The Get

by Dietrich Kalteis

“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.

Genres: Canada, Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Noir

230 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2023

About the author

Dietrich 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/

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

In reading The Get by Dietrich Kalteis, the first things that came to mind were films of the Cohen Brothers and the film Killing Me Softly, all of which often portray serious subjects with the type of cynical and comeuppance humor thrown in where often one is not sure whether to laugh or grimace.

Lenny Ovitz and Gabe Zoller are crime partners, with Lenny being the smarter of the two, which is not saying much, and Gabe the more violent (just mentally picture Scoot McNairy and the often explosive Ben Mendelsohn from Killing Them Softly and there you have Lenny and Gabe).

In the novel, it is 1960s Toronto with a whole lot of crime going on.

Unfortunately for them, Lenny and Gabe are a pair of Sad-Sack numb skulls who can’t seem to do much right while ignoring the old axiom of stopping digging when finding oneself in a hole.

The two collect protection payments from people and area businesses for Ernie Zimm. Zimm is a temperamental man and fond of throwing violent tantrums when displeased and especially when his gofers come back light in their collections.

When the pair grow weary of low pay for long hours, they develop a scheme of their own to buy two rat-trap apartment buildings for renovation and renting. To finance their scheme, and to avoid the ire and parasitic participation of Zimm, they decide to borrow money from a more dangerous loan shark named Ungerman, The Chicken King.

While all this is going on, Lenny’s wife Paulina, an attractive woman higher up on the social ladder than Lenny has ever been, realizes their marriage has been in a downward spiral heading toward the ground faster than a man without a parachute and wants out of the toxic relationship immediately.

Lenny, thinking differently, develops further schemes in an attempt to persuade her otherwise, which only makes matters worse. While all this going on, Paulina is being romanced by an oily Lothario undercover cop masquerading as a tennis pro at her country club in hopes of developing evidence to arrest Lenny and eventually Zimm.

Joining the mix is the elderly father to Paulina who happens to be a crafty watchmaker/jeweler and one others often underestimate as just another frail senior-citizen prime for ripping off.

The novel then follows all these characters and others as they seem to chaotically bounce around in all sorts of unpredictable directions with eruptions of violence.

The Get has been one of the most enjoyable crime novels I have read this year and while the novel is humorous, it is not slap-stick humor, but humor with a bite.

I also enjoyed the writing style of The Get and was surprised how it was different from previous novels I have read by Kalteis, especially that of his last one, Nobody From Somewhere. Opening the pages and reading of the exploits of a crowd of miscreants with all of their own self-centered intentions and where nothing goes right when it comes to the meanderings of Lenny and Gabe, was such a pleasant surprise and is a clear indication I need to read even more novels by Dietrich Kalteis.

The Get is highly recommended to readers that enjoy crime novels with a sly and good natured nasty point of view. It is set to be published in June 2023 and was provided through ECW Press and Netgalley for the promise of a fair review.

[charly ! · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
Didn't dislike the book, didn't really care for it much either. Just nothing particularly intriguing or captivating for me, never really felt invested in the characters or storyline. Maybe just not my kind of book! Still rediscovering what kind of writing I like since starting to read again :)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining crime novel - dark and gritty, with some humour. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives from various characters, as well as the 1960s Toronto setting. The writing style was a bit different from what I'm used to, but I still enjoyed it.
Thanks to ECW Press for the ARC.

[Scott Cumming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dietrich Kalteis continues to be one of the best Canadian crime writers out there and brings us down the Rabbi(t) hole with The Get. You’d be forgiven for thinking the title is just cool crime parlance for a fortune our protagonists are seeking, but it is in actual fact a document required for a Jewish couple to rightly seek a divorce. Lenny Ovitz is out of the house with Paulina demanding a get in order to end their fraught nuptials. Lenny is a collector for a local mobster and “the life” has taken its toll on the pair. Lenny feels he’s owed more than the half he might expect from a divorce and sets out to take it all.

Kalteis is quite easily comparable to Elmore Leonard with the story taking character and plot tangents including an undercover detective, Lenny’s associate, Gabe and Paulina’s father Isaac in a rich and perhaps even, over complicated web evidenced by the somewhat truncated timeline of Isaac leaving behind the German WWII camp and arriving in America before Paulina’s birth, which would suggest she’s young compared to Lenny.

You can see a practiced hand at work in terms of the dialogue whipping between the characters and the ever changing motivations and machinations of the characters. Kalteis continues to be a prolific and entertaining author of crime fiction beyond the deluge of mysteries.

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m giving this book one star only because I can’t give it zero. Unfortunately, I found it a truly disappointing read. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it at all — it felt mind-numbing at times. While I appreciate the author’s attempt to explore a new writing style, I don’t think it translated into a successful or engaging novel. The execution just didn’t work for me.

DO NOT READ

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small time crook Lenny Orovitz works for the local gangster boss hustling protection money from small businesses in Toronto during the mid 1960s. Unbeknownst to his boss, Lenny has bought a tenement block with his friend and cohort Gabe. In deep to loan sharks, Lenny is struggling to find ways to stay afloat. If he wasn’t in enough trouble, Lenny’s wife Paulina has kicked him out of the house and wants a divorce. Worried that his wife is going to take him to the cleaners, Lenny starts to think the only solution to his money problems is to get rid of his wife.
THE GET was a well paced thriller. It was a quick entertaining read. I enjoyed the references unique to a 1960s Toronto.
Thanks to ECW Press for providing an Advanced Reading Copy of THE GET by Dietrich Kalteis.

[J Kromrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

I waited to write this review as although this book kept my interest and to a degree it kept me entertained, I felt as though the characters could have been more multi-dimensional and well developed. What I mean was, the anti-hero probably was more than just a one dimensional idiotic chauvinist thug, and the woman who spent two years with him and then couldn't say "why" she did was equally as involved.

You got the idea these role were always as they were as we have no evidence of them ever being anything else.

The plot didn't have a lot to it, a hot-headed money collector, who seemed to think he was above the law, and his wife who had her head turned by a cop (posing as her tennis instructor). Perhaps if I knew more about either main character's earlier lives, and/or their motivation, but as it was, I just didn't feel the story was "developed" enough.

I didn't "feel" much about the characters other than how stupid the main character was...

The storyline didn't flow with a strong beginning, middle and end, it read more like a short story to me, it wasn't meaty enough in my opinion (of course) to support an entire book.

Until next time, writers, tell us a story that will matter to us, but first tell us the story of your main characters lives, is a main character so hungry for approval because his father deserted him as a child and he was ignored while she went with man after man so that they could survive and as a little boy the now grown up thug never got enough attention? Well, you know what I mean! 😘😉

I hope the writer keeps writing as I can see echoes of future potential genius, and I look forward to your next book, I will certainly buy a copy!

[Ken MacQueen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a sad fact that Elmore Leonard isn’t making books anymore, at least in this earthly plane. But there’s this guy, Dietrich Kalteis, who is filling the void with his tightly plotted capers, vivid, amoral characters and dark humour.
Kalteis has his own style, his own voice: muscular sentences, short, terse, hard-boiled to the bone, coming at you rat-a-tat-tat. Getting to the point with no wasted words.
Take the opening of his latest crime caper, The Get: “Two years of marriage and Lenny Ovitz was thinking of tying a different kind of knot—the one around his sweet angel’s neck.”
And with that we’re off to the wonderfully corrupt market area of Toronto, circa 1965 where Lenny and his dim and violent partner Gabe Zoller are extorting protection money from struggling mom-and-pop shops. Lenny and Gabe are small-time, but their boss Ernie Zimm, who runs his extortion racket out of a neighbourhood travel agency, is a big fish the Toronto cops want to land.
Like many of Kalteis’s flawed and engaging characters, Lenny and Gabe are dreamers oblivious to their limitations as they strut through the traumatized neighbourhood, leaving anger, injury and even death, in their wake.
Gabe and Lenny have a side-hustle causing them grief. They’re hopelessly over-extended after borrowing from a loan shark to buy a series of decrepit tenements as part of a half-baked get-rich scheme to get out from under the thumb of the volatile and demanding Ernie Zimm.
Compounding Lenny’s woes is his failing marriage to Pauline, who has brains, beauty and a take-no-crap attitude. Pauline wants out, and to do that she needs her rabbi to extract a Get from Lenny, essentially a Jewish bill of divorce.
Lenny has other plans that don’t involve giving his wife half of their home and other depleted assets. His plan is to Get Pauline very dead.
Watching over Pauline is her widowed father, Isaac Levine, a Hungarian Jew who survived a German concentration camp and came to Canada in 1946. He and his late wife eventually opened a jewelry store thanks to his skills a watchmaker.
Although he’s content with his quiet life as a father, a shop-owner and pillar of the Jewish community, the numbers tattooed on Isaac’s arm tell a different story. He may be old and underestimated, but it takes a special toughness to emerge alive from a death camp.
Isaac is tough, fearless old bird, but has he met his match in confronting the predatory Lenny?
Kalteis tells a taut tale full of dark humour, grit and heart, set in a Toronto almost six decades past and yet strangely familiar.
Yet another winner from Kalteis, one of the best in the genre.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Lenny Ovitz married jeweler's daughter, Paulina Levine, it was a step-up the rung of the social ladder. Lies, deceit and late nights followed. After two years, Paulina wanted a get. [A Jewish divorce document to be presented by a husband to his wife, freeing her to marry another]. In all probability, Paulie would take Lenny to the cleaners. Lenny had two choices; convince Paulie of his loving, sometimes heroic efforts or have her wacked. [Cheaper than a lawyer, no need to divide assets.]

Lenny Ovitz and Gabe Zoller were extortion business partners. They were heavily in debt for a loan needed to purchase a tenement block containing some dilapidated buildings in 1960s Toronto. The planned urban renewal project would include the opportunity for the duo to update the apartments with the hope of increased rents and possibility of soaring property values. Until then, Lenny and Gabe would have to continue extorting payment protection money for Ernie Zimm. Ernie's Travel Agency served as a fr0nt for his collections racket in the Kensington Market Area. "You paid what you owed...You can run your mouth but you still owe [Ernie] the hundred...We all got shit to schlep, man." Lenny and Gabe needed to continue collecting.

The Garment District was the final collection of the day for short tempered, Gabe who wacked the owner of "The Merchant of Mink" and his bookkeeper then drove away. Police response to "shots fired" at the "Merchant of Mink" store caused a witness issue for Gabe. He shoved his weapon into the cavity of his dinner chicken. When questioned by the police and told to drop his capon, the pistol, inside the bird, clattered onto the ground. "I thought it was the giblets."

Lenny Ovitz, lover or hit man? When three Portuguese men tried to collect protection money on Ernie Zimm's home turf, Lenny chose to hire them to stage a fake robbery, with hero Lenny saving the damsel in distress. Not quite. Paulina's father Isaac Levine stole the show at his jewelry store. Priceless!

Deception occurred in the form of policeman Gary Evans as well. Gary's cover was to play tennis frequently with Paulina at her club. "Paulina hitting the ball out, into the net, missing an easy ace. Playing the male ego not the ball...". Gary meanwhile working undercover while trying to get under the covers. Would any details of Ernie's operation immerge?

"The Get" by Dietrich Kalteis poses many queries for the reader. Will the extortionists get their just desserts? Will Paulina obtain her get? Will Gabe be found guilty of murder or will he cut a deal by being a rat? The twists and turns and fast tempo of the tome will keep the reader engaged. My favorite character was Isaac Levine. I admired his spunk. A cast of ruthless thugs populate this darkly comic crime novel. Highly recommended.

Thank you ECW Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1960s Toronto, this gives a wonderful glimpse at the inner-workings of the crime syndicate that runs the town...or tries to. Lenny and Gabe work for the big boss, Ernie. They try to be good at their jobs, but they aren’t the brightest bulbs in the bunch. And that tries Ernie’s patience more than once.

The two decide to break out on their own and create a business plan of renovating and renting run-down apartments. Instead of going to their boss for a loan, they seek out the loan shark called The Chicken King. Not such a smart decision, but not many of their decisions are.

Lenny’s also got to deal with his crumbling marriage with wife Paulina. She’s off having an affair with an undercover cop and not wanting to stick around her failing marriage. Complications of how to get out of the marriage abound, along with the fact that Lenny’s not about to give up on half his money to his cheating wife.

With a wealth of plot and misadventures, this is an entertaining and interesting novel that is sure to be a joyful read. Definitely worth a summer read!

[Steve Essick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excuse me while I rise to my feet and enthusiastically bring my hands together. Yes, it’s another standing ovation for our Canadian Neighbor and crime author extraordinaire Dietrich Kalteis and his latest page turner#TheGet. The story of mob collection man and all around cretin Lenny Ovitz and his highly disgruntled wife Paulina who is seeking to sever ties with the sleazeball with a divorce, but not any divorce, a Jewish Divorce, known as A Get. Lenny, being Lenny, prefers to leave out The Rabbinical hocus pocus and opts for a cheaper and more permanent solution that is more fitting for his vocation, if you get my drift. As always, Kalteis is a master of the criminal vernacular and has a superb ability to create innocent characters who become tainted by their underworld associates making for entertainment of the highest order. Warning, if #TheGet is your first Kalteis book you could easily become addicted and jump into his back catalog right away. Dietrich Kalteis always hits the criminal bullseye and #TheGet is no exception!

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lenny Ovitz wants a divorce and a get (a Jewish divorce) from his wife Paulina and he doesn't really want to pay her off. Paulina wants a better life.

Lenny is teamed up with Gabe collecting protection money for the Toronto mob. They want out so they purchased a tenement block, borrow too much money from a different mob boss.

Everyone is out to get Lenny and Gabe and they are out to get everyone they come in contact with.

Set in the 1960s, this gangster / mob tale is filled with farce, stereotypes, and lots of angst. There's a humorous trope running below the surface that matches the dialogue that's again stereotyping the characters.
"The Get" is a great read for a rainy summer afternoon. You'll marvel at Lenny & Gabe's machinations.

Thanks to ECW http://www.ecwpress.com for an ARC to read and review.

[Rebecca Shoom | rebeccas.bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Get is set in 1960s Toronto, where Lenny, a collector for a local gangster, has decided to kill his wife rather than give her the divorce she wants. He knows she’ll try to take him for all he’s worth, which is a big problem because Lenny is already in debt from purchasing a tenement block with shady loans. The book follows the cast of characters - including Lenny, his partner/friend Gabe, their boss, Lenny’s wife and her family, and an undercover cop - as they plot, scheme, and stumble over each other trying to come out on top.

This book was such a fun ride. It’s sharp and funny in ways that took me by surprise - it seems dark and serious at first, but soon devolves into chaos. The gangsters are bumbling and hilarious, constantly thinking they’re the smartest people in the room while making one silly move after another. I loved the Toronto setting, as well as the Jewish representation, because - surprise! - the book title doesn’t refer to some kind of crime/gangster slang, but to a “get”, the document in Jewish law that a husband must present his wife to effect a divorce. With the fun cast of characters and chaotically escalating plot, I felt like this could have been a great Guy Ritchie movie.

So, why the 3 star review, instead of something higher? The writing style. Not to say the writing is bad, it’s definitely not - it’s just written in a somewhat unique style that didn’t really work for me, and I found it distracting. I’m not sure how to describe it, but the writing just wasn’t for me. But otherwise, this was a fun noir-style crime story.

Thank you to ECW Press for the free review copy of this book! Opinions are all my own.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Dietrich Kalteis’s crime thriller The Get, it’s the mid-1960s and Lenny Ovitz has his hands more than full. Lenny’s boss, short-fused Ernie Zimm, runs a protection racket fronted by a travel agency in Toronto’s Kensington Market, and Lenny and his partner Gabe are his collectors, sent out each day to terrorize local shopkeepers into coughing up the dough. But Lenny’s growing nervous. A while back he let Gabe talk him into an ill-advised real estate purchase. To make the deal happen they had to borrow money from a brutal loan shark. But the buildings they bought are derelict and require major repairs. A return on his money is years away, and Lenny’s facing pressure to start repaying the loan now. His only chance to make good is to re-mortgage his house, but how does he manage that without tipping off his wife Paulina, who knows nothing about the loan? To make matters worse, Gabe is out of control, having been picked up by the cops after killing two people while out collecting for Ernie. Word on the street is that in custody Gabe has turned rat, telling the cops everything he knows about Ernie’s operation. On the home front Lenny’s got more to worry about. Fed up with his secrets and lies, Paulina has kicked him out of the house and is demanding a divorce. Lenny needs to cash in on the value of their property but he’s afraid that in a divorce Paulina will take everything, leaving him high and dry. He needs her out of the way, permanently. The Get—unpretentious, seamlessly plotted, dripping with atmosphere—never pretends to be anything other than what it is. Kalteis writes a nothing-fancy brand of hard-boiled fiction that moves at breakneck speed and doesn’t indulge in sentiment. Amidst the action there are plenty of laughs as Lenny—no criminal mastermind—tries to scheme his way out of the mess he’s got himself into. In the end, the narrative threads converge and everyone gets what’s coming to them. The Get is sure fire entertainment for fans of high-octane crime fiction from an author who knows how to get the job done.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the most Elmore Leonard novel that he never wrote.
Lenny collects protection money for the local crime boss but has plenty of money troubles of his own. He has just convinced his co-worker Gabe to help him purchase a apartment block and his wife has decided she no longer wants to be married to the mob.
When Gabe ends up being arrested, and offers Lenny up for a lighter sentence, Lenny hatches a plan to fix all his problems. What could go wrong? (everything!)
My first Dietrich Kalteis but not my last.
3.5 Stars

[JournalsTLY]

Fascinating and funny.
A murder thriller so people get shot ; but not the person whom we think that should get snuffed out. This itself grows a fascinating plot of twists and turns.

Funny - witty lines . I like the ones about him not dusting the house.

Touch of holocaust history added.

Touches of fatherly “Poppa” tender love for a girl
caught in a bad marriage .

A tough holocaust survivor against a tough extortion gang .

[Louise Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great crime book with a touch of humour to it as the protagonist goes to extremes to change his circumstances. The characters are terrific and not just the leads - Paulina’s father is just one of many additional characters who add richness to this book. The author has a compelling writing style which will grab you and keep you turning those pages.

[L Bianco · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining, fast paced crime novel set the 1960’s Toronto. Most of the characters are unpleasant low life thugs who don’t shy away from violence, but seem to mostly get away with it at first. Took me a few chapters to warm up to this book, but staying with it was worth while, and I appreciated the ending. I’ll be looking for other books by this author.

[Eva · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but this book did not tickle my fancy. I tried to read it, and give it a chance, but I honestly would rather eat ten heavy stones and then, jump in a river. I deeply regret reading this as the plot was good but the way it was told just took anything resembling life and replaced it with a flatline monitor. Cry about it.

[James Ziskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written in jagged, bruising rhythms, Dietrich Kalteis’s The Get crackles with poetic dialogue, desperate cold-blooded thugs, and an airtight plot that twists into a perfect knot. Inevitable and perfect. Highest rating.

[Tara Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clipped and black, set in a 1960s Toronto peopled with extortionists, liars and thugs, The Get rips along with hard-boiled precision. This is Canadian noir.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I like to wander the library and find obscure books to check out, and that is how I came upon this one. Kalteis seems to have a very distinct writing style which I can appreciate. I don't read a lot of crime novels, but I enjoyed this one because it felt more fun and interesting than your run of the mill police procedural stuff. It was dark with lots of action and some bits of humor. I also really liked that it was written more from the perspective of the perps than that of the cops and detectives.