Tattoos and Tans

By Jason P. Reed.

Tattoos and Tans is a book written by Jason P. Reed. The book is published by him under the banner of New Bayou Books.

This was said about the author on Goodreads.com.

Jason Reed came of age in Eunice, Louisiana, in the 1980s. His fondest memories are of listening to AC/DC in his older brother’s car, building skateboard ramps under the carport, and playing baseball. The Outsiders was the first book he ever read. The first line of the novella still sticks with him, and to this day he will sometimes still encourage friends to “stay gold.”

And that leads us into what Tattoos and Tans is all about.

After a decade in Texas spent learning his trade and partying too hard, JD Dugas returns to his South Louisiana hometown of Eunice to open its first tattoo shop and make a fresh start. Things do not go well. JD runs into trouble with his landlord, an ex high school jock named Lenny Prichard, and things go south from the jump. Lenny is a sleazeball, following in the footsteps of his Uncle Ely, an elder statesman of shady business throughout Acadiana. Among other dubious enterprises, Lenny distributes steroids through his tanning salon, the crown jewel of his budding empire.

When a high-dollar stash of human growth hormone goes missing, Lenny holds JD responsible for the loss and things get real complicated real quick. With his own criminal history still haunting him and a cocaine addiction not quite in the rear view, JD can’t afford to go to the cops. So he reaches out to his childhood friend. Curtis Laroux has a love/hate relationship with their hometown, but JD Dugas will always have a special place in his heart. Curtis has made a name for himself as a crack analyst in the intelligence community, supporting military operations around the world from the safety of his desk in D.C. Analytical and nervous by nature, Curtis is barely equipped to help, but when JD asks for help, there is only one possible answer.

With a cast of characters as colorful as the region itself, Tattoos and Tans is a glimpse of small town crime with a rock and roll vibe and a healthy sprinkle of Cajun spice. Move over James Lee Burke . . . the next hot Louisiana writer is here! Jason P. Reed shows us some skin with his debut novel, Tattoos and Tans!

Bio: Jason P. Reed is a writer from Eunice, a small South Louisiana town in the heart of the Cajun Prairie. He is the founder and principal author behind New Bayou Books, a small press established to bring a new, inventive  brand of Louisiana literature to the world. Tattoos and Tans and All Saints Day of the Dead are his first two books. He is currently at work on the third offering from New Bayou Books, a turn of the millennium era love story called The Asian Cajun. Jason keeps a little bit of home with him everywhere he goes, sprinkling Cajun spice across the globe–from Mongolia, West-Texas, Germany, South Korea, Washington D.C., and Belgium–as he performs his duties for his Uncle Sam. If you dig his writing, support the cause at NewBayouBooks.com and follow him at Goodreads.com. 

His books can be purchased through his websites above, through Amazon Affiliate Link and located in our Bookstore. He has also written Suicide Squeeze: Colton Lacombe’s Return to Baseball and Swimming Under Barges, that are posted in The Yard: Crime Blog.

Read more by Jason on The Yard: Crime Blog

Travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Get Louisiana Travel Guide. Amazon Affiliate Link