Richard Ford: The Ultimate Good Luck. London, Collins Harvill, 1989. 1st edition. 1st printing. 9. ½ x 6. ¼ . Signed by Ford on title page. Review copy with slip laid stating publication date as 3 July, 1989. No other marks or inscriptions. Black cloth over boards & gilt. Price £11.95 to jacket flap.

Ford’s second novel issued in the UK after the The Sportswriter (1986). Harry Quinn (an Irish name) takes a young girl called Renata as his lover, and then becomes involved in a plot to get her brother out of jail. Evocative with guns, drug trafficking, amorality and a creeping scorpion it can easily be a south of the border crime novel by James Crumley, or even a Robert Stone pseudo crime novel. Nothing resolves easily for any character in The Ultimate Good Luck; most of them are in far worse shape at the end of the book than when it begins. But Ford, in this book at least, is a romantic, and it has some uncanny feeling of ultimate good luck.

Condition: Sharp copy as new, VF in VF jacket.