Let It Ride - Hardcover

McFetridge, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031259948X ISBN 13: 9780312599485

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010

Synopsis

“McFetridge channels Elmore Leonard at the height of his powers, with dialogue Quentin Tarantino would kill for.”—Ken Bruen

 

The author of two critically acclaimed Canadian crime novels, with Let It Ride John McFetridge takes us deep inside the gray zone that exists between the Canadian/American border, delivering all the up to the minute twists and edgy action of an episode of The Wire.

Vernard ‘Get’ McGetty is back from serving in Afghanistan, back dealing drugs in Detroit and looking to move up with his buddy JT, a guy he met in Kandahar who also happens to be the leader of the Saints of Hell—a notorious Ontario biker gang currently in the process of taking over all North of the border drug traffic. Commuting weekly across the line into the center of JT’s high flying empire, Get hooks up with Sunitha, a decidedly independent woman who’s gone from working seedy massage parlors to robbing them at gunpoint—and has dreams of a much bigger score: taking the Saints for the millions they have stashed in gold bars. Meanwhile, the Toronto cops have the Saints under a microscope. Detectives Price and McKeon are getting nowhere with a double drive-by killing on the Gardiner Expressway—a husband and wife returning from a swingers party—and the investigation keeps leading back to the Saints…

About this title

About the Author

JOHN MCFETRIDGE lives in Toronto and works as a staff writer for the TV cop show The Bridge, airing on CBS this fall.

Reviews

Too many characters and points of view throw off the rhythm of this sprawling homage to caper-master Elmore Leonard from Canadian author McFetridge (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere). Venard Get McGetty, a vet who served in Afghanistan, crosses the border from Detroit to Toronto looking to exchange guns for coke. As Get takes in the scope of the action of the Saints of Hell gang, he meets Sunitha Suraiya, a whore with big plans. Big Pete Zichello, a rival holdout targeted for elimination, tries to fight back, while Richard Tremblay, the head of the Saints of Hell who brought all the other gangs into line, tries to buy time for his last move. Meanwhile, Get and Sunitha hatch a daring plan to steal a jackpot of gold. Amid the busy plot, McFetridge does a good job depicting a crime-ridden Toronto (aka the Big Smoke) that resembles the wide-open Chicago of Prohibition days with corrupt cops, gang warfare, and flourishing prostitution. (Feb.)
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McFetridge’s outstanding Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (2008) skillfully pitted cops against bikers turned crime lords and introduced Toronto to crime-fiction fans as a fascinating city-on-the-make, sprawling, ethnically diverse, wealthy, and ever-gentrifying. The author returns to the scene of the crime, but this time the result is less satisfying. The primary plotline, a Detroit hood’s plan to steal a cache of gold from the Canadian bikers and live happily ever after with a woman he meets in Toronto, simply peters out. The lead detectives, a black man and a white woman, spend the entire novel chasing their tails, investigating a Mob hit that is simply a case of mistaken identity, and dealing with the female cop’s marital angst. Indeed, angst seems to be a primary motif: Richard Tremblay, the intriguing top criminal from the previous novel is back but clearly has caught the angst bug; Italian Mob capo Big Pete has a dose, too, and so does Get, the Detroit hood. What remains, and what makes Let It Ride marginally entertaining, is Toronto. Despite this misstep, McFetridge is still a rising star to whom attention should be paid. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031259948X
• ISBN 13: 9780312599485
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304