Caught Stealing

Its three thousand miles from the green fields of glory, where Henry call me Hank Thompson once played California baseball, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the tenements are old, the rents are high, and the drunks are dirty. But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed. It begins when Hanks neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isnt until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesnt know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesnt have it. Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guys head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor. All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third basewithout getting caught. From the Hardcover edition. From Publishers Weekly There's no end to Hank Thompson's troubles. Once a star high school baseball player, he's now reduced to tending bar at a neighborhood dive on Manhattan's Lower East Side. During his long life-skid, Thompson has picked up a drinking problem, a pair of bad feet, lots of debt and little ambition. But for Thompson, hero of Huston's dark, hard-driving debut, the worst is still ahead. It begins when Thompson agrees to cat-sit for his neighbor, a dubious character named Russ. Within a few days, Thompson is ambushed by a pair of Russian thugs who beat him so badly he has to have a kidney removed. While he's recovering, he discovers a key tucked under the liner of the cat's carry box. This turns out to be a crucial bit of information, as he realizes when the Russians return, led this time by a dirty police detective, and demand to know what Russ left with Thompson besides his cat. When they're spooked by a fire alarm, Thompson escapes long enough to get his hands on the stash everyone's after: $4.5 million in cash. But of course, his troubles aren't over. Bodies pile up at a dizzying rate but the mayhem is riveting, despite a few credibility gaps. Huston shows a masterful command of first-person narration, deftly chronicling Thompson's gradual slide from victim to avenger ("I'm tellin' you, Hank, watchin' you, it's like watchin' a egg get all hard-boiled. No shit"). The story moves with the speed of the best chase novels, and Thompson possesses a self-deprecating spirit that will keep readers rooting for him even as he edges closer to the point of no return. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Starred Review This engaging debut novel delivers fresh, jazzy riffs on the innocent-man-stumbling-into-jeopardy genre. Having fled California for New York City after an injury cut short his promising baseball career, Hank Thompson settles into an aimless life as an alcoholic bartender. Still, Hank prides himself on making Manhattan a bit more hospitable by helping his friends, so how can he refuse when a neighbor asks him to cat-sit? One lost kidney later, Hank realizes that an Elmore Leonardesque collection of Russian mobsters, short-fused cons, and renegade cops will snuff out all 10 lives he and the cat share between them if that's what it takes to find the not-so-good neighbor. His dull wits sharpened by pain and fear, Hank must keep one bum foot out of the grave long enough to figure out what the bad guys are looking for--and how to give it up safely. With a mania familiar to baseball die-hards, Hank keeps an eye on the playoff-contending San Francisco Giants even as he makes several potentially game-ending errors of his own. This polished debut promises a bright future for Huston and definitely belongs on every Elmore Leonard fan's to-read list. One note of caution: Lovers of mystery-solving felines should place paws over eyes during the hair-raising cat torture scene. Frank Sennett Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved Dear friends, do you really want to read and understand Vapurza, then open it to any page, start reading. Do not ever consider to finish reading it in one sitting, from start to end. Never. Have you ever noticed the bottles of perfume lined up on some dressing tables, in some enthusiastic houses? What is the purpose behind having so many bottles lined up together? We use only one at a time. The purpose is to use the fragrance that the mind desires at a particular moment. This book is also like the lined up perfume bottles. Open it to the page that your mind desires. Get enveloped in the fragrance, enjoy it thoroughly. There is no binding of finishing reading that has been started. Enjoy it as and when and how much you wish, without any botheration or anxiety of `what next?`If your mind is taken away by a particular perfume, then do not hesitate, feel it again. You never know what you can come across while trying to find something anew. Keeping all these things in mind, there is no sequence, no index and no references given in this book, with the sole intention of allowing you a free mind for all the ideas, concepts and feelings कोणतंही पान उघडा आणि वाचा! ’वपुर्झा’ हे पुस्तक कोणासाठी? ज्यांना मोत्यातील चमक बघायची आहे अशा वेड्यांसाठी! हे पुस्तक कसं वाचायचं? एका बैठकीत? अथ ते इति? एका दमात? छे! मुळीच नाही. काही हौशी घरांमध्ये ड्रेसिंग टेबलावर निरनिराळ्या अत्तरांच्या बाटल्या असतात. जसा मूड असेल तसं अत्तर वापरायचं किंवा जसा मूड व्हावासा वाटत असेल तसं अत्तर निवडायचं. हे पुस्तक असंच वाचायचं. हवं ते पान आपापल्या मूडनुसार उघडायचं आणि त्या सुगंधाने भारून जायचं.एखादा सुगंध पुन्हा घ्यावासा वाटला तर? पुन्हा शोधायचा. त्या शोधात आणखी काहीतरी सापडेल. म्हणूनच या पुस्तकात अनुक्रमणिका, क्रमांक, संदर्भ काहीही दिलेलं नाही.