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★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “An enormous amount of fun. Wholly fresh and original. Wickedly funny. Within a couple of chapters, you’ll think you know where this is going . . . a few chapters more and you’ll realize you were very wrong. The Great Dick is a hot, sweaty, magic- and murder-infused rollercoaster of a story that takes you in every direction except the one you’re expecting. I laughed. I gagged. I loved it.”—David Moody, author of Hater and Autumn. Mark Johnson (producer, Breaking Bad) and Guillermo Del Toro (director, The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) bought the rights to Hater.Autumn became a film starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “If debut author Barry Maher set out to write a book consumed with mayhem, peopled with borderline Ivy Leaguers in desperate circumstances who seem to care little or nothing for each other, and make it a story so compulsively readable that you’ll carry it to the kitchen in the middle of the night while you’re waiting for your tea kettle to boil, he did, and this is it. The Great Dick is pretty great fiction.”—Jacquelyn Mitchard, No.1 New York Times bestselling author of The Good Son and The Deep End of the Ocean, which was the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “What a page turner! Witty, literate, scary, sexy, and powerfully evocative of Southern California trying to leave the Sixties behind. I can’t wait to read his next novel. Barry Maher is a brilliant new literary talent.”—Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassins and Masquerade. The Hades Factor, co-written with Robert Ludlum, became a CBS miniseries. Library Journal called her “The reigning queen of espionage fiction.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Powerful sexual tension . . . wry self-knowing humor… and a pitch-perfect evocation of an era—Barry Maher’s debut novel is the Comp Lit classic you always wanted to read, a witches’ brew of sexual tension, metaphysical speculation, lurid crime, tabloid scandal, and black magic, all served up with sly wit and some unexpected grace notes. And yes, it’s called The Great Dick, so it’s got that going for it, too.”—Michael Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Hunter. Michael has sold well over two million books
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “I love the writing! Incredibly readable—the pages just fly by—and hands-down the most unique tale I’ve read in years.”—Lisa Black, New York Times bestselling author of Every Kind of Wicked
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Barry Maher is a highly original and completely delightful new voice in crime fiction. I loved it!”—Deon Meyer, international bestselling author of The Last Hunt, winner of many awards including the Barry Award for Best Thriller in the USA; Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique from France; the Deutsche Krimi Preis (twice); the Swedish Martin Beck Award; the ATKV Prose Prize (three times); the ATKV Suspense Fiction Prize (five times); the M-Net Award for Most Filmic Novel (twice). Dead Before Dying and Trackers were turned into international TV series
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Novels about catastrophic failures are often the best kind of novels, and Barry Maher’s The Great Dick’s unforgettable Steve Witowski proves himself an indelible part of that canon. Echoes of Denis Johnson, Carl Hiaasen, even Thomas Pynchon—those hilarious laureates of American calamity—abound, but Maher has a deadpan command that’s entirely his own. The Great Dick is an absolute blast. This book is an utter delight and exceptionally well-realized. Reading it was a total joy.”—Matthew Specktor, author of the New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, American Dream Machine and The Golden Hour. Founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “With a voice that jumps off the page, Barry Maher delivers a smart debut novel with a wink and a smirk that is part thriller, part supernatural horror. The Great Dick is like the product of a lusty, literary one night stand between Anne Rice and Lee Child. Here’s hoping Maher progresses his lead character into a follow-up story.”—Pamela Fagan Hutchins, USA Today bestselling author of The Patrick Flint novels. Pamela has sold over 3 million books and is the winner of the Silver Falchion Award for Best Adult Mystery
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Time and again, I found myself stopping and admiring the way [Barry Maher] has put together a sentence, the words he used. A man on the run, a beautiful woman, and a spooky old church combine with crackling writing, laser humor, and a little bit of magic to create a book that will keep readers turning the pages. Add a touch of the paranormal, a dash of intrigue, and a missing body, and The Great Dick is a great read!”—Casey Daniels, bestselling author of Don of the Dead
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Barry Maher has got a wicked voice and a razor-sharp tongue to match. He’s found a countercultural cad for the ages with his anti-hero Steve Witowski. Don’t be surprised to hear that name echoed alongside Raoul Duke, Old Bull Lee or Mark Renton in the future . . . a great book.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking and Whisper Down the Lane. Co-author of the film, The Boy, starring Elijah Wood. Clay teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA program at Pace University
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “WOW! What a fascinating read. Barry Maher has created the ultimate antihero in Steve Witowski. The Great Dick is a powerful supernatural thriller that scares the crap out of you. Just when you think you know what’s going on, you discover you don’t. A well-written, haunting debut that grabs hold and refuses to let you go. This is a book I’m not going to forget. Different and impossible to put down.”—Chris Goff, bestselling author of Dark Waters and Red Sky, Military Writers Society of America Gold Medalist for Mystery/Thriller
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “A rollicking, off-kilter joy ride in the vein of Bret Easton Ellis and Jack Kerouac, The Great Dick hits all the laser-sharp high notes of a modern-day hero on the run, as told by one of the more accessible voices I’ve read in ages. Compelling, twisting, irreverent, and entertaining, The Great Dick blends creative fiction and literary thriller in an unstoppable story for current times.”—Claire Fullerton, five-time award-winning author of Little Tea and Mourning Dove. Winner of the 2020 International Book Award
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Brilliant! Witty, fast, and fun. Maher’s novel makes your own relationship issues pale compared to the protagonist, Stephen Witowski. A failed small-time drug dealer on the lam, his problems are just beginning when he stumbles across a stunningly beautiful woman under assault by a crazed assailant mumbling in Latin. A taste of Fatal Attraction with a rewrite by Stephen King gives you a sampling of how Witowski’s ‘harmful to worse’ scenario is about to play out in twists and turns you cannot predict. Best manuscript tossed my way, ever.”—Kevin Tinto, author of the Indie Mega-bestselling Ice Trilogy, with over 500,000 copies sold and 4,700 reviews on Amazon
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “I loved it . . . imaginative, told in an exciting voice, and altogether fascinating—reminded me of Graham Greene.”—John C. Sheldon, co-author with Gayle Lynds of A Triumph of Logic
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Barry Maher’s The Great Dick is a romp equal parts Indiana Jones and Elmore Leonard, with a smidge of Ira Levin for good measure!”—John F.D. Taff, multiple Bram Stoker Award-Nominated author of The End in All Beginnings and The Fearing
