Through poetically spare phrases and emotionally evocative dialog, James Sallis inspires both boundless beauty and slow-burn, unimaginable terror—at times simultaneously. In The Long-Legged Fly, Sallis skillfully, patiently, brilliantly peels back the skin, muscle, and bone of each character, exposing both their highest promise and most consuming evil. This is an exciting book; far more than a crime fiction. It is an ingenious, visceral expose of the dark poetry that, thread by ebony thread, is woven into the fabric of each of us. This is the extraordinary and expansive talent of James Sallis.