The Long Fall
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
In sun-baked Phoenix, Arizona, this never-predictable tale tosses into its antic mix a dead father, his two sons--one a small-time ex-con with a consistent genius for sabotaging his own best interests, the other a straight, uptight solid citizen with a moneymaking chain of dry-cleaning stores and a restive ex-stewardess of a wife named Evelyn.
Recently released from prison for possession of a truckload of black-market saguaro cacti - and in deep debt to an unforgiving crank dealer, Jimmy Coates returns home only to discover that his brother has cut him out of his inheritance. A not-unjustifiable desire to settle old scores and new sends Jimmy on a robbery spree that wipes out four of his brother's dry-cleaning establishments. But when he finds himself tumbling for a mutinously sexy Evelyn, the impulse to vengeance reverses itself.
Unwittingly, however, Jimmy has already set in motion a series of dangerous consequences - adultery, blackmail, love, betrayal - that culminate in a blueprint for murder. And it could be Jimmy himself who is taking the long fall.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This craftily written noir thriller by Kostoff (A Choice of Nightmares) stars Jimmy Coates, a downtrodden Phoenix ex-con whose primary goal in life is sidestepping his loan shark, Ray Harp ("the kind of guy who could make Darwin blush"). Fresh from a two-year prison term for illegally transporting rare, state-protected saguaro cacti, Jimmy spends his time working at the Big and Bigger Jones's Old Wild West Park to make ends meet, but his mounting excuses aren't enough to keep Harp from trying to collect on his looming $6,000 debt. Dispatched to "accelerate" the collection process, Harp's henchmen Newt Deems and Aaron Limbe set out after Jimmy. Limbe in particular is eager to complete this assignment, since his career with the Phoenix police force was terminated after Jimmy bartered incriminating information on Limbe in exchange for his release from a grand theft auto charge. But Jimmy has devised his own solution to his money woes by robbing several dry-cleaning establishments owned by his squeaky-clean brother. It isn't hard for him to justify the thefts, since he's never gotten along with Richard anyway and now Richard has bilked Jimmy out of their recently deceased father's inheritance. In the process, Jimmy falls for Evelyn, Richard's distracted, disenchanted wife, and their affair brings new complications. Jimmy's love for Evelyn (fueled by great sex) creates the whirlwind that propels this dark tale to its final, violent end. Kostoff's narrative goes down nice and easy, but there's not a congenial character in sight certainly not Jimmy, whose melting heart does little to take the edge off his boorishness. His final comeuppance feels rightly deserved in this deft, oddball entertainment.
