Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto

This is the first novel by Nic Pizzolatto, and it was a finalist for an Edgar Award in 2011. Pizzolatta is better known for having written the HBO series True Detective starring Matthews McConaughey and Woodie Harrelson. I’m impressed with this crime novel, and if it was not as good as the 2011 winner for first time American novelists, then I’ll have to read that one too (Bruce DeSilva: Rogue Island).

Roy Cady, 43 years old, had been a bagman until he realized that his boss Stan Ptitko was setting up for being killed, just because Roy was a mess and Stan had stolen his girl, the beautiful Carmen. This all happens on the same day Roy has been told by his doctor that he is dying from lung cancer. The character development of Roy was remarkable, as the author bounces to his prior relationships, the current story, and then 20 years into the future as Roy reflects back on these events and his life. Obviously, Roy survives the cancer, but he doesn’t know that during the essential action in this story. After killing the men who Stan sent to do him in, Roy rescued an 18-year-old prostitute, Raquel, known as Rocky. The main theme of the story has to do with getting safely away from Stan and saving this girl, as well as the nearly 4-year-old girl she said was her sister. A hint to the story line: Stan was a powerful guy and people don’t easily get away from him, not ever.

Some examples of Pizzolatto’s prose, as Roy and Rocky were thinking about stopping for the night in Lake Charles, Louisiana: “Lake Charles was one of the easiest places to get your ass kicked on the Gulf coast. And any place south of here was a white-trash terror camp.” With regard to his surviving the cancer: “Certain experiences you can’t survive, and afterward you don’t fully exist, even if you failed to die. Everything that happened in May of 1987 is still happening, only now it’s 20 years later, and what happened is just a story. In 2008, I’m walking my dog on the beach. Trying to. I can’t walk fast or well.” In thinking about Rocky: “I’ve found that all weak people share a basic obsession – they fixate on the idea of satisfaction. Anywhere you go men and women are like crows drawn by shiny objects. For some folks, the shiny objects are other people, and you’d be better off developing a drug habit.”

I’m a fan of Pizzolatto– this one gets my max recommendation.