Brooklyn crime noir, mafia bosses a la Sopranos, with a heavy dose of Thelma and Louise and that's A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself in a nutshell. This is one thrill ride of a novel and I absolutely loved that it was told from the point of view of the women that usually fall into the background with lifestyles such as these. This was my first Boyle and will absolutely not be my last.

So this was billed as "Thelma and Louise" meets "Goodfellas," so I just had to bite. The more I read, though, the more I realized this was not really my cup of tea. I respect the writing, so I give it 3 stars, but it's just not my thing.

Rena Ruggiero was a good Brooklyn mob wife. A regular churchgoer, she stayed out of Gentle Vic's business and has lived a quiet life since he was gunned down. Then Enzio, with "earlobes that dangle like melted coins," makes a pass at her. After fighting back, she steals his impeccable Impala and flees. Rena runs to the Bronx, to the home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and 15-year-old granddaughter, Lucia. Rejected, Rena is invited in by fireball neighbor Lacey Wolfstein, a former x-rated actress who moved in across the street after a stint hustling cash from rich men in Florida.

Things go spectacularly sideways when one of Wolfie's old marks shows up, as does Richie Schiavano, Vic's former right-hand man, who has knocked off a mob sit-down and stolen a briefcase full of cash to fund a future with Adrienne and Lucia. The confrontation at Wolfie's gets deadly when a sledgehammer-wielding gangster comes after Richie. Believing in the titular Robert Louis Stevenson quote, "A friend is a gift you give yourself," Wolfie takes Rena and Lucia under her street-smart wing and on the run.

William Boyle's work (Gravesend, The Lonely Witness) is some of the finest in crime fiction and while he ticks every box each time out, the emphasis changes. Character and nonstop action are gloriously on the rampage here, as three very different women join forces to survive high-speed car chases, crashes, shootings, violent men and general bedlam. Boyle's dialogue snaps and his sense of place is top-notch. This roller-coaster madcap tragicomedy is a great gift to give yourself.

STREET SENSE: After writing this review, I saw William Boyle describe it as "screwball noir," and now I'm bereft I didn't think of or use that phrasing, because it's perfect. This unusual trio of women on the run after an evening gone awry is well worth checking out

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: There are so many great quotables in this book, both long and short. Some had meaning to the plot, others to me specifically, many just life in general. I pulled a couple short ones that stuck:

Praise be random adventures. Praise be survival. Praise be not having a plan.

* * *

We're all unfinished wreckage. Whatever's not dead is fixable.

COVER NERD SAYS: Huge fan of this cover and Boyle's covers in general, which are now very thematically similar. If they keep with this format, I will recognize a William Boyle book on a bookstore table or shelf without even reading the words. Lean, mean, smart and gorgeous.

A mob widow, her granddaughter, and a retired porn star go on the run with two bags of cash, and a hammer wielding psychopath hot on their trail.

If that sentence doesn’t sell you on this book then I don’t know what would.

Rena Ruggiero has been living a quiet, lonely life ever since her mobster husband was murdered in front of their house in Brooklyn. After an elderly neighbor gets too aggressive in making an advance on her, Rena clocks him with an ashtray and takes his car. In a panic, Rena goes to see her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and hopes that she can finally reconnect with her and the granddaughter, Lucia, she hasn’t seen in years. When her hopes of a reconciliation are instantly crushed Rena meets Adrienne's neighbor, Lacey Wolfstein. Wolfstein starred in a lot of porn movies back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and then she moved on to hustling old men for cash. Now she has a sack of money stashed in the wall of her house as she spends her golden years drinking vodka and watching old movies.

Things go sideways after Adrienne's mobbed up boyfriend and an old victim of Wolfstein’s both show up at the same time with their own agendas, and Rena, Wolfstein, and Lucia have to flee with Wolfstein’s retirement fund. Their stolen Cadillac also has a briefcase full of stolen mob money and a machine gun in the trunk.

William Boyle’s first two novels, Gravesend and The Lonely Witness, quickly made me a fan of his, and this third book is an early contender for my favorite of 2019. While the other two are loosely connected and focus heavily on the their Brooklyn setting, this is more of a plot based crime novel with incredibly well developed and offbeat characters. It reminded me a lot of Elmore Leonard at his best, and that’s just about the highest praise I can give a book.

Boyle’s characters frequently act irrationally which makes sense because they do really seem like people instead of characters. However, since this one is more plot heavy that came across as a bit more frustrating because those actions continue to drive the plot. Lucia, in particular, was irritating as hell at times, but on the other hand, she’s a teenager. So it makes sense.

That’s a relatively minor nitpick in an otherwise great book. Wolfstein, in particular, was incredibly fun as this pragmatic woman with a wild history who is also incredibly compassionate and empathetic. I’d love to read an entire novel that was about her younger days as a porn star and grifter. His portrayal of Rene is also very well done as a woman whose whole world was her marriage, her kitchen, and her church, and who know finds herself struggling to figure out who she wants to be from now on. Their odd couple friendship is at the heart of this story, and it’s compelling reading.

A friend may be the gift you give yourself, but y

4.5 stars

Wow. This was my first William Boyle novel, but it won't be the last. I picked it up expecting a mystery, but what I got was a great novel with humor, violence, pathos, and rich characterizations.

Comparisons with Elmore Leonard are appropriate and unavoidable, but Boyle owes nothing stylistically to anybody. The basic plot involves a mobster's widow named Rena. She clocks an amorous neighbor with an ashtray and then flees with his car, thinking she has killed him. She runs straight to her estranged daughter's neighborhood, where she encounters her 15 year old granddaughter and a retired female porn star who lives across the street. It gets much zanier after that, with mobsters everywhere, a psychopath with a hammer, yet another retired porn star, and various other characters -- but each one is given meaning and nuance.

This novel is laugh out loud funny at times, casually brutal and bloody at others. But it's peopled with individuals that are fleshed out and a spider web of stories about how they got where they are. Many thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.

A picaresque mystery featuring a mob widow, her headstrong daughter and even more reckless granddaughter, two aging porno stars and a handful of overaged gangsters, this novel is funnier than a rubber crutch.. The dialogue reeks with Brooklynese idioms and Gravesend is Boyle territory as as sure as D.C. belongs to George Pelecanos.. Nonetheless, this is ultimately a story of female friendship, with enough blood and guts to satisfy the author's many fans.

Noir that's straight outta Brooklyn. Intense, gripping, funny, suspenseful, with a plot that just rockets ahead. Sometimes you know it's a great one right from the start and that's certainly the case here. A Friend takes a mafia crew chief's widow and pairs her with an ex porn star grifter and gets them on the run with bags of money and a psycho on their heels. It's not Goodfellas. It's more the aftermath, years later as people age and drift apart and are left to deal with the wreckage left behind. There's a great sense of humor at work here as the characters in the midst of gun battles, car chases, and the like focus on what's important to them from their classic cars to the daddy they never met to the classic movies made during the seventies and Eighties to old beefs. And it all starts with an old shmoe scarfing viagra and trying to turn on Gentle Vic's widow.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review. Sign me up for the next novel Boyle churns out. I want to read it.

A friend is a gift you give yourself by author William Boyle is an intense, and gripping story of a mob life. Mob family. The characters are well developed and the plot is structured solid. I enjoyed reading this book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of a friend is a gift you give yourself in exchange for an honest review.