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Street Raised
Oakland, 1984.Skinheads prowl the streets, a serial killer talksto God through the business end of a butcher knife, and Mexican doperunners dump their chained enemies into the river alive. Navigating ablasted landscape of feral dogs, crooked cops, and violent criminals isSpeedy, an ex-con come home to a litany of the cops want hisass back in prison, his friends are being murdered by the local druglords, and now romance has reared it's lovely head as distraction. Speedy has raised, and he will take whatever he damn wellpleases. For better or worse, he is what he a savage mother.
- GenresNoir
216 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
6 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Pearce Hansen
10 books84 followersPearce Hansen is the author of Street Raised//https://www.amazon.com/Street-Raised-....
Pearce Hansen is an Oakland native residing in Seattle with his wife Pia. Pearce's fiction is inspired by events and experiences from his youth growing up in the East Bay.
He's been writing 20 years with over 100 publications including three novels, one short story collection and six anthology inclusions. He's an alumnus of Anthony Neil Smith's legendary Plots With Guns! and Todd Robinson's Thuglit. He's been reviewed by Eddie Muller in the SF Chronicle, and blurbed by Joe Lansdale, Michael Shea, Ken Bruen and Laird Barron. His work's been translated into Finnish and Spanish, and adapted as a limited edition comic book.
Pearce Hansen is an Oakland native residing in Seattle with his wife Pia. Pearce's fiction is inspired by events and experiences from his youth growing up in the East Bay.
He's been writing 20 years with over 100 publications including three novels, one short story collection and six anthology inclusions. He's an alumnus of Anthony Neil Smith's legendary Plots With Guns! and Todd Robinson's Thuglit. He's been reviewed by Eddie Muller in the SF Chronicle, and blurbed by Joe Lansdale, Michael Shea, Ken Bruen and Laird Barron. His work's been translated into Finnish and Spanish, and adapted as a limited edition comic book.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 26, 2016
This narrative opens with Mexican gangsters throwing two bound men off a bridge, alive, bound in chains. This sets the tone for the remainder of this gritty, grim, sleazy story about gangsters, skinheads, crack-heads, misfits, a serial killer & assorted other misfits.
The central character is a newly released-from-prison, career criminal, Speedy. Speedy enlists his homeless, crack-head brother & bouncer pal, Fat Bob, to rip off local drug dealers. Course, nothing goes quite to plan.
This could easily be a generic tale of gratuitous violence, but Pearce Hanson elevates it with his great use of descriptive prose. Sure, it's grim & gritty. But in a good way.
“Speedy let the blanket slip to the ground & aimed in with the Thompson. There was something in the little guard's hand. He was raising it. Speedy sprayed a burst from the Thompson up into his face from point blank range.
The guard's head disintegrated in an air-flower of meat mist & bloody red chunks. Speedy got a mental freeze-frame of one of the man's eyeballs, intact in mid-air with an asteroid belt halo of tumbling teeth & bone orbiting it.”
“Bob said once, 'Speedy's the kind of monster that could run through hell with a sack of ice, still have enough for a sno-cone at the other end.' You still got it Daddy. For what it's worth.”
I wouldn't compare this to Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. But on the other hand if you enjoyed Blood Meridian, you may well enjoy this.
The central character is a newly released-from-prison, career criminal, Speedy. Speedy enlists his homeless, crack-head brother & bouncer pal, Fat Bob, to rip off local drug dealers. Course, nothing goes quite to plan.
This could easily be a generic tale of gratuitous violence, but Pearce Hanson elevates it with his great use of descriptive prose. Sure, it's grim & gritty. But in a good way.
“Speedy let the blanket slip to the ground & aimed in with the Thompson. There was something in the little guard's hand. He was raising it. Speedy sprayed a burst from the Thompson up into his face from point blank range.
The guard's head disintegrated in an air-flower of meat mist & bloody red chunks. Speedy got a mental freeze-frame of one of the man's eyeballs, intact in mid-air with an asteroid belt halo of tumbling teeth & bone orbiting it.”
“Bob said once, 'Speedy's the kind of monster that could run through hell with a sack of ice, still have enough for a sno-cone at the other end.' You still got it Daddy. For what it's worth.”
I wouldn't compare this to Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. But on the other hand if you enjoyed Blood Meridian, you may well enjoy this.
January 27, 2012
Pearce Hansen and I had our crime novels brought out by the same publisher, Point Blank, an imprint of Wildside Press. In fact, his STREET RAISED was first published by Point Blank, and reprinted in a longer version which I've just read. I loved STREET RAISED. Speedy is an ex-con who has gated out and returns to his old stomping grounds in Oakland, CA. Times have changed. It's now the 1980s, and STREET RAISED abounds with those pop references and music. The street culture and history of San Francisco come alive. Pearce also excels at capturing the vivid settings. Moreover, his characterizations are nuanced and sharp. The separate plot threads merge with great skill. Though hardboiled and gritty in tone, STREET RAISED also displays its tender side, starting with Speedy's white kitten, Pearl. The prose style is distinctive, reminding me, at times, of early Ellroy. What can I say? This is a top fun read if you're a crime fiction buff.
January 25, 2012
Once you accept that there's an deep issue with the use of qualifiers, this is actually not bad at all, but boy does it ever get in the way sometimes. The story in itself is really solid and revolves around a visceral grudge, which is cool. Whenever the writer dropped his guard and weeded out his prose, it became highly enjoyable. The interactions in between Speedy and the police officer Louis being the most interesting passages sometimes. Also, Pearce Hansen has a knack for establishing a sense of place. The urban sprawl doesn't get any better than this in crime fiction. Worth a try, especially at the price it is on the Kindle Store.
July 18, 2011
Pearce Hansen has some how combined a fable, a gritty street crime story and coming of age tale seamlessly into one novel. It is deep and richly textured with characters that will live with me for some time to come. Along with the human and feline characters there stands the East Bay as a living breathing organism. Hansen knows his turf and writes with clear eyed passion about it. My only word of caution is, it took me a bit to fall in love with this book, after a chapter or two though I fell hard. Damn fine writing.
August 17, 2024
Having recently been released from prison in upstate California, Speedy hitchhikes home to Oakland to reunite with his brother, Little Willy, and best friend, Fat Bob. Unfortunately, during Speedy’s time away Little Willy has fallen into a life of crime and crack, and Fat Bob’s working as a bouncer in some of the area’s rougher establishments. Not exactly what Speedy hoped to find.
When two of the group’s longtime friends get rolled by a Mexican gang – tied up in chains and thrown into a river…alive – Speedy and the crew know things have to be put right and set out to make it so. Of course things aren’t that straightforward.
Along the way Speedy gets distracted by a woman, becomes the target of a racist gang, and the obsession of a very disturbed (and disturbing) killer. Matters are further complicated when the same cop who sent Speedy up the first time starts sniffing around the crew with ill intent. Taking place over the course of one tense, action-packed week, Street Raised by Pearce Hansen is a truly remarkable read.
Perhaps the most stunning thing about Street Raised is its duality: from the reader’s point of view, the violent, seedy version of the East Bay the story unfolds in is completely alien to anything they’ve most likely come to imagine it as. Yet, to Speedy and his friends – and enemies – that human wasteland is as normal as it gets; it’s simply home. So much so, there are times when the book flows so smoothly, the characters so well defined and dialog coming so naturally, you almost forget there is a story being told, instead feeling like you’re peeking in on the lives of real people. And then gears get shifted, violently, and you are reminded of the harsh reality that is Speedy’s world, and that it’s a brutal one you want nothing to do with…outside of a book that is.
That Hansen manages to make something both so vividly foreign and familiar at the same time, and with such ease, is truly an amazing bit of writing.
When two of the group’s longtime friends get rolled by a Mexican gang – tied up in chains and thrown into a river…alive – Speedy and the crew know things have to be put right and set out to make it so. Of course things aren’t that straightforward.
Along the way Speedy gets distracted by a woman, becomes the target of a racist gang, and the obsession of a very disturbed (and disturbing) killer. Matters are further complicated when the same cop who sent Speedy up the first time starts sniffing around the crew with ill intent. Taking place over the course of one tense, action-packed week, Street Raised by Pearce Hansen is a truly remarkable read.
Perhaps the most stunning thing about Street Raised is its duality: from the reader’s point of view, the violent, seedy version of the East Bay the story unfolds in is completely alien to anything they’ve most likely come to imagine it as. Yet, to Speedy and his friends – and enemies – that human wasteland is as normal as it gets; it’s simply home. So much so, there are times when the book flows so smoothly, the characters so well defined and dialog coming so naturally, you almost forget there is a story being told, instead feeling like you’re peeking in on the lives of real people. And then gears get shifted, violently, and you are reminded of the harsh reality that is Speedy’s world, and that it’s a brutal one you want nothing to do with…outside of a book that is.
That Hansen manages to make something both so vividly foreign and familiar at the same time, and with such ease, is truly an amazing bit of writing.
November 3, 2011
Pearce Hansen is my best discovery yet on Allan Guthrie’s Criminal-E blog, http://criminal-e.blogspot.com/.
This is a terrific read about young Speedy who is released from Pelican Bay State Prison in North California and returns to East Bay, Oakland. Here Speedy hooks back up with his brother Little Willy and best mate Fat Bob and sets out to settle old scores and to make some new ones.
This is a story about life on the street, drugs, crime and simply surviving. The characters may not be people you’d want to take home to meet your mother but Pearce writes his tale so well that you can sympathise with these three guys and even like them as they battle with the daily challenges of their lives. They all show their soft sides, but more often than not their choices are aggressive and violent. There are terrific scenes throughout the book that give you real insight into each of the characters.
The other great feature about Hansen’s story is the significant role that East Bay plays. On multiple occasions I was searching Google Maps to get a closer look at the locations that Hansen was describing (which are thousands of miles from my home in Australia). A great read from an author I had never heard of before. I will certainly be looking out for more of his work.
This is a terrific read about young Speedy who is released from Pelican Bay State Prison in North California and returns to East Bay, Oakland. Here Speedy hooks back up with his brother Little Willy and best mate Fat Bob and sets out to settle old scores and to make some new ones.
This is a story about life on the street, drugs, crime and simply surviving. The characters may not be people you’d want to take home to meet your mother but Pearce writes his tale so well that you can sympathise with these three guys and even like them as they battle with the daily challenges of their lives. They all show their soft sides, but more often than not their choices are aggressive and violent. There are terrific scenes throughout the book that give you real insight into each of the characters.
The other great feature about Hansen’s story is the significant role that East Bay plays. On multiple occasions I was searching Google Maps to get a closer look at the locations that Hansen was describing (which are thousands of miles from my home in Australia). A great read from an author I had never heard of before. I will certainly be looking out for more of his work.
November 3, 2014
Pearce is one of hardboiled’s BEST! This novel is a monster! Dynamic, authentic [and HONEST], vivid to a degree where the words fly off the page like bullets and tears, it is an “astonishing” showcase of his awe-inducing talent as a writer. A powerful work of imagnative truth, filled with its own poetry, every page of this richly-detailed work seethes and pluses. This is a major work! The last time a hardboiled debut impressed me this much was Will Beal’s L. A. Rex. This book rests on my CLASSIC shelf! !!
August 8, 2011
nice crime novel about east bay califa. kind of hard to get a hold of this book, but all kinds of local color, extreme violence, a plan to get the big score (and payback!), even a little white pussy. this would be a perfect addition to Hard Case Crime series Quarry in the Middle
May 17, 2017
This book is the ultimate urban crime prose. From page one to the
end, a dark vision of urban crime, decay, and street warfare. Speedy is
released from prison, returning only to find his brother a total
crackhead, his best pal the meanest bouncer alive, and within days he
tangles with a Mexican drug gang, a Skinhead gang, a cop looking to
take him back to prison, and all manner of street thugs and homeless
crazies. No one else writes like this. Wow!
end, a dark vision of urban crime, decay, and street warfare. Speedy is
released from prison, returning only to find his brother a total
crackhead, his best pal the meanest bouncer alive, and within days he
tangles with a Mexican drug gang, a Skinhead gang, a cop looking to
take him back to prison, and all manner of street thugs and homeless
crazies. No one else writes like this. Wow!
November 29, 2011
Street Raised by Pearce Hansen is a basic revenge drama set in the grimly depicted environment of the East Bay area in California in the early 1980s. Oakland street hood, Speedy, gets released from a prison in the northern part of the state, shoeless. He ventures home, encountering a few adventures and picking up a kitten along the way. In a long opening chapter, we see the complex mix of violence and compassion that makes up the protagonist’s character. Once home, Speedy reunites with his younger brother, Willy, who’s become a crack addict during Speedy’s long incarceration.
Willy’s wretched descent prompts Speedy to enlist a friend, Fat Bob, who bounces at seedy bars, to liberate Willy from his addiction and squalid residence. The three then conspire to vanquish a gang of Mexicans who recently killed two other friends in brutal fashion. These Mexicans are sitting on a pile of money too, so there’s profit as well as revenge motivating this action. Stealing from criminals is essentially a victimless crime, or at least one that makes it easier for the reader to root for Speedy and his gang. Despite Speedy’s inherently criminal nature, he has a desire to get off the streets and live a conventional life, one in which he can take care of his kitten and Carmel, a woman he falls in love with. Other encounters with street characters inhibit his goal. Violence and tragedy ensues, much of it grisly, along with a deliciously graphic tour of Oakland.
The Oakland setting often steals the show but this is Speedy’s story. A nasty fellow portrayed heroically, larger than life. He almost instantly attracts enmity and admiration from other characters, such as the creepy and underutilized Ghost, and his lover, Carmel. The unlikely quickness of these bonds could have worked had it not been for the novel’s slow pace. The sheer volume of back story and reflection of so many characters diluted the inherent and delightful viciousness of the story.
The pace also suffered from the frequency and irrelevancy of many authorial intrusions. An extreme example is when Speedy and Carmel are holed up in motel, trying to evade a gang chasing them. It’s a tense situation but for some reason the action is interrupted with several paragraphs describing what’s on television. The surprisingly high number of proofing errors puzzled me considering a much briefer version of this book was published over five years ago.
Street Raised was a frustrating read for me. It was just way too long. It’s unfortunate because there is entertainment value here, particularly the comprehensive and uncompromising depiction of Oakland, which was often surreally riveting, like a mural.
The apartment itself was a den of skinheads and bootwomen, at least a dozen lounging about with beers and cigarettes in their hands. Butts and empty bottles and cans littered the floor; decks and longboards stood lined against the wall. The walls were festooned with flyers for punk shows, numberless out-of-date banners for past hardcore gigs around the Bay, for local bands like Fang and Urban Assault, Bad Posture or Flipper. There were holes punched in the walls, which were covered with graffiti, mainly three-legged swastikas, racist comments, spray painted obscenities and declarations such as ‘Bay Area Skinz Rule!’ A bootwoman with a lit cigarette dangling from her mouth was cooking food bank spaghetti at the kitchenette in the far back corner; an overflowing garbage can stood next to her.
The aura exuded by such passages is the book’s biggest strength, just as Oakland is its best character. I liked how the author didn’t hold back on the graphic violence, which was never gratuitous. Within Street Raised there is a gritty jewel of a novel that needs to come out, a rough diamond that needs a great deal of cutting and a significant amount of polishing to bring out its shine.
Willy’s wretched descent prompts Speedy to enlist a friend, Fat Bob, who bounces at seedy bars, to liberate Willy from his addiction and squalid residence. The three then conspire to vanquish a gang of Mexicans who recently killed two other friends in brutal fashion. These Mexicans are sitting on a pile of money too, so there’s profit as well as revenge motivating this action. Stealing from criminals is essentially a victimless crime, or at least one that makes it easier for the reader to root for Speedy and his gang. Despite Speedy’s inherently criminal nature, he has a desire to get off the streets and live a conventional life, one in which he can take care of his kitten and Carmel, a woman he falls in love with. Other encounters with street characters inhibit his goal. Violence and tragedy ensues, much of it grisly, along with a deliciously graphic tour of Oakland.
The Oakland setting often steals the show but this is Speedy’s story. A nasty fellow portrayed heroically, larger than life. He almost instantly attracts enmity and admiration from other characters, such as the creepy and underutilized Ghost, and his lover, Carmel. The unlikely quickness of these bonds could have worked had it not been for the novel’s slow pace. The sheer volume of back story and reflection of so many characters diluted the inherent and delightful viciousness of the story.
The pace also suffered from the frequency and irrelevancy of many authorial intrusions. An extreme example is when Speedy and Carmel are holed up in motel, trying to evade a gang chasing them. It’s a tense situation but for some reason the action is interrupted with several paragraphs describing what’s on television. The surprisingly high number of proofing errors puzzled me considering a much briefer version of this book was published over five years ago.
Street Raised was a frustrating read for me. It was just way too long. It’s unfortunate because there is entertainment value here, particularly the comprehensive and uncompromising depiction of Oakland, which was often surreally riveting, like a mural.
The apartment itself was a den of skinheads and bootwomen, at least a dozen lounging about with beers and cigarettes in their hands. Butts and empty bottles and cans littered the floor; decks and longboards stood lined against the wall. The walls were festooned with flyers for punk shows, numberless out-of-date banners for past hardcore gigs around the Bay, for local bands like Fang and Urban Assault, Bad Posture or Flipper. There were holes punched in the walls, which were covered with graffiti, mainly three-legged swastikas, racist comments, spray painted obscenities and declarations such as ‘Bay Area Skinz Rule!’ A bootwoman with a lit cigarette dangling from her mouth was cooking food bank spaghetti at the kitchenette in the far back corner; an overflowing garbage can stood next to her.
The aura exuded by such passages is the book’s biggest strength, just as Oakland is its best character. I liked how the author didn’t hold back on the graphic violence, which was never gratuitous. Within Street Raised there is a gritty jewel of a novel that needs to come out, a rough diamond that needs a great deal of cutting and a significant amount of polishing to bring out its shine.
March 28, 2012
From a noir perspective, ‘Street Raised’ is all encompassing; encapsulating each element of the genre in rapid fire succession delivered through multiple perspectives of the downtrodden underclass. Populated with damaged yet endearing characters – ‘Street Raised’ is well rounded and believable, each unique moment adds context to the broader plot, most notably in the early chapters where a different character takes centre stage. Protagonist Speedy has a little bit of Lawrence Block’s classic grifter about him while also baring resemblance to Dave Zelterman’s man-out-of-prison predicaments. The use of Ebonics could pass for a Relentless Aaron novel while the overall theme and distinct gritty setting is right up there with Alan Guthrie’s hard man – good company to be referenced with. 3 stars – I felt it a little less polished than other genre novels I’ve read in recent times yet still a decent read loaded with unforgettable moments (*slight spoiler* I’m referring to Ghost and Willy here).
February 21, 2014
Street Raised is an enjoyable hard boiled crime novel. At less than 150 pages, Pearce Hansen covers a lot of ground. Mexican drug dealers, old friends/family reunited, ex-cons and the cop who cares, junky psychopaths and even Tommy guns. The pace with which Hansen writes is pretty amazing, but I have to admit, character development left me wanting. There are some pretty tragic events in this novel and their relevance is brushed off in a manner that just seems a little over the top for me. With that said, Street Raised is fun. It's not mind blowing and it could certainly use some editing (despite its 2nd time in print), but overall, it's worth the time if you like the genre.
November 3, 2014
Street Raised is one of those books that keeps you flipping pages until the wild, adrenaline-soaked, skidding-in-broadside ending! I loved it and was a royal pain-in-the-ass to anyone who DARED speak to me while my eyes were glued to its pages. Seriously. If you like a great plot, colorful characters, lots of action, a touch of romance, and a fresh, streetwise tone then give it a try. You won't be disappointed.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews