Cullin never has found an agent or felt the need for one. I've had a great relationship with him and Judith Shepard. They are good friends. I didn't think anybody would go for Branches , but they loved it. Which I told them, but you know, after we'd signed the contract for the paperback.
Branches has a definite noir tang.
Of course, if you are doing a novel about a violent Texas sheriff, you have to think of Jim Thompson's Killer Inside Me . After I finished it, I thought, if Jim Thompson were still alive, I would love to see what he had to say about Branches . The closest I could get was Burt Kennedy, who knew Jim Thompson. Kennedy directed the film version of Killer Inside Me . He'd met my dad, and through my dad I got in touch with him.