Best Selling Books by Pete Hautman

"You know how they say you can''t climb out of a hole till you hit bottom?" "Yeah?" "I''m trying to find the bottom." At seventeen, Denn Doyle isn''t old enough to gamble legally, but thanks to his talent for reading tells, he''s made a fortune -- and along the way, he''s upset some of the most notorious Texas holdem players in Las Vegas, including Artie Kingston, who had already lost his nightclub to Denn. But now Denn''s luck has run out and he''s just about broke. His only chance is a million-dollar, winner-take-all tournament at Artie''s new casino, but Denn can''t play unless he comes up with the $10,000 entry fee. Denn''s future all comes down to one hand of poker. National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman introduced Denn Doyle in No Limit, of which School Library Journal said, "Fast paced and powerfully delivered...as taut and suspenseful as a high-stakes game." Here he deals another hand of love, luck, and greed in the high-stakes world of poker.

Jack Lund figures a good day is when his dad''s too drunk to beat up his mom. For Jack, Bogg''s End is the end. The end of the turbulent, see-saw years of watching his father go on the wagon and fall right back off gain. Once it took two years, but the inevitable inevitably happened. Now it''s just Jack and his mom starting over in the strange old house his grandfather left them. But the ride''s not over yet. Jack''s father returns, full of apologies and promises, and for a little while, things are looking up. Then in one terrifying, sickening moment, everything comes crashing back down again. So Jack runs. He runs through a strange hidden door that takes him back in time to before his parents were born. Before he was born. Maybe with a second chance he can stop the inevitable. At least he''s got to try. What Jack doesn''t understand, though, is that he can''t change his future until he faces his past.

You could say that my railroad, the Madham Line, is almost the most important thing in my life. Next to Andy Morrow, my best friend. Lots of people think Doug Hanson is a freak -- he gets beat up after school, and the girl of his dreams calls him a worm. Doug''s only refuge is creating an elaborate bridge for the model railroad in his basement and hanging out with his best friend, Andy Morrow, a popular football star who could date any girl in school. Doug and Andy talk about everything -- except what happened at the Tuttle place a few years back. It does not matter to Andy that we live in completely different realities. I''m Andy''s best friend. It does not matter to Andy that we hardly ever actually do anything together. As Doug retreats deeper and deeper into his own reality, long-buried secrets threaten to destroy both Doug and Andy -- and everything else in Doug''s fragile world.

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Szabo is Undead -- at least according to her own theories about vampirism. Lucy believes that the first vampires -- with their pale skin, long teeth, and uncontrollable thirst -- were dying diabetics. And she should know. She''s a diabetic herself. When Lucy becomes involved with Draco -- a self-proclaimed "real" vampire she meets in the Transylvania Internet chat room -- her world begins crashing down around her. Caught up in late-night parties and Goth culture, she begins to lose control of her grades, relationships, and health. Lucy realizes she needs to make some important choices, and fast. But it may already be too late.

A female lottery winner in a small Midwestern town offers a monetary prize to whomever can tell her the mysterious whereabouts of her husband who has gone into hiding.

Shayne Blank is the new kid in town—but that doesn’t stop him from getting into a lot of trouble, very quickly. The other kids don’t understand him. He’s not afraid of anything. He seems too smart. His background doesn’t add up. And when he walks into the police department to confess to a murder, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems. There’s more to Shayne—and his story—than meets the eye. And as the details pile up, the only thing that becomes clear is that nothing is clear at all.

To save a friend''s daughter from a bad marriage, Joe Crow confronts cultists, carnies, and cocaine wackos Poker-playing ex-cop Joe Crow has been dealt some rotten hands in his life, but he''s survived them all. When Axel Speeter starts begging for help, Crow suspects his luck is about to run out. A taco-dealing former poker pro, Speeter''s worried about his girlfriend''s daughter Carmen. She''s the sexiest trouble magnet the state of Omaha has ever seen, and she''s about to drag Crow down with her. Carmen has just gotten engaged to Hyatt Hilton, a onetime drug pusher who''s currently scratching out a living selling bootlegged Evian. Speeter wants Crow to make sure he''s staying on the straight-and-narrow. And it looks like Hilton''s involved in something much more dangerous than designer water. He''s about to cross the Amaranthine Church of the One—a New Age cult convinced that it''s found the secret to immortality, and doesn''t mind killing to prove it.

In this futuristic satire by a National Book Award winner, a teen is sent to work at a pizza factory in the Canadian tundra after being accused of causing a rash that plagues his school.

A teen develops a gambling addiction in this risk-heavy read—in trade paperback for the first time. Sixteen-year-old Denn Doyle’s troubles begin with a seemingly harmless—and extremely profitable—game of poker with some neighborhood kids. Eager to join the adult world, Denn realizes that casinos and poker are a means to do exactly that. His “hobby” progresses to a habit and then to an addiction that threatens relationships with his parents, girlfriend, and best friend. Hautman explores the escalation of Denn’s gambling without preachiness, dealing with his problem in a straightforward and knowledgeable manner.

When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town''s water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.

“Superb road trip novel. By turns introspective and humorous.” —Booklist (starred review) In this captivating story about loss, love, and changing your ways, National Book Awardu00ad–winning author Pete Hautman imbues the classic road trip novel with clever wit and heartfelt musings about life and death. Steven Gerald Gabel—a.k.a. Stiggy—needs to get out of Minnesota. His father recently took his own life, his mother is a shell of the person she used to be, and his sort-of-girlfriend ghosted him and skipped town. What does he have left to stick around for? Armed with his mom’s credit card and a tourist map of Great River Road, Stiggy sets off in his dad’s car. The only problem is, life on his own isn’t exactly what he expected and, soon enough, he finds himself at a crossroads: keep running from his demons, or let them hitch a ride back home with him.

"Ginger Crump solves the mystery of why people in her town are forgetting things they should definitely know"--

Nick Fashon is having a bad day. He''s just found out his estranged grandfather has died mysteriously in the Arizona desert. Then he meets his potential father-in-law, who turns out to be an ex-cop with a screw loose and a penchant for bean dip. To top it off, he returns home to find his successful clothing shop has just burned to the ground and taken his upstairs apartment with it. Love & Fashion was Nick Fashon and Vince Love''s thriving clothing store until it went up in flames -- the work of an arsonist, police say. Suddenly Nick is homeless and disillusioned, and both the insurance investigators and the police want a word with him. Where can he turn for help? He''s wearing out his welcome with his archaeologist girlfriend, Gretchen, who''s developing her own suspicions about him. His business partner and best friend, Vince, isn''t much help either, as Nick discovers more and more disturbing clues that point to Vince as the one who set the blaze. Things begin to look up when Nick finds out his eccentric late grandfather has left him an unusual inheritance: a thriving pet-coffin business and a barn full of peculiar inventions, including one particularly interesting doohickey called the HandyMate. The HandyMate is the ultimate kitchen gadget -- a simple tool that can cut, core, chop, slice, and potentially transform the domestic world. Full of entrepreneurial zeal, Nick is determined to see one in every kitchen drawer in America. But Nick isn''t the only one planning to strike it rich with the HandyMate. Yola Fuentes, Nick''s grandfather''s irresistibly sexy business partner, is so determined to get the HandyMate that she makes Nick an offer he can''t refuse. And Robo Fuentes, her jealous ex-husband, has a bullet with Nick''s name on it if he takes her up on that offer. Nick quickly finds himself caught in a situation where a twisted thing of plastic might end up costing him his girlfriend, his self-respect -- and his life. With the help of a cast of colorful characters, master storyteller Pete Hautman delivers a stylish and funny mystery with more twists and turns than the HandyMate itself.

Competitive eating vies with family expectations in this funny, heartfelt novel by National Book Award winner Hautman.

The much-anticipated sequel to The Obsidian Blade transports readers to the terrifying and thrilling world of Lah Lia, the enigmatic girl who changed Tucker Feye’s life. More than half a millennium in the future, in the shadow of the looming Cydonian Pyramid, a pampered girl named Lah Lia has been raised for one purpose: to be sacrificed through one of the mysterious diskos that hover over the pyramid’s top. But just as she is about to be killed, a strange boy appears from the diskos, providing a cover of chaos that allows her to escape and launching her on a time-spinning journey in which her fate is irreversibly linked to his. In this second volume of the Klaatu Diskos trilogy, Tucker Feye and Lah Lia each hurtle through time, relating their stories in alternating viewpoints that converge at crucial moments. Fans of the first adventure will be intrigued by the chance to see the world through Lah Lia’s eyes — no matter how disturbing the vision might be.

National Book Award winning author Pete Hautman lets us in on the secret.Lita is the writer. Adam is the entrepreneur. They are JUST FRIENDS.So Adam would never sell copies of a self-help book before he''d even written it. And Lita would never try to break up Adam''s relationship with Blair, the skankiest girl at school. They''d never sabotage their friends Emily and Dennis. Lita would never date a guy related to a girl she can''t stand. They''d never steal each other''s blog posts. And Adam would never end up in a fist fight with Lita''s boyfriend. Nope, never.Adam and Lita might never agree on what happened, but in this hilarious story from Pete Hautman, they manage to give the world a little more insight into what boys and girls are really looking for.

Thirteen-year-old Ginger investigates a series of weird events taking place in her home town of Flinkwater, Iowa, beginning with people falling into comas while using their computers.

Suppose you quit your job, took out a second mortgage, and borrowed every penny of your in-laws'' nest egg to start up a surefire new business. What if your partner ran off with all your money? What if you caught up with him? These are the questions Pete Hautman''s hero faces in Rag Man, a wryly funny, Faustian tale of a good man going bad. Mack MacWray''s new clothing manufacturing company was wildly successful -- until the day his charming, street-savvy partner, Lars Larson, disappeared with all the assets, leaving Mack stuck with nothing but debts and shattered dreams. Devastated, Mack thinks he has nothing left to live for until, at the edge of a cliff on the idyllic Mexican resort of Isla Mujeres, he comes face-to-face with his former partner. Mack discovers something about himself that fateful afternoon -- that maybe he''s not such a nice guy after all. After push comes to shove, Mack must live with what he has become. Mack returns to the U.S. with his moral compass demagnetized and discovers a world of opportunity. Without the ball and chain of guilt and accountability, making money is all but guaranteed. He transforms himself from bankrupt loser to hard-nosed success story -- but at what cost? His wife wants the old Mack back; her best friend wants Mack in bed; Lars''s widow wants money (or revenge); and Detective Jerry Pleasant wants answers -- or maybe more. As the pace quickens and tensions rise, these characters begin to surprise even themselves. Pete Hautman treads the line between psychological darkness and laugh-out-loud funny as he asks tough questions about the nature of good and evil -- and offers some unexpected answers.

National Book Award winner Pete Hautman explores a friendship like no other—and the universal truth that dogs make life better, especially for underdogs. Evan doesn’t seem to fit in at school or at home. He goes out of his way to avoid attention. He sits at the back of the bus, keeps his head down in class, and keeps to himself. But when a burr-covered border collie—a survivor with a gut instinct about the Boy—starts following him around and joining him on his runs, Evan’s simple duck-and-dodge existence becomes a lot more complicated . . . a lot more like life. Evolving from wary companions to steadfast friends, Evan and the dog run fast and far together, thwart an abusive dog breeder and the school bully, and find the courage to stand up for themselves and to open up to those who matter most. Narrated in alternating viewpoints, this relatable contemporary novel with classic coming-of-age themes has all the hope, pathos, and emotional complexity that mark Pete Hautman’s books for middle-grade readers—and is a deeply satisfying read for animal lovers.