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The Get: A Crime Novel
“If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you.” — Globe and Mail
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.
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.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2023
About the author
Dietrich Kalteis
25 books122 followersDietrich Kalteis is the critically acclaimed author of thirteen novels and winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. His first novel, Ride the Lightning, won the bronze medal for Best Regional Fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2015. House of Blazes was his fourth novel and won the silver medal for Best Historical Fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2017. His screenplay Between Jobs is a past finalist in the Los Angeles Screenplay Contest. He enjoys life with his family on Canada’s West Coast.
Visit his website: http://www.dietrichkalteis.com/
He regularly contributes at Off the Cuff: http://www.dietrichkalteis.blogspot.ca/
And at 7 Criminal Minds:
http://www.7criminalminds.blogspot.ca/
You can also find him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dietrich.kalt...
and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dietrichkalteis/
Visit his website: http://www.dietrichkalteis.com/
He regularly contributes at Off the Cuff: http://www.dietrichkalteis.blogspot.ca/
And at 7 Criminal Minds:
http://www.7criminalminds.blogspot.ca/
You can also find him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dietrich.kalt...
and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dietrichkalteis/
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 13, 2023
I found this in the library and was intrigued -- I hadn't heard of the author but according to the cover, he's a big deal in the Great White North. What is Canadian crime fiction? Cops thwarting a maple syrup bootlegging operation, but still being very polite to the perpetrators, eh?
The story is set in Toronto in the mid-1960s and the gangsters are Jewish, with Portuguese rivals. Interesting enough... and amid these specific aspects, it's actually pretty hard-hitting rough-stuff kinda deal. The protagonist, Lenny Ovitz, is kind of an anti-hero -- a collector for a mob whose wife is divorcing him after getting fed up with his criminal lifestyle. Lenny's reaction to this seems a bit vague at times; he's trying to either come up with the Get money he owes her, but also impress her, but catch her cheating on him, but then maybe murder her. And so it's hard to know how to feel about him... and most of the other characters are hard to root for -- just slightly more complex than stock players.
The most captivating one is Gabe Zoller, Lenny's partner, a loose cannon who runs afoul of both the law and the mob. His hard-boiled banter with his adversaries was the stuff pulp fiction is made of. Lots of fun, colorful language toward the cops and lawyers who are trying to hem him in with mixed results. And I enjoyed his dreams of getting away from it all and moving out west -- but not to say, Santa Fe or California, but to Winnipeg or Vancouver.
The elements of this novel were different, and there are some memorable events, making this a quick and easy read, but the story overall was just okay. Still, I'd be willing to see what other crime stories our neighbor to the north has to offer.
The story is set in Toronto in the mid-1960s and the gangsters are Jewish, with Portuguese rivals. Interesting enough... and amid these specific aspects, it's actually pretty hard-hitting rough-stuff kinda deal. The protagonist, Lenny Ovitz, is kind of an anti-hero -- a collector for a mob whose wife is divorcing him after getting fed up with his criminal lifestyle. Lenny's reaction to this seems a bit vague at times; he's trying to either come up with the Get money he owes her, but also impress her, but catch her cheating on him, but then maybe murder her. And so it's hard to know how to feel about him... and most of the other characters are hard to root for -- just slightly more complex than stock players.
The most captivating one is Gabe Zoller, Lenny's partner, a loose cannon who runs afoul of both the law and the mob. His hard-boiled banter with his adversaries was the stuff pulp fiction is made of. Lots of fun, colorful language toward the cops and lawyers who are trying to hem him in with mixed results. And I enjoyed his dreams of getting away from it all and moving out west -- but not to say, Santa Fe or California, but to Winnipeg or Vancouver.
The elements of this novel were different, and there are some memorable events, making this a quick and easy read, but the story overall was just okay. Still, I'd be willing to see what other crime stories our neighbor to the north has to offer.
Displaying 1 of 1 review