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Published Oct 2011
272 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
In Rick Gavin's rollicking series debut set squarely in the Mississippi Delta, Nick Reid has a simple job to do: repossess a flat screen TV from Percy Dwayne Dubois - pronounced "Dew-boys," front-loaded and hick specific. But Percy Dwayne wouldn't give in, no; he saw fit to go, the way his sort will, all white-trash philosophical and decided the world was stacked against him anyway. He hit Nick over the head with a fireplace shovel, tied him up with a length of lamp cord, and stole the mint-condition calypso coral-colored 1969 Ranchero that Nick had borrowed from his landlady. And he took the TV with him.
Nick and his best friend Desmond, fellow repo man in Indianola, Mississippi, have no choice but to go after him. The fact that the trail eventually leads to Guy, a meth cooker recently set up in the Delta after the Feds ran him out of New Orleans, is of no consequence - Nick will do anything to get the Ranchero back. And it turns out he might have to.
A unputdownable road-trip of a crime novel - most of it in Desmond's ex-wife's Geo - Ranchero is a fantastic series debut for fans of Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Carl Hiaasen.
"Starred Review. Full of inspired comic hyperbole, Gavin's rollicking debut does for the Mississippi Delta what Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen do for Florida... Readers will eagerly await Reid's next adventure in the Delta." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Gavin's first novel is a sure winner. Reminiscent of Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms series but with a more likable protagonist, it will appeal to down-home good old boys and their armchair counterparts." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. This first novel from Gavin is a little miracle. The dialogue is pitch-perfect… One of the most enjoyable crime debuts in a very long time." - Booklist
"[A] testosterone-fueled romp... Forget comparisons to other books. The closest you've ever come to Nick's experience is sitting in a Florida drive-in theater circa 1958." - Kirkus Reviews
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
When he's not writing, Rick Gavin frames houses and hangs sheetrock in Ruston, Louisiana. Ranchero is his first novel.
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