Dead If I Don't

by Urban Waite

Life hasn't worked out the way Ray had planned it would. 10 years ago he had a wife, a job, a child. Now he has nothing. And nothing to lose. And so he is back in his hometown of Coronado for one last job. One small job and that will be the end. But in the past 10 years the rules have changed. And this one last job soon turns into a nightmare he cannot escape.

Genres: Crime

361 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Urban Waite is the author of The Terror of Living, named one of Esquire's Ten Best Books of the year. His latest book is The Carrion Birds, an Indie Next Pick and the recipient of starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. His short fiction has appeared in the Best of the West anthology, the Southern Review, and other journals. He has degrees from the University of Washington, Western Washington University, and Emerson College. He lives in Seattle with his wife.

Reviews

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this. The writing is competent but there wasn't much to the story and the pacing was off. Characters were paper thin, relationships underdeveloped, and I was never quite sure who I was supposed to be rooting for. All in all, there just wasn't enough to sink my teeth in to.

[Arun Kamath · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent read.. like king but no major humor involved.. good pace.. decent setting.. all in all a good author..

[David Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not in the same class as The terror of living

[Matthew Ogborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urban's debut novel really struck a chord with me in the best tradition of American crime literature. The second one does not disappoint either. The familial bond is stretched as far as possible between Ray and Tom with Memo and Dario providing the menacing counterpoint from south of the border. Looking forward to seeing what Urban comes up with next.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man decides to carry out "one last job" for his drug dealing boss, but things soon start to wrong.

The first part of the book was very repetitive and had a slow pace, but about the third of the way through the story picked up but there were too many odd plot points / actions by the characters.

Real rating 2.5

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice slow start, a sleepy town on the edge of cartel territory is the backdrop for this story.
A man returns after 10 years away and sets off a chain of events that build up nicely to a graet ending. Make a great film.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, hard to put down.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting novel that is both brutal yet somewhat wistful about the road not taken.
It is written in a somewhat spare style yet it creates quite a vivid impression.

[Dave P · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern western in some ways, with some pleasing grit.
Nothing very original though, without characters to really care about.