Thursday, September 20, 2012

Ranchero-Rick Gavin

Ranchero


Rick Gavin

Minotaur, Oct 2 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781250006585



In Indianola, Mississippi, former police officer Nick Reid works for the K-Lo’s rental shop as a repo. He collects items like TVs from those who fail to remit their payments.



Borrowing his landlady’s 1969 Ranchero, Nick goes to repossess a TV from Percy Dwayne Dubois, but is greeted by the moocher with a fireplace shovel to the head. Percy leaves an unconscious Nick behind while borrowing the car to leave with K-Lo’s TV, his wife and child. Irate Nick gets Desmond to help him run down the SOB. The pair follows the trio across the Mississippi Delta, home to many lowlifes, while eluding Dale the corrupt county cop.



Reminiscent of the Florida RoadKill escapades of Serge Storms and Coleman (by Tim Dorsey), the first Mississippi Delta road-kill thriller is a jocular fast-paced tale starring two amiable but loony protagonists and a lot of pond scum. Filled with plenty of amusing exaggeration, this fast-paced tale accelerates from the moment Nick learns a basic law of physics when the irresistible shovel collides with the moveable skull and never slows down until the final convergence.



Harriet Klausner

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