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ROUGH RIDERS
ROUGH RIDERS is a ten year sequel to Charlie Stella's first novel, EDDIE'S WORLD.
Quoting from the blurb on the back of the book:
"Not all deals with the federal government makes with the devils of the criminal world are as fruitful as portrayed in the tabloids of our day. White Bulger's manipulation of the FBI was fact that proved stranger than fiction."
My copy is an original signed first edition as published by Stark House Press in oversized (5 1/2" width X 8 1/2" length.
Quoting from the blurb on the back of the book:
"Not all deals with the federal government makes with the devils of the criminal world are as fruitful as portrayed in the tabloids of our day. White Bulger's manipulation of the FBI was fact that proved stranger than fiction."
My copy is an original signed first edition as published by Stark House Press in oversized (5 1/2" width X 8 1/2" length.
255 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Stella
24 books27 followersCarmelo Stella is an author long familiar with the street life of New York City, which figures substantially in his writing. His work includes plays, performed off-off-Broadway, his debut novel called Eddie's World and Jimmy Bench-press, also published by Hale. He lives in New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 27, 2018
I'm only about 2/3rds of the way through this.
I'd have finished tonight but I have to get up early tomorrow morning.
This is a superb pulp/crime thriller that brings to mind Elmore Leonard at his peak (UNKNOWN MAN NO.89; CITY PRIMEVAL: HIGH NOON IN DETROIT; SWAG; STICK).
Remarkable character development, brilliant multiple plot juggling, edge-of-your seat suspense, and crackling dialogue.
It's impossible for me to provide a synopsis for this novel without slipping up and accidentally offering up a few spoilers.
It might make the read more enjoyable to first read Stella's 2001 novel EDDIE'S WORLD as this is pretty much a sequel to that novel.
The same set of characters appear and references are made to events that occurred in that first book.
It's not mandatory that you read EDDIE'S WORLD, however.
ROUGH RIDERS may be read as a stand-alone.
Charlie Stella is one of my 10 favorite authors.
His previous novels include:
EDDIE'S WORLD (December 2001 Carroll & Graff)
JIMMY BENCH-PRESS (December 2002 Carroll & Graff)
CHARLIE OPERA (December 2003 Carroll & Graff)
CHEAPSKATES (March 2005 Carroll & Graff)
SHAKEDOWN(June 2006 Pegasus)
MAFIYA (January 2008 Pegasus)
JOHNNY PORNO (April 2010 Stark House)
I would highly recommend each and every one of them!
Collect 'em all. Become a Charlie Stella addict like me.
UPDATE:
Just finished ROUGH RIDERS... last 75 pages are a full-bore adrenaline rush of action-packed almost-unbearable suspense. Possibly my favorite Stella novel yet.
I'd have finished tonight but I have to get up early tomorrow morning.
This is a superb pulp/crime thriller that brings to mind Elmore Leonard at his peak (UNKNOWN MAN NO.89; CITY PRIMEVAL: HIGH NOON IN DETROIT; SWAG; STICK).
Remarkable character development, brilliant multiple plot juggling, edge-of-your seat suspense, and crackling dialogue.
It's impossible for me to provide a synopsis for this novel without slipping up and accidentally offering up a few spoilers.
It might make the read more enjoyable to first read Stella's 2001 novel EDDIE'S WORLD as this is pretty much a sequel to that novel.
The same set of characters appear and references are made to events that occurred in that first book.
It's not mandatory that you read EDDIE'S WORLD, however.
ROUGH RIDERS may be read as a stand-alone.
Charlie Stella is one of my 10 favorite authors.
His previous novels include:
EDDIE'S WORLD (December 2001 Carroll & Graff)
JIMMY BENCH-PRESS (December 2002 Carroll & Graff)
CHARLIE OPERA (December 2003 Carroll & Graff)
CHEAPSKATES (March 2005 Carroll & Graff)
SHAKEDOWN(June 2006 Pegasus)
MAFIYA (January 2008 Pegasus)
JOHNNY PORNO (April 2010 Stark House)
I would highly recommend each and every one of them!
Collect 'em all. Become a Charlie Stella addict like me.
UPDATE:
Just finished ROUGH RIDERS... last 75 pages are a full-bore adrenaline rush of action-packed almost-unbearable suspense. Possibly my favorite Stella novel yet.
July 14, 2013
Charlie Stella made his bones writing mob stories. Now he’s the pre-eminent organized crime fiction writer in the country. No one gets inside the heads of low-level hoods better than Stella. Made guys were never his primary interest. He focused on the entry-level crooks who didn’t have both feet in the game and were still looking for viable options in their lives, or someone who took a gig because he needed the money and had no intention of being a criminal, just because he worked for some.
He expands his envelope a little in his newest novel, Rough Riders. Ten years after 2001’s Eddie’s World, Eddie Senta has gone on with his life, and James Singleton--the man who almost killed him and was in turn disfigured by Senta—has gone on to a new identity, courtesy of the Witness Protection Program. Singleton—now known as Washington Stewart—now works for the government, in his way, setting up other potential candidates for WitSec, while pursuing an agenda of his own, sort of a black Sammy Gravano in North Dakota instead of Arizona.
Singleton/Stewart can’t forgive Senta for shooting him though the eye and almost killing him. His disfigurement leaves him too obvious to kill Senta himself, so he sends a couple of lackeys, who do half-assed job, leaving both Senta and his wife in the hospital, but alive. Mrs. Senta hires Alex Pavlik, one of the cops involved in the original incident, now working as a private investigator, to find Singleton and let the Sentas sleep with both eyes closed.
Pavlik tracks one of the would-be killers to North Dakota, where he learns Singleton is in the area, likely under government protection, which will hinder anything he tries to do. He also finds himself at the confluence of several crime enterprises operating around the Air Force base in Minot, at least one of which involves Singleton/Stewart.
Rough Riders resembles Mafiya, Stella’s look at the Russian mob, more than most of the rest of his books. Multiple points of view keep the reader better informed than any single character and do an excellent job of foreshadowing trouble without being heavy-handed about it. No amateurish, “If only he knew what Joe Schlabotnik had planned” bullshit here. The reader knows what Schlabotnik has planned, and we know our hero doesn’t know. There’s no need for Stella to spell it out, and he trusts his readers enough not to try.
As always in Stella’s writing, the dialog stands out among many strengths. No one this side of Elmore Leonard captures the flow of conversations better, though it may take a few pages to accustom yourself to the cadences of his characters’ speech. That’s more an indication of the failings of other writers than a fault of Stella’s, as too many are afraid to veer too far from “writing” when they write dialog, so their characters’ spoken words too closely resemble the surrounding narrative. Readers fall into the trap and expect it from everything they read. There’s no question who’s talking in Rough Riders, not even when the dialog moves back and forth rapid fire without attribution.
Rough Riders is the most complicated of Stella’s stories, and it takes some concentration to keep straight who is doing what to whom early on. Hang in there. Everything falls together, leading to a climax dispersed along several fronts, switching points of view every page or so to show simultaneous actions from multiple perspectives with a dexterity Leonard would be proud of. It’s a little different from Stella’s usual fare, but a welcome addition to his output. (If you’re looking for a more standard entry point into his oeuvre, try Shakedown or Johnny Porno.) Stella has been around, and is still willing to try out new things and stretch himself, as is shown by his enrollment in an MFA program in his fifties. Let’s hope he still dips his toe into the crime fiction pool at least once in a while. He’s a good one.
He expands his envelope a little in his newest novel, Rough Riders. Ten years after 2001’s Eddie’s World, Eddie Senta has gone on with his life, and James Singleton--the man who almost killed him and was in turn disfigured by Senta—has gone on to a new identity, courtesy of the Witness Protection Program. Singleton—now known as Washington Stewart—now works for the government, in his way, setting up other potential candidates for WitSec, while pursuing an agenda of his own, sort of a black Sammy Gravano in North Dakota instead of Arizona.
Singleton/Stewart can’t forgive Senta for shooting him though the eye and almost killing him. His disfigurement leaves him too obvious to kill Senta himself, so he sends a couple of lackeys, who do half-assed job, leaving both Senta and his wife in the hospital, but alive. Mrs. Senta hires Alex Pavlik, one of the cops involved in the original incident, now working as a private investigator, to find Singleton and let the Sentas sleep with both eyes closed.
Pavlik tracks one of the would-be killers to North Dakota, where he learns Singleton is in the area, likely under government protection, which will hinder anything he tries to do. He also finds himself at the confluence of several crime enterprises operating around the Air Force base in Minot, at least one of which involves Singleton/Stewart.
Rough Riders resembles Mafiya, Stella’s look at the Russian mob, more than most of the rest of his books. Multiple points of view keep the reader better informed than any single character and do an excellent job of foreshadowing trouble without being heavy-handed about it. No amateurish, “If only he knew what Joe Schlabotnik had planned” bullshit here. The reader knows what Schlabotnik has planned, and we know our hero doesn’t know. There’s no need for Stella to spell it out, and he trusts his readers enough not to try.
As always in Stella’s writing, the dialog stands out among many strengths. No one this side of Elmore Leonard captures the flow of conversations better, though it may take a few pages to accustom yourself to the cadences of his characters’ speech. That’s more an indication of the failings of other writers than a fault of Stella’s, as too many are afraid to veer too far from “writing” when they write dialog, so their characters’ spoken words too closely resemble the surrounding narrative. Readers fall into the trap and expect it from everything they read. There’s no question who’s talking in Rough Riders, not even when the dialog moves back and forth rapid fire without attribution.
Rough Riders is the most complicated of Stella’s stories, and it takes some concentration to keep straight who is doing what to whom early on. Hang in there. Everything falls together, leading to a climax dispersed along several fronts, switching points of view every page or so to show simultaneous actions from multiple perspectives with a dexterity Leonard would be proud of. It’s a little different from Stella’s usual fare, but a welcome addition to his output. (If you’re looking for a more standard entry point into his oeuvre, try Shakedown or Johnny Porno.) Stella has been around, and is still willing to try out new things and stretch himself, as is shown by his enrollment in an MFA program in his fifties. Let’s hope he still dips his toe into the crime fiction pool at least once in a while. He’s a good one.
December 27, 2015
One of the back cover blurbs describes Stella’s writing as a mix of Elmore Leonard and George V Higgins. It’s a high compliment, and though not unwarranted, I think does Stella a bit of a disservice for he has a style all of his own: multiple intersecting narratives, a couple of dozen lead characters, tightly written prose and crisp, punchy dialogue, plenty of action, and a plot that rattles along like a runaway train. It’s fair to say that there is a heck of a lot going on in the 250 pages of Rough Riders. It’s a testimony to Stella’s writing that despite the somewhat convoluted plot that the whole thing hangs together well and that I never got lost across the various narratives and characters. Indeed, where the story excels is with respect to the characters and their interchanges. Stella populates the story with a whole variety of low-level criminals, cops, and civilians, each one vividly portrayed. My only critique really is that it was a little too condensed; kind of like a six part series crammed into a movie format. And while I sometimes conclude reviews by saying the book would make a good film, this one would make a terrific TV serial.
Read
October 2, 2012The last time James Singleton tried to flee the country, and the witness protection program, he made the mistake of involving people he couldn’t trust. That was ten years ago, and much to his dismay James Singleton, now Washington Stewart, is still spinning his wheels in Witness Protection.
True, the FBI turns a blind eye to his occasional criminal activity as long as he helps them with various sting operations, but freezing his balls off in godforsaken North Dakota isn’t exactly a fair tradeoff as far as Stewart is concerned.
So when he meets up with a Colonel from the local Air Force Base who also has intentions of fleeing the country, right after completing a drug deal and squaring things up with his cheating wife, it seems like a partnership made in heave. The Colonel agrees to help Stewart get out of the country in exchange for Stewart killing the Colonel’s wife. Good to go, right? Well…
You see, Stewart’s still holding a grudge against mobster Eddie Senta for shooting him in the face ten years ago back in New York during Stewart’s first stint in Witness Protection, and he’s not keen to leave the country until he pays Senta back for the night that left him missing an eye and facially disfigured. Knowing he can’t exactly slip across the country and do the job himself, Stewart designates the task to an underling. And that’s when the wheels start coming off the wagon.
The hit goes sideways, leaving Senta in a coma and his pregnant wife in the hospital. Having a damn good idea who was behind the violence, Mrs. Senta hires PI Alex Pavlik – formerly NYPD Detective Pavlik, the man who worked the original Senta/Singleton shooting case ten years ago – to track down Singleton/Stewart and settle the score. Easier said than done when one whiff that their pet snitch is being tracked will send the FBI scurrying to relocate him yet again.
If it sounds like there’s a lot going on in Rough Riders, author Charlie Stella’s sequel to 2001′s Eddie’s World, that’s because there is. Stella, however, excels at keeping the multiple plot lines going, never confusing the reader or allowing any of the angles he’s working to lose steam. Far from it. While the book opens with a bit of skipping around to catch people up on what’s been happening with Singleton, Senta, and Pavlik since we last saw them, as things progress the multiple story lines tighten up and start to come together, a nasty train wreck of convergence in the frozen heartland being the inevitable outcome.
Along the way the reader is treated to some of the finest characterization it’s humanly possible to capture on paper. The characters’ dialog and actions ring so true you can’t help but see Rough Riders play out in your head like a film, with a cast that runs the gamut from a good guy caught up in the fray (Minot, ND Detective Dale Hehn), to a disturbingly appealing amoral chameleon (Singleton/Stewart), to a stomach-turning cold-blooded sociopath (Colonel Schmidt). Tossed into the mix are bungling sidekicks (Stewart’s conversation with his unfortunately named underling Roger Daltry about why he shouldn’t use his real name is laugh-out-loud funny), a sly Lakota attorney, slimy FBI handlers, and various wildcard wives and girlfriends.
Having read Eddie’s World would obviously give the reader a greater sense of context for the events that take place in Rough Riders, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Stella’s always dark, often violent, occasionally humorous Rough Riders more than stands on its own, and is more than worth your time.
True, the FBI turns a blind eye to his occasional criminal activity as long as he helps them with various sting operations, but freezing his balls off in godforsaken North Dakota isn’t exactly a fair tradeoff as far as Stewart is concerned.
So when he meets up with a Colonel from the local Air Force Base who also has intentions of fleeing the country, right after completing a drug deal and squaring things up with his cheating wife, it seems like a partnership made in heave. The Colonel agrees to help Stewart get out of the country in exchange for Stewart killing the Colonel’s wife. Good to go, right? Well…
You see, Stewart’s still holding a grudge against mobster Eddie Senta for shooting him in the face ten years ago back in New York during Stewart’s first stint in Witness Protection, and he’s not keen to leave the country until he pays Senta back for the night that left him missing an eye and facially disfigured. Knowing he can’t exactly slip across the country and do the job himself, Stewart designates the task to an underling. And that’s when the wheels start coming off the wagon.
The hit goes sideways, leaving Senta in a coma and his pregnant wife in the hospital. Having a damn good idea who was behind the violence, Mrs. Senta hires PI Alex Pavlik – formerly NYPD Detective Pavlik, the man who worked the original Senta/Singleton shooting case ten years ago – to track down Singleton/Stewart and settle the score. Easier said than done when one whiff that their pet snitch is being tracked will send the FBI scurrying to relocate him yet again.
If it sounds like there’s a lot going on in Rough Riders, author Charlie Stella’s sequel to 2001′s Eddie’s World, that’s because there is. Stella, however, excels at keeping the multiple plot lines going, never confusing the reader or allowing any of the angles he’s working to lose steam. Far from it. While the book opens with a bit of skipping around to catch people up on what’s been happening with Singleton, Senta, and Pavlik since we last saw them, as things progress the multiple story lines tighten up and start to come together, a nasty train wreck of convergence in the frozen heartland being the inevitable outcome.
Along the way the reader is treated to some of the finest characterization it’s humanly possible to capture on paper. The characters’ dialog and actions ring so true you can’t help but see Rough Riders play out in your head like a film, with a cast that runs the gamut from a good guy caught up in the fray (Minot, ND Detective Dale Hehn), to a disturbingly appealing amoral chameleon (Singleton/Stewart), to a stomach-turning cold-blooded sociopath (Colonel Schmidt). Tossed into the mix are bungling sidekicks (Stewart’s conversation with his unfortunately named underling Roger Daltry about why he shouldn’t use his real name is laugh-out-loud funny), a sly Lakota attorney, slimy FBI handlers, and various wildcard wives and girlfriends.
Having read Eddie’s World would obviously give the reader a greater sense of context for the events that take place in Rough Riders, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Stella’s always dark, often violent, occasionally humorous Rough Riders more than stands on its own, and is more than worth your time.
January 20, 2015
Charlie Stella is my new favorite author
Love the dialogue, makes me able to hear the accents in my head while I read.
Great story line. I used to work in north Dakota, and Mr. Stellas grasp of the geography up there is great. Hope there are more books featuring Alex Pavlik.
Love the dialogue, makes me able to hear the accents in my head while I read.
Great story line. I used to work in north Dakota, and Mr. Stellas grasp of the geography up there is great. Hope there are more books featuring Alex Pavlik.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews