Caught Stealing: A Novel by Charlie Huston
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Book Reviews of Caught Stealing: A Novel
Book Review: Charlie's Life Goes from Boring, to Bad, to Worse
Summary: 5 Stars
Once upon a time it looked like Hank Thompson was good to go, he was going to the Show. He was going to be a Major Leaguer, every boy's dream, a professional baseball player. However he broke his leg, one thing led to another and now he tends bar on Manhattan's lower East Side and he lives sort of a boring, same-o, same-o life.
Then one day his neighbor asked him to watch his cat while he was out of town and that was the day Hank's life stopped being such a bore. That night two tough guys beat him within an inch of his life, damaging one of his kidneys, which he had to have removed and what follows is almost a none-stop horror show for Hank as he's chased, beaten again and even tortured for reasons he can't figure out. Then his friends start to die and now he knows he has to find out what's going on, because sure as the stuff you scrape off the bottom of your shoes, Hank is on someone's bad list.
Hank is an underdog who is complicated, complex and tortured by what might have been. But he is also sympathetic and I found myself caring about him deeply in this book where just about everybody else is pretty doggone evil. Mr. Huston has a strong narrative voice and is able to capture the reader's attention without only a few words of dialogue. His descriptions put you in the scene and his characters are as real as any you've ever read about. This is one very good book written by someone who knows how to tell a story.
Book Review: Blood, Thunder, A Good Man Gone Bad
Summary: 5 Stars
Hank Thompson, protagonist of Charlie Huston's slam-bang neo-noir, has not had an easy life. From a baseball accident that ended a promising career to a car crash that left him unable to drive to the bottles of booze that fill his apartment, this strangely gentle man never really caught a break. He was doing OK, though, until his neighbor left town and gave Hank his cat to watch... and the key hidden at the bottom of the cat's litter box. Various people come looking for the key, and that's when the fun begins.
The novel stands up next to James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia or Scott Smith's A Simple Plan, in both the dark settings and the violence. The seedy world of the characters includes beatings, shootings, robbery, torture, and worse yet. In this environment, it's not a question of whether a good man will go bad, but the manner in which it will happen, and how bad he'll go. Huston's narration and use of the first-person viewpoint is gripping, conveying the thoughts and fears of Hank Thompson very well. The plot twists and turns to some extent, but the action and violence of this story are what will keep you reading until 2 a.m.
Book Review: North By Northwest Meets Die Hard
Summary: 5 Stars
In Caught Stealing, Charlie Huston's electrifying debut, readers are introduced to Hank Thompson, a washed up former baseball player who seems content to drink until his kidneys throw in the bar towel. When Hank agrees to watch his neighbor's cat, he unwittingly inherits a highly sought after item that threatens to tear apart his already fragile existence. Chased through the streets of New York City by a colorful cast of villains, including two Russian gangsters in matching track suits, a Samoan enforcer named Bolo, and one seriously corrupt cop, Thompson must stay alive long enough to find out what they want and how to deliver it before time runs out.
Despite the story's relentless pace and excessive violence, the author infuses his hero with enough humanity to keep the reader fully engaged. A rising star in the hard-boiled crime genre, Charlie Huston writes uncensored, rapid-fire dialogue that positively jumps off the page. Caught Stealing is the first installment in an outstanding trilogy that is already a cult phenomenon in literary circles. It is truly an absolute gem of a thriller that will leave readers breathless and begging for more.
Book Review: Whoa Nelly!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like action -- and gun fights, profanity, alcohol and drug abuse, black humor, torture and a cat with a broken leg don't bother you -- this is your book.
Hank Thompson is a thirtysomething ex-Californian with a checkered past biding his time tending bar and turning himself into an alcoholic in a gin mill in Manhattan's Lower East Side. A neighbor asks him to babysit his cat and Hank agrees. Then all hell breaks loose.
Before he knows it, he's on the run, stitched up and missing a kidney, pursued by both a gang led by a dirty cop and two demented brothers, all of whom want a key taped inside the cat's travel box, which is a ticket to millions in cash.
As the bodies pile up and Hank makes one narrow escape after another, he manages to find time to call his parents in California to assure them he is OK, take care of the cat and follow the progress of his beloved Giants on various newspapers and TV sets he encounters.
Charlie Huston's dialogue-writing is impressive. Each character has his own voice.
I can't wait to get to the other two books in the trilogy.
Book Review: It doesn't get better than this!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best novels I have ever read. The main character becomes involved accidentally. He is a flawed hero, who has character traits/failing and physical skills/inabilities that are believable. The tie-in with baseball is wonderfully engaging. The author even includes a "soundrack" by having certain tunes playing in the background. The villians are rotten, scary as hell, and multidimentional. They hinged on being comic book-like, but didn't quite cross over into unbelievable. The book left me wondering what will happen up until the very last page.
The only objection I had was on one page, when the author described a series of photographs of the Durante brothers and their mother, each one of them showing the family drifting apart. Come on...as great an author of Huston didn't have to include such a silly metaphor.
But when there's a whole big book with only one obvious error, you know it's a winner (even if the Giants weren't).
Read it!