Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
"There isn't any line. The only line is the one you draw yourself." - Gidget
Bill Roberts had a history of messing things up. Things with his poor dead mama, for one. For another, the firecracker stand job he was planning with Fat Boy and Chaplin. And then there was his face, of course. When Bill finally crawled out of the swamp that day, his face was swollen to unrecognizable with stings and bites.

Bill's disfigured face and lack of smarts only serve to attract John Frost, manager of the Oddities of the World carnival and freak show. Bill fits in nicely with Double Buckwheat, Bim, Potty and the other carnival freaks. Frost runs the show with a beautiful blonde bombshell Gidget, a woman so desirable she can persuade Bill and the rest of the Oddities crew into doing just about anything. Before Bill knows it, he's wrapped up in a dark scheme that threatens to burn everyone involved.

Freezer Burn will have you rooting for the underdogs, and cringing at the behind-the-scenes horrors of the freak show.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. Pandi Press, ISBN: 9780986259425 (July, 2015), 226 p., $14.95.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (UK 2003)

From the Publisher:
Bill has no job, no money and no mother '...his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom'. She doesn't smell as bad as she used to, but her welfare checks are piling up and Bill doesn't feel smart enough to forge her signature. So he decides to rob a firecracker stand across the highway from his house, for cash and may be a few loud bangs into the bargain. The heist goes horribly wrong and Bill winds up on the run with a freak show. Could it be that Bill's loser days are over? Nope...

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. Phoenix, ISBN: 0753816709 (April, 2003), 224 p., £6.99 (?).

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Bill has no job, no money and no mother '...his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom'. She doesn't smell as bad as she used to, but her welfare checks are piling up and Bill doesn't feel smart enough to forge her signature. So he decides to rob a firecracker stand across the highway from his house, for cash and may be a few loud bangs into the bargain. The heist goes horribly wrong and Bill winds up on the run with a freak show. Could it be that Bill's loser days are over? Nope...

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. Indigo, ISBN: 0575402520 (September, 2000), 224 p., £5.99 (?).

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
The scene is East Texas, Lansdale country. Loner, loser, and sometime armed robber Bill Roberts says goodbye to his dead momma in the back room after a bungled raid on a fireworks stand, escapes through a bug-infested swamp, and finds refuge in a traveling freak show. Among the pinheads, pumpkin heads, bearded ladies, and dog-men, no one is more welcoming than the ringmaster's scheming young wife. Here, in a world as ominous as its main attraction-the mysterious frozen man whose presence haunts the troupe-our "hero" will take one last desperate lunge at life's elusive brass ring... as Joe R. Lansdale breaks one of society's last taboos.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. Warner, ISBN: 0446608823 (September, 2000), 242 p., $6.99.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
Bill is a loser. He has no job and no money and no mother: '...his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom'. She doesn't smell as bad as she used to, but her welfare checks are piling up and he doesn't feel smart enough to forge her signature. So he decides to rob the firecracker stand across the highway from his house, for cash and maybe a few loud bangs into the bargain. The heist goes horribly wrong and Bill winds up on the run with a freak show: Ulysses S Grant the bearded lady, Double Buckwheat the Siamese twins and Conrad the dog man. Plus Gidget, the trailer-trash hot blonde; could it be that Bill's loser days are over? Nope...

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. Gollancz, ISBN: 0575067969 (November, 1999), 245 p., £16.99.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
The scene is East Texas: Lansdale country. Loner, loser, and sometime armed robber Bill Roberts is the wrong kind of mama's boy - mom is in the back room collecting both Social Security checks and flies. But Bill wants more easy money, and his latest scheme is about to thrust him into a bizarre new world.

A raid on the fireworks stand just across the road turns into a bungled display of bullets, blood, and police badges. Bill hightails it into a nearby swamp and soon, like his mom, starts attracting insects. And when he stumbles out of the mud a day later and bumps into the camp of a cut-rate traveling country freak show, he finds an ideal way to evade the cops.

Among the pinheads, pumpkin heads, the bearded lady, and the dog-man, Bill and his swollen, mosquito-bitten face are a near-natural fit. He's accepted by the group and its silver-haired, enigmatic master of ceremonies. Especially warm and welcoming is the ringleader's irresistible, luscious young wife. Bill Roberts, trouble magnet and felon, is in over his head ... struggling for control in a world more twisted than a carnival fun house... a world as ominous as this freak show's main attraction, the mysterious frozen man whose mute, sinister aura seems to tie them all together.

Joe R. Lansdale: Freezer Burn. A Novel. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 089296703X (September, 1999), 245 p., $30.00.