The Angels of Catastrophe: A Novel - Softcover

Plate, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1583220631 ISBN 13: 9781583220634

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2001

Synopsis

A cop is gunned down and unless Ricky Durrutti, a petty criminal with a short biography and a long rap sheet, can figure out who the real shooter is, he's a dead man. From Hunt's Donuts, opposite where the killing took place, to his room in the El Capitán Hotel, from the blue grass and steel Federal Building off Golden Gate Avenue to the Ritmo Latino record store, and from the Roxie Cinema on 16th Street to the Ramshackle Victorian homes of Treat Street where Lonely Boy lives--the chase is on. Salvadoreno gangs and Mexicans, cops and Jewish gangsters, drag queens and heroin addicts, speed freaks and low rent hookers, low-lives rising rising to the challenge of making sense of a murder. Out of the twentieth century of Nelson Algren and Charles Bukowski, here is the twenty-first century world of Peter Plate.

About this title

About the Author

Named a Literary Laureate of San Francisco in 2004, PETER PLATE taught himself to write fiction during eight years spent squatting in abandoned buildings. He is the author of many novels, beginning with Black Wheel of Anger (1990) and continuing through his seven neo-noir "psychic histories" of San Francisco, where he still lives and writes today.

From Booklist

When a policeman is shot on a crowded street in San Francisco, Ricky Durrutti, a petty criminal, is called into the station for questioning. To shake the police's unwarranted suspicion, Ricky starts his own investigation into the murder. Among the drug addicts, warring Hispanic street gangs, and friendly--or otherwise--fellow criminals, he discovers a big cover-up as he investigates. This novel is more than a simple murder mystery. As Ricky tries to track down several leads, he gets caught up with spurned romance from his past and has to deal with all those emotions again--as unpleasant as they were to live through the first time. Ricky is a likable, if somewhat misguided, character, and readers will find themselves rooting for him despite his many shortcomings. Ellie Barta-Moran
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About this edition

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1583220631
• ISBN 13: 9781583220634
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256