All Hat - Hardcover

SMITH, Brad

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0143013602 ISBN 13: 9780143013600

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2003

Synopsis

A novel about hope, redemption, and getting even, not necessarily in that order

Just out of prison for attacking the man who assaulted his sister, Ray Dokes heads back to the small Canadian town where he was raised. Vowing to lie low, he moves in with Pete Culpepper, a Texas cowboy who has always been a grounding influence on Ray, but whose debts are growing faster than his corn.

Between roofing houses and watching Pete's nine-year-old gelding at the races, Ray soon crosses paths with just about everyone in town, including Pete's new jockey, Chrissie, a tough young woman whose ease with horses is equaled only by her mistrust of people, and Ray's former lover Etta, who views him with more skepticism than ever. Then there are the hired hands of the Stanton Dean, a wise guy who embodies the phrase "all hat and no cattle," and his sidekick, Paulie, a simple-hearted man who has a way with animals. And last but not least, there's Sonny Stanton, the vicious, violent, and spoiled heir of his father's electronics fortune-and the man Ray spent two years in jail for nearly killing. When the opportunity arises to con Sonny out of some ill-gained wealth-and protect themselves and their homes in the process-everyone's willing to band together and take a gamble.

Surprisingly poignant yet laugh-out-loud funny, All Hat tells a classic story of little guys fighting big guys and reaffirming the meaning of honesty and friendship-and second chances-in the process.

About this title

About the Author

Brad Smith lives in Dunnville, Ontario. His first novel, One-Eyed Jacks, was nominated for Canada's Dashiell Hammett Prize. All Hat is his first novel to be published in the United States.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* "The gelding had character and a heart as big as a washtub. He was never destined to be anything more than a ten-thousand-dollar claimer, but that didn't change the fact that he had heart. It was something you couldn't take from him." Ex-con Ray Dokes, just out of prison and trying to live a "half-ass normal life," is talking about a racehorse with a broken leg, but he could just as well be describing himself, or for that matter, this rollicking romp of a novel--except that the book, unlike the horse, has legs enough to run with the big boys. Ray gives half-ass normality his best shot, taking a job roofing houses in rural Ontario, but soon he's concocting a scheme to con local thug Sonny Stanton--the man who raped Ray's sister--out of some of the money Stanton has swindled in various crooked land deals. The scam, involving swapping horses before a big race, proves fascinating on its own, but it's the cast of delightfully eccentric, if not downright loopy, characters who drive the story. Surrounding Ray are Pete Culpepper, a Texas horseman and owner of the gelding with the broken leg; Chrissie, Pete' s foul-mouthed jockey, who, beneath the bravado, has a fair-sized washtub heart of her own; and Etta, Ray's former lover, whose home is about to fall prey to Stanton's land grab. On the other side of the fence, along with Stanton, are a couple of bumbling hired hands who seem to have wandered in from an Elmore Leonard novel. (Dean, one of the bumblers, an ersatz cowboy with illusions of grandeur, earns the epithet "all hat and no cattle.") Canadian author Smith has marvelous control of his material, effortlessly mixing laugh-out-loud comedy with streaks of country noir that call to mind Daniel Woodrell. This is Smith's first novel to be published in the U.S., and it's the best American crime-fiction debut since C. W. Box's Open Season. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143013602
• ISBN 13: 9780143013600
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312