In For A Pound

by Richard Marinick

Overview

From the Boston Globe-Bestselling author of Boyos, comes another gritty, street-level tale of corruption, betrayal, revenge and redemption in the world of the South Boston Irish mob. Taut plotting, violent action, and a pitch-perfect sense of place propel tough PI Delray McCauley through this tour de force of South Boston noir.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932112511
Publisher:	Justin, Charles & Co.
Publication date:	11/25/2007
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.52(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.13(d)

Editorial Reviews

Returning to the mean streets of South Boston, Marinick's taut, hard-hitting second novel (after 2004's Boyos)is the literary equivalent of getting assaulted by a gang of psychotic street thugs. Delray McCauley, a former Massachusetts state trooper, has just finished a three-year prison stint after being wrongly convicted of beating up an undercover DEA agent. Now working as a bartender in the area where he was born and raised, McCauley is equally hated by his former law enforcement comrades and by the local Southie boyos. So when he decides to help out an old friend in the Boston police department with a highly sensitive case involving a stolen safe from a prominent lawyer's office, he unwittingly makes himself the prime target for a chilling assemblage of sadistic hit men and cop-hating gangsters. While the gritty authenticity of South Boston's criminal underworld is an obvious highlight, it's the spot-on characterization and dialogue as well as the subtle existentialist theme that distinguish this bloody neo-noir thriller. Fans of authors like Ken Bruen, Jason Starr and Charlie Huston are in for a treat. (Dec.)

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Publishers Weekly

An ex-cop/ex-con does a friend a favor that threatens to make him expendable. Delray McCauley works the bar in a South Boston bistro, and happy he is to be there. Three months ago, he was in the slammer, finishing a three-year stretch he didn't deserve. Everyone knows stalwart, stoical McCauley was scapegoated, but he's managed to rise above bitterness. Now his old friend, Boston PD Captain Conway Lilly, comes to him with a problem involving a stolen safe and the politically explosive CD that lawyer Edmond Cotter has imprudently stashed in it. Lilly wants McCauley to dust off the investigative talents for which he was once justly famous and employ them in Cotter's behalf. "I'd sooner work for the Klan," says McCauley, who detests lawyers on principle. Lilly, however, persists and eventually succeeds-mostly because McCauley, Southie born and bred, regards friendship as a high calling in his good old neighborhood. Having signed on, McCauley is soon in harm's way. Old enemies recalling old wounds relish fresh opportunities for payback. On the other hand, there's the undeniable pleasure of being back in harness-and finally, when he least expects it, the heady reward of vindication. Though this follow-up lacks the force and dark atmospherics of Marinick's impressive debut (Boyos, 2004), the solid storytelling will hook you and keep you.

Kirkus Reviews