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A Crime Novel
by Dietrich Kalteis
A surefire plan that will end his marital and money problems in one swoop … what could go wrong?
Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets, and his wife, Paulina, has become a liability. His life would be so much better without her in it.
It's the mid-'60s in Toronto, and Lenny works for a ruthless gangster whose travel agency is a front for a collections racket in the Kensington Market area. Lenny's days are spent with his partner, Gabe, terrorizing the locals into paying protection on their shops and their lives. On the side, Lenny and Gabe co-own a tenement block that they bought with dirty money borrowed from shady individuals. Overextended, Lenny plans to pay them back with more borrowed money from other loans and by re-mortgaging his house, without the knowledge of his wife.
Tired of his lies and scheming, Paulina demands a divorce. Lenny is certain she's going to take him for everything, leaving him unable to pay the debt on the tenement block. And that's likely to get him pitched off one of his own rooftops. Lenny would rather get than be gotten, so he comes up with a surefire way to end both his marital and money problems — Paulina's going to have to get whacked.
"Smooth plotting, vivid characters, and sharp dialogue (especially from the rough-edged leads) bolster this darkly comic story, which Kalteis shepherds to a hugely satisfying conclusion. Fans of Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos will find much to enjoy." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Joyfully reminiscent of Elmore Leonard's writing, The Get is not only whip-smart funny with crackling dialogue and memorable characters, but it's also a propulsive read full of twists and turns I never saw coming. I absolutely loved it!" ―Daniel Kalla, international bestselling author of The Darkness in the Light and Pandemic
"Clipped and black, The Get rips along with hard-boiled precision. This is Canadian noir." ―Tara Moss, International bestselling author of The War Widow and The Ghosts of Paris
"Beautifully written in jagged, bruising rhythms, Dietrich Kalteis's The Get crackles with poetic dialogue, desperate cold-blooded thugs, and an airtight plot that twists into a perfect knot. Inevitable and perfect. Highest rating." ―James W. Ziskin, award-winning author of Bombay Monsoon and the Ellie Stone mysteries
"In reading The Get by Dietrich Kalteis, the first things that came to mind were films of the Cohen Brothers and the film Killing Me Softly, all of which often portray serious subjects with the type of cynical and comeuppance humor." ―MysteryandSuspense.com
This information about The Get was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dietrich Kalteis is the winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He is a critically acclaimed author of ten novels. Dietrich's debut was hailed as one of Vancouver's best crime novels, his second was translated and became a bestseller in Germany, and two others have won Independent Publisher Awards. He enjoys life with his family on Canada's West Coast.
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