The Long Fall by Lynn Kostoff is an apparently somewhat humorous standalone crime thriller which is described as "oddball" and having "heists involving Beanie Babies and defective athletic shoes" by two of the official outlet reviews, free courtesy of publisher Adams Media, who gave us
another Kostoff book late last year, which seems to be in much the same style if it turns out you like this one.
Currently free @
B&N and
Amazon (available to Canadians but not in the UK, which is unusual, and many of this week's freebies are UK-excluded, but may drop later since they usually show up there first).
Description
In sun-baked Phoenix, Arizona, this never-predictable tale tosses into its antic mix a dead father, his two sons--one a small-time ex-con with a consistent genius for sabotaging his own best interests, the other a straight, uptight solid citizen with a moneymaking chain of dry-cleaning stores and a restive ex-stewardess of a wife named Evelyn.
Recently released from prison for possession of a truckload of black-market saguaro cacti-and in deep debt to an unforgiving crank dealer, Jimmy Coates returns home only to discover that his brother has cut him out of his inheritance. A not-unjustifiable desire to settle old scores and new sends Jimmy on a robbery spree that wipes out four of his brother's dry-cleaning establishments. But when he finds himself tumbling for a mutinously sexy Evelyn, the impulse to vengeance reverses itself.
Unwittingly, however, Jimmy has already set in motion a series of dangerous consequences-adultery, blackmail, love, betrayal-that culminate in a blueprint for murder. And it could be Jimmy himself who is taking the long fall.