Last Call for the Living by Peter Farris
My rating: 4/5 cats
ANOTHER great literary crime novel! i am on a roll!
it’s got all the things i like: multiple viewpoints, southern locale, blood splatter, and people down on their luck, but with dreams as big as all the outdoors.
“I raised him myself,” she said with particular pride. “He was always a bit peculiar, kept to himself, never had friends except for some kids from the rocket club at school. Charlie wants to build rockets and jet planes, work for Lockhead or NASA one day. I sent him to Space Camp over in Huntsville. He loved it. Just loved it. But I never did have the nerve to tell him that some things are just beyond the reach of people like us.”
“He’s an overachiever?” Crews said.
“Oh yes. It’s just the money, and, well, the scholarship he’s on is okay, but that college ain’t like the schools rocket scientists graduate from.”
but not everyone’s dreams are of nasa. hicklin’s dreams are more self-serving—to jump the gun and single-handedly pull off a bank robbery intended for three men, keeping all the cash for himself. unfortunately, that leaves two men very pissed off. and even though hicklin does in fact get away with all the money during his robbery, he “has to” kill one bank teller and takes another hostage and is now hiding out in a remote cabin with a horny lady-tweaker and his aspiring rocketeer-hostage.
and the good guys and the bad guys would both like a word, please.
it’s pretty great. relentless and spare with plenty of sympathetic characters as long as you don’t get attached. this would be a good match for someone who likes cormac mccarthy, but doesn’t like his purty language. no “sluicing” here. but plenty of jailhouse philosophy and a curveball for nature v. nurture, and a lady named kalamity. oh, and snakes. this wins the award for “best snake scene in a book.” (but not a golden globe. everyone knows those are the special olympics of awards, anyway.)
definitely recommend, and am definitely sniffing around for farris’ next book.
i did not win this book through the firstreads program. thought that was worth a mention…
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