GROOVE by Paul Knobloch

"Halfway to Forever Fucked."

Eddie has spent years perfecting the art of staying unnoticed. His world revolves around rare rhythm and blues records, carefully cultivated routines and a quiet life built on discipline. Beneath that calm surface runs a criminal enterprise where every relationship depends on trust, timing and knowing exactly where the line is.

When a dead Serbian gangster, a compromised doctor and an increasingly erratic partner threaten that fragile balance, Eddie discovers how quickly order dissolves into chaos.

As loyalties shift and pressure mounts, the life he has so carefully orchestrated begins to lose its rhythm.

Darkly funny and steeped in the sounds of post-war American music, Groove is a stylish crime novel where obsession, violence and wit move in perfect sync. In the tradition of Donald E. Westlake, George V. Higgins and Elmore Leonard, Paul Knobloch delivers a noir as intelligent as it is irresistible.

TOPICS OF CONVERSATION

Groove: What Groove is about, and how people from Paul’s own life in Los Angeles shaped its characters.

From translator to novelist: Translating Boris Vian and years of letters to other writers did more to shape his voice than any workshop.

How much of the author is in Eddie: The parts of himself he gave his main character, and the parts he didn’t.

Women who don’t follow the script: Why Sophie breaks crime-novel stereotypes.

Bad people, real choices: Morality gets most interesting when people who are already compromised have to decide what to do next.

Why the humor runs dark: A hard decade supplied plenty of material, and humor is how Paul tells uncomfortable truths.

What’s next: A sequel built around Eddie and Sophie, plus a literary satire about foodie culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Knobloch is a novelist, literary translator, writer, and editor based in Los Angeles. After studying abroad, he took a graduate degree in French Literature and taught English and French at California State University, Los Angeles, and other local colleges. He simultaneously built a career as a literary translator and is especially well-known for his translations of Boris Vian for Tosh Berman, publisher of TamTam Books. Together, he and Mr. Berman have made available many of Vian's major works for the first time in English, including Red Grass, which was long-listed for the BTBA Award in 2015. His novel Groove was published by Close to the Bone-Grit Publications in 2026, and his most current undertaking, Everything Vanishes, is an English translation of Catherine Cusset's L'autre qu'on adorait. Mr. Knobloch blogs regularly on film at Dumber Than The Crudest Fiction.

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR!

Website/Blog: https://knoblochtranslations.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61596244580565

Read an interview with the author: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/american-rive-gauche-an-interview-with-tosh-berman/