to three bootleggers’ murders, Jess closes in on the truth --- and risks landing in the sights of the true sniper.

by Eryk Pruitt - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

True-crime podcaster Jess Keeler has returned to Deeton County, North Carolina, to pick up where her grandfather left off. Sheriff’s Deputy Big Jim Ballard was a respected detective --- until it all came crashing down during a 1972 murder investigation. For Jim, solving the murders of two teens should have been the highlight of his already storied career. Instead, he battled his own mind, unsure where his hunches ended and the truth began. Working from her grandfather’s disjointed notes, Jess is sure that she can finally put the cold case --- and her family’s shame --- to rest. Enlisting the help of disgraced reporter Dan Decker, Jess soon discovers ugly truths about the first investigation, which was shaped by corruption, egos and a family secret that may be the key to the crime.

by Eryk Pruitt - Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories, Suspense, Thriller

TOWNIES collects, for the first time, Eryk Pruitt's short fiction in a single volume. The title story, "Townies," details what really happened one night, after hours, in a once-popular East Texas sports bar, and the sinister revenge that would soon follow. "Let's Be Awful" tells the story of a cocktail waitress who decides that, after a horrid round of revenge porn, her days of playing the victim have past. In "A Lot Prettier (When You Smile)," we are introduced to a woman who can wrap any man around her finger and decides to put that powerful skill to use one last time.

by Eryk Pruitt - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Humor, Mystery

Jack Jordan is a smooth-talking con artist with a penchant for the fast life. He has snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. Summer Ashton is his partner-in-crime, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They’ve told their fair share of lies, and she’s having a devil of a time remembering what’s the truth. And recently, she’s been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she’s the brains of the operation. Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another. For these two career grifters, the sleepy East Texas countryside is but another pit stop on their rampage across the American South. Will it be their last?

by Eryk Pruitt - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Odie Shanks is the manager of a pizza parlor in Virginia, with dreams of Hollywood fame and stardom. When the establishment is robbed, he see cross-country crime as his ticket to the Big Time. Meanwhile, college student Melinda Kendall is on her own crime spree across the south, on the run from her drug-dealing, angry boyfriend. Eryk Pruitt’s second novel (following DIRTBAGS) is a wild ride across the American South.