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Never Count Out the Dead
A policeman and a young girl drive across the Mojave Desert toward a deathly quiet valley where the girl's mother waits. In a wealthy Los Angeles enclave, another man waits for news of the policeman's death. Cop John Victor Sully is in the wrong place at the wrong time, ready to convict the right man of the right crime--and that, for crooked developer Burgess Ridden and his heroin-addict girlfriend Dee Storey, will never do. Burgess may not have the guts or the smarts to save himself from impending disaster, but Dee will do anything, including making her 13-year-old daughter, Shay, an accessory to murder: "Like face cards their images resemble, flat and stoic on that black gaming table of a windshield. Two queens, baby. One there, and one on the come. If she lives long enough."
But the best-laid plans are those that go hideously awry. Sully survives that night in the desert, clawing up through the dirt of a shallow grave, only to become "a boundary walker trapped inside the self of past." His reputation ruined by a clever frame-up, he will spend the next 10 years in self-imposed exile until a journalist named Landshark brings him back to L.A. to clear his name. His return touches off a deadly "blood waltz across reality" in which lives count for nothing and survival is everything--and in which his only ally is the young woman who led him to his death a decade earlier.
Boston Teran stunned critics with his debut novel, God Is a Bullet. Most raved about its explosive prose and in-your-face action, though a few felt that the author's style was a bit too much of a good thing. Teran is admittedly a writer for whom excess is glorious and for whom language is a wondrous, near-tangible commodity. His second novel, however, reveals a definite maturation: if God Is a Bullet reveled perhaps a bit too much in its own linguistic conceit, Never Count Out the Dead never allows the brilliance of its language to cast all else into shadow. Taut rather than bloated, the novel is as edgy as a hollow-eyed junkie and as extravagant as a drift of desert orchids. Teran retakes the stage with the assurance of an elegantly seasoned performer.--Kelly Flynn
399 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
24 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Boston Teran
20 books181 followersBoston Teran is the internationally acclaimed author of twelve novels, many of them translated into foreign languages. He has been named alongside great American writers like Hemingway and Larry McMurtry, as well as filmmakers John Ford and Sam Peckinpah, for his singular voice and ability to weave timely social and political themes into sweeping page turners that pierce straight into America's soul. GOD IS A BULLET, currently in film development, is considered a cult classic that has been compared to such seminal works as Joan Didion's THE WHITE ALBUM and John Ford's THE SEARCHERS. NEVER COUNT OUT THE DEAD has been called a modern equivalent of MacBeth. THE CREED OF VIOLENCE sold to Universal, with Todd Field (Little Children) set to direct and Daniel Graig in the starring role.
The author has been nominated or won over 17 awards, including The EDGAR AWARD for Best First Novel and the FOREWORD "Book of the Year Award" as well as the INTERNATIONAL IMPACT AWARD OF DUBLIN for Best Novel, the Best Novel of the Year in Japan and the John Creasy Award in England.
The author has been nominated or won over 17 awards, including The EDGAR AWARD for Best First Novel and the FOREWORD "Book of the Year Award" as well as the INTERNATIONAL IMPACT AWARD OF DUBLIN for Best Novel, the Best Novel of the Year in Japan and the John Creasy Award in England.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 12, 2023
Just lost my review due to glitches with this site. All I had left to do was hit “done”.
All I can briefly say: This is a 367 page epic of a crime-thriller. It’s over-populated with characters of vital importance to the slowly rolling complications of the plot - graft in the offices of elected officials and the police department of 1990s Los Angeles in offering building contractors with questionable reputations terrific “business opportunities”.
My point here is that the exchanges between the villains are very important to the overall plot. The paragraphs are filled with absolutely poetic passages. Unfortunately it has lead some reviewers to complain about the novel being overwritten. I loved these long, poetic passages but I understand how these same passages I have found interesting interrupt the flow of the violent action sequences.
There are countless shootouts, beatings, murders while a weekly newspaper columnist attempts to resolve the questions surrounding the seemingly random events.
This novel features the introduction and background on one of Boston Teran’s most memorable characters, the muckraking investigative reporter “Landshark” aka “William Worth”. Landshark makes a return appearance in Boston Teran’s upcoming Big Island, L. A. to be published in October of this year.
This was the 2nd book by Boston Teran I ever read. It’s as breathtaking and exciting a thriller as I’ve ever lived with for not quite a month.
Highest Recommendation!
All I can briefly say: This is a 367 page epic of a crime-thriller. It’s over-populated with characters of vital importance to the slowly rolling complications of the plot - graft in the offices of elected officials and the police department of 1990s Los Angeles in offering building contractors with questionable reputations terrific “business opportunities”.
My point here is that the exchanges between the villains are very important to the overall plot. The paragraphs are filled with absolutely poetic passages. Unfortunately it has lead some reviewers to complain about the novel being overwritten. I loved these long, poetic passages but I understand how these same passages I have found interesting interrupt the flow of the violent action sequences.
There are countless shootouts, beatings, murders while a weekly newspaper columnist attempts to resolve the questions surrounding the seemingly random events.
This novel features the introduction and background on one of Boston Teran’s most memorable characters, the muckraking investigative reporter “Landshark” aka “William Worth”. Landshark makes a return appearance in Boston Teran’s upcoming Big Island, L. A. to be published in October of this year.
This was the 2nd book by Boston Teran I ever read. It’s as breathtaking and exciting a thriller as I’ve ever lived with for not quite a month.
Highest Recommendation!
February 19, 2020
Before writing this review, I re-read my reviews of the Boston Teran novels I’ve read to this point. Doing so helped me form my comments, and served to remind me what I love/hate about this author.
Never Count Out The Dead is, in some ways, similar to God Is A Bullet, with a very dark plot and characters that are deeply, deeply flawed. The story here is a good one, but not really all that complex at its core. The son of a big time developer in L.A. has illegally worked around some environmental issues in order to get his projects approved and prove his worth to his massively successful father. This creates a secret he must protect, and a window of opportunity for all kinds of mayhem. And screwed up relationship no. 1.
Screwed up relationship no. 2: A catastrophically toxic mother and teenage daughter, who will become the fulcrum of this story as she re-emerges eleven years later in her twenties, and forms a relationship with the former sheriff’s deputy whom she lured into what was to be his death at her mother’s hands all those years ago.
Screwed up relationship no. 3: an agoraphobic, independently wealthy reporter, a former police detective, and the aforementioned former deputy sheriff who by all rights should be dead.
Confused? Well you probably will be if you bravely take on this book. If you’ve read this author before, you know that perhaps the biggest stumbling block to enjoying his work is the abstruse and overly dense prose to which he (or she) seems addicted. It often feels as though where a word would suffice, Teran uses a sentence, and where a sentence would be enough, Teran uses a paragraph. Metaphors rain down like a monsoon. Switching back-and-forth between characters and settings without so much as a warning or even a visual separation via paragraph, can lead the reader to frustration.
Yet somehow, through all this, perseverance pays off and the reader can extract entertainment from a story whose pace eventually and inexorably accelerates towards the conclusion. However, be warned, this author is not above leaving threads hanging, which in this case, I found unsatisfying. So, 3.5 stars it is— should have been better, but the author just can’t seem to leave well enough alone.
Never Count Out The Dead is, in some ways, similar to God Is A Bullet, with a very dark plot and characters that are deeply, deeply flawed. The story here is a good one, but not really all that complex at its core. The son of a big time developer in L.A. has illegally worked around some environmental issues in order to get his projects approved and prove his worth to his massively successful father. This creates a secret he must protect, and a window of opportunity for all kinds of mayhem. And screwed up relationship no. 1.
Screwed up relationship no. 2: A catastrophically toxic mother and teenage daughter, who will become the fulcrum of this story as she re-emerges eleven years later in her twenties, and forms a relationship with the former sheriff’s deputy whom she lured into what was to be his death at her mother’s hands all those years ago.
Screwed up relationship no. 3: an agoraphobic, independently wealthy reporter, a former police detective, and the aforementioned former deputy sheriff who by all rights should be dead.
Confused? Well you probably will be if you bravely take on this book. If you’ve read this author before, you know that perhaps the biggest stumbling block to enjoying his work is the abstruse and overly dense prose to which he (or she) seems addicted. It often feels as though where a word would suffice, Teran uses a sentence, and where a sentence would be enough, Teran uses a paragraph. Metaphors rain down like a monsoon. Switching back-and-forth between characters and settings without so much as a warning or even a visual separation via paragraph, can lead the reader to frustration.
Yet somehow, through all this, perseverance pays off and the reader can extract entertainment from a story whose pace eventually and inexorably accelerates towards the conclusion. However, be warned, this author is not above leaving threads hanging, which in this case, I found unsatisfying. So, 3.5 stars it is— should have been better, but the author just can’t seem to leave well enough alone.
January 6, 2024
I believe the title refers to a man, a police officer, who is left for dead and buried but is actually alive and digs his way out. But this is really the depressing, sometimes moving, story of a mother and daughter and the violence their lives are entangled in.
February 10, 2023
Several low-lifes and the son of a wealthy land developer are trying to cover up their involvement in the construction of two schools on contaminated land, and a favour gets called to keep one of the group out of prison. This results in young sheriff John Victor Sully being lured into the Mojave desert and almost murdered.
Eleven years later, agoraphobic journalist Landshark has uncovered the construction conspiracy, and tracks down Sully, who now goes by Victor Trey. Victor begins to get a taste for revenge. Things get complicated when he ultimately gets involved with Shay Storey, little realising that she and her mother, Dee, were instrumental in his near demise. All the other players from eleven years ago start to come out of the woodwork, eager for their involvement to remain quiet.
The author has a very poetic, lyrical writing style that draws you into the story and has you loving or hating its characters. Unlike the last few books I read, I was eager to come back to this whenever I put it down. But Teran sometimes goes too far, and the writing just feels pretentious. The characters all speak in the same style, and that was definitely very pretentious. Poetic license aside, real people just don't talk like this!
The plot is simple and effective. Teran doesn't spell it out for you, but you can generally get the gist of what is going on. In the final chapters, however, in trying to describe action happening all at once, it just starts to get chaotic and confusing and I occasionally struggled to decipher what exactly was happening at times.
While I read books for interesting plots and interesting characters, and not so much for the joy of prose, I can recognise gifted writing when I encounter it. This was a nice change-up from the books I normally consume, and a good reminder that even literary-driven fiction can still deliver a solid genre story with engaging characters.
Eleven years later, agoraphobic journalist Landshark has uncovered the construction conspiracy, and tracks down Sully, who now goes by Victor Trey. Victor begins to get a taste for revenge. Things get complicated when he ultimately gets involved with Shay Storey, little realising that she and her mother, Dee, were instrumental in his near demise. All the other players from eleven years ago start to come out of the woodwork, eager for their involvement to remain quiet.
The author has a very poetic, lyrical writing style that draws you into the story and has you loving or hating its characters. Unlike the last few books I read, I was eager to come back to this whenever I put it down. But Teran sometimes goes too far, and the writing just feels pretentious. The characters all speak in the same style, and that was definitely very pretentious. Poetic license aside, real people just don't talk like this!
The plot is simple and effective. Teran doesn't spell it out for you, but you can generally get the gist of what is going on. In the final chapters, however, in trying to describe action happening all at once, it just starts to get chaotic and confusing and I occasionally struggled to decipher what exactly was happening at times.
While I read books for interesting plots and interesting characters, and not so much for the joy of prose, I can recognise gifted writing when I encounter it. This was a nice change-up from the books I normally consume, and a good reminder that even literary-driven fiction can still deliver a solid genre story with engaging characters.
April 1, 2013
Brilliantly engaging. Some don't like all the colourful language of this author - imagine Henry Miller gone all modern murder
February 25, 2011
Hmm, one asks of another, hey, do you like to read Boston Teran? The other, replies, No, I hate poetry.
It's a valid analogy and part of what I love and hate about Terans writing. Theres just so much cool trendy metaphor and it's just so bleeding good, that you almost want to forgive the effort it takes to slave yourself through paragraphs of story that you want to charge through. He writes good stuff but it's so steeped in this self basting treacle that continuity and context, character background and clarity are just fucking thrown to the wind. Pick up what you can, good luck and all that, if you get it good, if not, sucks to be you. His prose is so good I can imagine the inbred reviewers back east jacking off to what he writes and singing his praises to high heaven without regard to it's very legibility. Terans crap is made for those types but not necessarily written for them.
To make matters worse, as the story reaches its crescendo, Teran begins snapping to and from between several scenes happening at once. At first its a paragraph break, then a period. So you have a line in a paragraph referring to character A in area A. The very next line is a thought occuring to character B in area B. It's already a bitch to read, this seems a novel way of creating the immediacy of many scenarios playing out simultaneously. Ultimately its just irritating and sort of sloppy.
If someone I knew was reading this, I'd ask how they liked it but I couldn't possibly imagine ever reccomending this book to anybody. The ending ultimately sucked, no finality to the main two characters, none, zip, bupkus. I give it a 3 because the guy just writes so freaking cool, but it's just not enough to make this the stone idol it ought to be.
It's a valid analogy and part of what I love and hate about Terans writing. Theres just so much cool trendy metaphor and it's just so bleeding good, that you almost want to forgive the effort it takes to slave yourself through paragraphs of story that you want to charge through. He writes good stuff but it's so steeped in this self basting treacle that continuity and context, character background and clarity are just fucking thrown to the wind. Pick up what you can, good luck and all that, if you get it good, if not, sucks to be you. His prose is so good I can imagine the inbred reviewers back east jacking off to what he writes and singing his praises to high heaven without regard to it's very legibility. Terans crap is made for those types but not necessarily written for them.
To make matters worse, as the story reaches its crescendo, Teran begins snapping to and from between several scenes happening at once. At first its a paragraph break, then a period. So you have a line in a paragraph referring to character A in area A. The very next line is a thought occuring to character B in area B. It's already a bitch to read, this seems a novel way of creating the immediacy of many scenarios playing out simultaneously. Ultimately its just irritating and sort of sloppy.
If someone I knew was reading this, I'd ask how they liked it but I couldn't possibly imagine ever reccomending this book to anybody. The ending ultimately sucked, no finality to the main two characters, none, zip, bupkus. I give it a 3 because the guy just writes so freaking cool, but it's just not enough to make this the stone idol it ought to be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2010
I found this book strange, yet intriguing. I admit that I found the slang used very unfamiliar, but that isn't why I didn't rate this book very high. Vic, the left for dead police office who's career is destroyed is bent on revenge, according to the jacket. That just didn't come through. I did for very sorry for Shay, the target of her mother's hate/love/self destruction, but she is really the only beleivable character I found in the book. i just wasn't impressed, but not bored enough to stop reading.
July 30, 2011
A great book for the dog days of summer. This book is a fever burning in the brain,racing speeding bullet fashion from intense,to crazy;with the occasional detour into dementia. Teran is like Charles Dickens on crystal meth,populating his novel with a cast of murders,sadists,lunatics,freak, and subdivions of all of the above. He may even have succeeded in inventing a few charcter types that can't be qualified. I don't promise that you'll like this book;it is aimed at a certain taste,but I do promise you wont ever forget what you read. Like a tatto on the brain in endures.
February 24, 2016
I count this book with : The Stand by Stephen King, The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker and Damascus Gate by Robert Stone as one of the most enjoyable journeys my mind has been taken on by the words of another person. Dark, Gritty, and very believable if you have ever lived in the swirl of madness the drug world has to offer.
November 23, 2014
I have never come across a writing style quite in the same league as this - so expressive & forceful, borderline poetry in parts.
Seriously enjoyed it - gritty, dark &, well, more than a little crazy!
Seriously enjoyed it - gritty, dark &, well, more than a little crazy!
March 26, 2008
Crazy good.
September 21, 2010
I really enjoyed Mr. Teran's first novel, "God is a Bullet". He didn't have a sophmore let down with his second effort. This is pulp fiction at it's best.
March 14, 2013
Loved the book, hated the atrocious Kindle format.
August 8, 2018
A malevolent babbling clown of a book dressed up as noir pulp. A complete waste of time. Summer is better than this and deserves a better read.
May 22, 2023
Published in 2001, this was the second novel from the enigmatic Boston Teran after his (or her or their) brilliant debut, God Is a Bullet. Those looking for simple, straight-forward plots, clean story lines, admirable characters, or any combination thereof should look elsewhere, but those who want to jump into a dark, gritty, violent and beautifully written story should read the opening pages and then hang on for dear life.
There is a plot hiding in here somewhere involving the son of a major Los Angeles developer who is anxious to curry favor with his father and advance the construction of the father's latest project, a large and very expensive high school complex. Unfortunately, the site selected for the school is heavily contaminated. Upon discovering this, the son falsifies environmental reports to facilitate the construction anyway.
The son's efforts to conceal this fraud leads to a chain reaction of events that will ripple outward to encompass a cast of odd, strange, and seriously screwed up people. At the heart of the story are a mother and daughter, Dee and Shay Storey, who have to be contenders for the most toxic familial relationship in the history of fiction. As the book opens, Dee, who is hopelessly addicted to speed and other drugs, involves her daughter in the attempted murder of a young sheriff named John Victor Sully. Shay is certain that Sully is dead when she buries him in a shallow grave, but as the title suggests, never count out the dead.
The incident with Sully takes place in 1987 after which the story jumps to 1998, where it will play out to its conclusion. Eleven years down the road, all of this business remains unresolved but forces and other characters, including an agoraphobic journalist, are hard at work to bring about a reckoning.
It won't be pretty, and as the momentum of the story continues to gather, the pace picks up considerably and conclusion rains down in a torrent of dizzying jump cuts from one scene to another. Some readers will be thrilled to go along for the wild ride; others, I suspect, will be thoroughly confused and disappointed. Teran writes very complex plots and dense, beautiful prose, and for me, the writing is everything that I look forward to in these novels. I'm not sure that in the end, I understood half of what actually happened in this book, but I was happy to be swept up in the chaos.
There is a plot hiding in here somewhere involving the son of a major Los Angeles developer who is anxious to curry favor with his father and advance the construction of the father's latest project, a large and very expensive high school complex. Unfortunately, the site selected for the school is heavily contaminated. Upon discovering this, the son falsifies environmental reports to facilitate the construction anyway.
The son's efforts to conceal this fraud leads to a chain reaction of events that will ripple outward to encompass a cast of odd, strange, and seriously screwed up people. At the heart of the story are a mother and daughter, Dee and Shay Storey, who have to be contenders for the most toxic familial relationship in the history of fiction. As the book opens, Dee, who is hopelessly addicted to speed and other drugs, involves her daughter in the attempted murder of a young sheriff named John Victor Sully. Shay is certain that Sully is dead when she buries him in a shallow grave, but as the title suggests, never count out the dead.
The incident with Sully takes place in 1987 after which the story jumps to 1998, where it will play out to its conclusion. Eleven years down the road, all of this business remains unresolved but forces and other characters, including an agoraphobic journalist, are hard at work to bring about a reckoning.
It won't be pretty, and as the momentum of the story continues to gather, the pace picks up considerably and conclusion rains down in a torrent of dizzying jump cuts from one scene to another. Some readers will be thrilled to go along for the wild ride; others, I suspect, will be thoroughly confused and disappointed. Teran writes very complex plots and dense, beautiful prose, and for me, the writing is everything that I look forward to in these novels. I'm not sure that in the end, I understood half of what actually happened in this book, but I was happy to be swept up in the chaos.
September 1, 2022
For all you voracious readers out there, I have just finished reading one of the best books ever! It is called " Never Count Out The Dead" by Boston Teran, and it was so gripping, I couldn't put it down! And when I had to put it down, I was thinking about the characters! This author is amazing and if you are looking for a gritty, amazing book, pick this one up! You won't be disappointed! It has been called a modern Macbeth! Just a wicked read from start to finish!
Spoiler alert!
wow.....I have just finished reading "Never count out the dead" and I have to say, this is one of the best books I have ever read. I want to see the sequel! What happens to Vic and Shay?? And why did Shay bury the money with her mother?? All that money and she buries it?? I would rather have seen them take the money and run! It was so gripping, I couldn't put it down! And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about the characters! I was also wondering where I could see the pic ALIA, that the author mentioned. Tried to google it, to no avail...thanks for the brain food!
Spoiler alert!
wow.....I have just finished reading "Never count out the dead" and I have to say, this is one of the best books I have ever read. I want to see the sequel! What happens to Vic and Shay?? And why did Shay bury the money with her mother?? All that money and she buries it?? I would rather have seen them take the money and run! It was so gripping, I couldn't put it down! And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about the characters! I was also wondering where I could see the pic ALIA, that the author mentioned. Tried to google it, to no avail...thanks for the brain food!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2023
From Amazon: "Based on one of the most infamous cover-ups in Los Angeles history, NEVER COUNT OUT THE DEAD is a tragic masterpiece that has been reviewed as Chinatown meets MacBeth."
This book is so dark it makes a lot of noir look pastel. If I had a "thriller" category, this would be in it, but since I don't read thrillers . . . Graft and corruption are part of the core, but not the whole
story. There is a LOT of violence, as in, not many scenes in which violence is not threatened, immanent, or happening. Yet, none of the violence is gratuitous or unnecessarily graphic (which is good for me, since I can't take much of that sort of thing). There is a rather high mortality rate.
There are a slew of characters, some of whom you might like and care about, or not like very much, but care about anyhow, but plenty you will not. Despite the number of characters who appear, really, no one is innocent.
This is one of those books a person cannot put down, especially near the end. There is evil in this world.
This book is so dark it makes a lot of noir look pastel. If I had a "thriller" category, this would be in it, but since I don't read thrillers . . . Graft and corruption are part of the core, but not the whole
story. There is a LOT of violence, as in, not many scenes in which violence is not threatened, immanent, or happening. Yet, none of the violence is gratuitous or unnecessarily graphic (which is good for me, since I can't take much of that sort of thing). There is a rather high mortality rate.
There are a slew of characters, some of whom you might like and care about, or not like very much, but care about anyhow, but plenty you will not. Despite the number of characters who appear, really, no one is innocent.
This is one of those books a person cannot put down, especially near the end. There is evil in this world.
October 16, 2023
Murder gone wrong. Corruption. Revenge. A tense mother daughter relationship. An investigative reporter suffering from agoraphobia. All these elements are thrown together in a complex plot that builds to a riveting shoot ‘em up.
This novel is structured with chapters and paragraphs that jump between characters and locations requiring a reader’s full attention. Fortunately, the author’s writing keeps the reader engaged.
An interesting theme to the story is the relationship of the main characters to the past. Does the past own you? Does what happened in the past limit you? “Maybe freedom, in truth, is little more than a temporary reprieve from what was, or what is. . . . “
This novel is structured with chapters and paragraphs that jump between characters and locations requiring a reader’s full attention. Fortunately, the author’s writing keeps the reader engaged.
An interesting theme to the story is the relationship of the main characters to the past. Does the past own you? Does what happened in the past limit you? “Maybe freedom, in truth, is little more than a temporary reprieve from what was, or what is. . . . “
November 29, 2017
Very good novel
Want to read
September 6, 2024He gives you everything you ever ask Him for. If you counted up God’s favors, you would never [be able to] number them; yet man is so unfair, ungrateful. 14/34
February 28, 2015
Cosa ne penso??
Penso che un buon Thompson più contemporaneo incrociato ad uno dei migliori Ellroy, può rendere l'idea di quale lettura sia L'abisso della Solitudine. Nero, ambientato in quell'America che tanto strizza l'occhio a J. Lansdale ma in tempi più recenti.
Insomma proseguo questo primo libro di questo autore.
A conclusione penso che sia un ottimo noir con, forse, qualche pagina di troppo però..
Penso che un buon Thompson più contemporaneo incrociato ad uno dei migliori Ellroy, può rendere l'idea di quale lettura sia L'abisso della Solitudine. Nero, ambientato in quell'America che tanto strizza l'occhio a J. Lansdale ma in tempi più recenti.
Insomma proseguo questo primo libro di questo autore.
A conclusione penso che sia un ottimo noir con, forse, qualche pagina di troppo però..
August 13, 2012
Pulp fiction at its best but not what I would call a literary masterpiece.
September 16, 2013
Violent, gruesome, weird, all about the underbelly of the world. Not a happy book
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews