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Title: Done for a Dime by David Corbett ISBN: 0-345-44753-0 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Rollercoaster Ride on the Dark Side of Police Noir
Comment: "The Devil's Redhead" brought David Corbett critical kudos and an Edgar nomination for Best First Novel, 2003. I've read it...by me, it's a hands-down winner, and "Done for a Dime" is every bit as explosive and compelling an exploration of the darker side of noir as that debut outing was. It's certainly equally well-written and so completely realistic as to make it abundantly clear that Mr. Corbett is a powerful new voice in suspense fiction. Rio Mirada in Northern California is schismatically polarized: economically, racially and geographically. Gang warfare, drug trafficking, political corruption, chicanery and greed have created a climate of violence in the Baymont area particularly which angst-ridden Detective Dennis Murchison; his bigot partner, Larry Stluka, and their fellow police can only hope to contain, not curtail. The latest random killing finds black jazz legend, Raymond 'Strong' Carlisle, brutally gunned down in his front yard. Cantankerous, proud and feisty, ill-health and age have forced him into an uneasy dependence upon his estranged musician son, Toby Marchand, who has a major problem explaining his fast arrival at the scene of his Dad's murder. Trying to uncover a motive for the old man's death by unraveling the last hours of his life, Murchison learns that Carlisle had taken part in a brawl at the Zoom Room (where he'd gone to hear his son's band with Toby's white girl friend, Nadya Lazarenko), effectively endangering Toby's gig there, and also tangled with some gang members, one of whom, Arlie Thigpen, had later been spotted in the vicinity of the Carlisle home by a neighbor. With two suspects safely in custody, what Murchison doesn't realize is that there's a wild card in this lethal deck: gangbanger-wanna-be, paranoic arsonist Manny Turpin who has been camping out in an abandoned house next door has a bone to pick with Carlisle too. At this point, we pick up the second plot thread: Manny has become the willing pupil and dupe of conniving Richard Ferry who has entered into a sub rosa agreement with corrupt power broker Clint Bratcher to torch the entire hillside enclave...lower/middle class predominantly black homes...thus clearing the way for lucrative redevelopment projects. Inevitably the two cases intertwine, but by the time Murchison and Stluka sort through a maze of misdirection and human duplicity, Baymonth is in flames and trapped people are dying. As answers slowly begin to emerge from the rubble, Murchison finds himself faced with the most desperate decision of his life: how to put paid to horrific crimes and a criminal whom only street justice can touch?
Frankly, I'm finding it very hard myself to do appropriate justice to this brilliant book. It reminds me so much of the music which it celebrates: there's a kind of wild power and barely contained desperation, a depth of feeling, an evocative dark splendor in the way it's developed and structured that makes Mr. Corbett's characters...their environment...their conflicts and dilemmas so achingly, utterly real. In Carlisle's terms: this is a 'Deep Sweet' of a novel, one that is not easily forgotten and absolutely a contribution to the genre that should not be overlooked.
Rating: 5
Summary: stark, gritty and totally believable police procedural
Comment: There is tension between father and son because famous blues musician Raymond "Strong" Carlisle has started drinking again only months after having a kidney removed. Toby Marchand moved in with his father to nurse him through his health crisis and is irate that his dad disobeys medical orders. Toby goes to play with his own band at a nearby club and his girlfriend Nadya escorts his father to see him perform.
Strong picks a fight with everyone he comes in contact with. When he returns home someone kills him with three bullets in his back. The police turn their attention to Toby and Nadya, but that fails to turn up any leads. What the police have yet to realize is that the killer lives next door to Carlisle in a boarded up Victorian, waiting to set fire to a part of the town that his clients want destroyed. These developers want to rebuild it in the image that will bring them the most profit. Whether the killer will succeed in carrying out his objective remains to be read.
David Corbett's story line is stark, gritty and totally believable. From the police to the average citizen to the criminals, Mr. Corbett creates a microcosm of life in the pages of DONE FOR A DIME. His perspectives is realistic and readers will accept that the lead detective on the case has to go outside the law to try to see that justice occurs. While many readers will not agree with the protagonist's solution, they will understand why he was driven to break the laws he was sworn to uphold. This is one police procedural it will be impossible to forget.
Harriet Klausner
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Title: The Devil's Redhead by David Corbett ISBN: 0449007162 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Last Car to Elysian Fields: A Novel by James Lee Burke ISBN: 0743245423 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Shutter Island: A Novel by Dennis Lehane ISBN: 0688163173 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Bangkok 8 by John Burdett ISBN: 1400040442 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Stone Cold: A Jesse Stone Novel by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0399150870 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 29 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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