# The Contortionist’s Handbook

Craig Clevenger

A stunning novel about a brilliant young forger who continually reinvents himself to escape the authorities, described by Chuck Palahniuk, bestselling author of FIGHT CLUB, as 'the best book I have read in easily five years. Easily. Maybe ten years.'Following a near fatal overdose of painkillers, Daniel Fletcher is resuscitated in a Los Angeles emergency room and detained for psychiatric evaluation. Through a series of questions and tests, the psychiatrist must ascertain whether the patient intended to kill himself, or whether he can walk free. What the psychiatrist doesn't know is that 'Daniel Fletcher' is actually John – Johnny – Dolan Vincent, a brilliant young forger who continually changes his identity to save himself from a lifetime of incarceration. Johnny has done such assessments before – many, many times.As he creates an elaborate bluff for the evaluator, Johnny reveals the true story of his traumatic past – a broken family, descent into the sinister world of forgers and criminals, and his one chance of salvation in the beautiful and elusive Molly. But time is running out; as his underworld clients lose patience and the psychiatrist's net closes around him, Johnny has to negotiate the escape act of his life.Evoking the boulevards and strip bars of 1980s LA with cinematic intensity, The Contortionist's Handbook is a darkly hypnotic and stunningly original debut.

## CRAIG CLEVENGER. The Contortionist’s Handbook


## CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Epigraph

Daniel Fletcher

One

Two

Three

Four

Christopher Thorne

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eric Bishop

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

John Vincent

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Keep Reading

P. S. Ideas Interviews & Features …

About the Author

Fugitive Tendencies by Will Christopher Baer

Life at a Glance

Top Ten Books

A Writing Life

About the Book

Stranger in a Gray Hat by Craig Clevenger

Read On

Have You Read?

If You Loved This, You Might Like …

The Web Detective

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Praise

Also by the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

## EPIGRAPH

My cigar is not a symbol. It is only a cigar.

—Sigmund Freud

I kissed her …. It was like being in church.

—James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice

DANIEL FLETCHER