The author of Blitz and the author of the Jesse Stone novels collaborate on a ârough and profane readâ about two childhood friends who become criminals (Daniel Woodrell).
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Nickâs Irish-American father, a Brooklyn rent-a-cop working security in the World Trade Centerâs North Tower, named him after a Hemingway hero. The old man must have been expecting a different kind of kid. Because, like the R&B song says, Nick was born under a bad sign. As aimless as a stray bullet, his only constants are âNam movies, pulp novels, and an unquestioning devotion to his childhood friend, Todd, a Jewish New York con artist with connections to the Boston mob.
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When Todd inducts Nick into his world of petty crime, it starts with reckless funâscoring weed, low-level stings, and burglary. But the deeper they sink into the world of the syndicate, the more they realize how unknowable a friend can be, and how unprepared they are to rescue themselves, and their souls, from the gutter.
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Alternately telling this âbrutally poeticâ story from the perspectives of Nick and Todd, award-winning ânoir mastersâ Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Colemen âshine, dropping in-jokes, experimenting and displaying all the literary chops that have made their novels such cult favorites among mystery fansâ (Publishers Weekly).
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