A Better Goodbye
A Novel
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Sports Illustrated Sports Book of the Year 2015
PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Nick Pafko knows he can't be a professional boxer forever. But he never guessed it would end so quickly, and so wrong. Broke and unemployed, Nick has little choice but to call a number given to him by a friend. On the other end? Scott, a washed-up B-movie actor who runs a so-called massage parlor looking for somebody desperate enough to work security.
Jenny Yee doesn't really mind massage, until the day she finds her coworkers robbed and assaulted. Fearing for her safety, she resolves to never work without security again. With mounting expenses, she knows massage is the fastest way to get paid. When an old massage acquaintance calls Jenny to ask her to work for Scott, she agrees--and before long, she's the top earner.
Scott is an arrogant moron, but he's harmless compared to the thug he calls "friend"--Onus Dupree. When DuPree decides to rob Scott's massage joint, it's the perfect opportunity to beat up Nick and take advantage of Jenny. Can Nick stay true to his promise to protect Jenny? Can he protect himself?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This visceral, gritty noir takes place on the seedy fringes of modern Hollywood. Nick Pafko, who was a boxer until he killed an opponent and derailed his promising career, needs a job. Jenny Yee, a clever Korean college student with a penchant for reading Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, works a lucrative day job in the massage trade. Scott Crandall, a sleazy middle-aged actor still trolling for his first big break, is also a pimp whose stable of working ladies demand protection from a recent violent crime wave. Then there's Onus DuPree Jr., a psycho ex-jock and ex-con, who has befriended Scott and wants to join the excitement of DuPree's criminal enterprises. Meanwhile, Scott hires Nick as his security muscle and Jenny as a masseuse; she quickly becomes his biggest draw. To stir the potboiler, Nick and DuPree hate each other from the outset, especially after Nick and Jenny become lovers. Despite the slow buildup and scant use of humor, the dialogue is razor sharp, and the characters well developed the good-hearted Nick is easy to root for. A robbery triggers a grisly showdown as this thriller hurtles toward its nail-biting conclusion.
