The Dealership

Carmen Madrid finally got his opportunity when general manager Big Tony DeLorenzo moved him from being an air wrench jockey back in the shop to being a hotshot salesman selling Jaguars, Lincolns, and plain old Chevys. Life in Jamaica Queens was good—for a while—but the commission checks weren’t as big as he’d anticipated, and it wasn’t long before he was flat broke, looking for other ways to pay the bills.
That’s when Carmen discovered that the dealership sold more than just cars, and that money laundering, fencing stolen property, drug peddling, and pornography were some of its other products and services. In his world, qualities like honesty and integrity were great for people who could afford to have them, but sometimes working people just did what they had to do to get by, and honesty and integrity didn’t penetrate too far below the skin. It wasn’t long before he had to make a choice. Would he try to work as an honest salesman, or would he give in to the big money temptations the “side jobs” offered?
Travel with him through the gritty world of fast cars and faster women as he walks through the seedy and violent world of organized crime and racketeering, all of it shrouded by the crack epidemic and tough times that blanketed New York City, and more specifically, Jamaica Queens in the mid-‘80s. Does Carmen do the right thing, or does he become just another punk trying to get over on others before they get over on him?
There are a few other people who would like to know the answer to that question as well. There is Rita O’Shea, the lady cop who infiltrates the dealership by working undercover as a salesperson, Patty Fairchild, the goody-goody owner who wants to prove to herself and to her mother that she can make the dealership profitable, and Chita Espino, who for some reason believes in Carmen when others do not.
Go with Carmen and find out how he walks the line between decency and depravity, and see if he comes out on top. It’s quite a trip.