There are three types of ghettoes…economic, racial and green. Detroit, where this book takes place, is probably all three, but the concentration of given to the latter, which is what occurs when nature comes to reclaim what people leave behind. It is in such a place in a post 9/11 paranoia of 2002 that one marijuana cowboy farmer finds himself having to contend with theft, competition, federal agents and other chaotic elements. The book is supposed to be one of those comedic thrillers, which is usually a very entertaining genre, at least cinematically, but for some reason this one didn’t quite work for me. And to be fair, there is a very good chance it’s just a basic lack of author/reader chemistry, because the book was, objectively speaking, quite good and certainly very competent. And I very much enjoyed Mitchell as the protagonist, his vegan (maybe) cowboy with a library card persona was very charming. The rest of the characters were all fun creations, conceptually, but not quite in the same league, they are all very consciously zany. The plot was somewhat overwhelmingly convoluted by all the goings on. The general atmosphere was too folksy and homespun for my taste. It was a quirky novel and one that really worked for it, which may just be a debut sort of thing. There were a lot of fun things about it, but maybe even too many. Like a quirk on top of a quirk riding a whim. So, basically, slightly overdone. But entertaining in its way and quite humorous. For me personally it didn’t quite live up to the pages and pages of praise preceding the novel, but your mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.

The Green Ghetto is kinda, sorta, almost, a little bit like what you might get if you tossed a couple of Carl Hiaasen's more zany characters into an Elmore Leonard novel.

Take one environmentalist, vegan, cowboy, pot-farmer (complete with spurs) add a third rate burlesque comic, a Canadian stripper, and an agent from the DEA with a penchant for performing body cavity searches then place them all in the highly-charged atmosphere of America on the first anniversary of 9/11 and what you get is an explosive novel of irreverent humor and hard truths. I thought it was great!

I can honestly say that this one kept me guessing most all the way through. The writing style is somewhat abrupt at times, almost like it was written in a type of conversational shorthand. It drops you right in the story with little preamble and it takes a chapter or two to catch up to what's happening (at least it did me) but then it's awfully hard to put down.

I highly recommend The Green Ghetto by Vern Smith to all lovers of quirky, outlandish or irreverent crime fiction.

This book contains strong language, adult situations, violence, and drug use - NOT For the sensitive reader.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Run Amok Books, and author Vern Smith for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of The Green Ghetto in exchange for an honest review.

The Green Ghetto
By: Vern Smith
Description
Mitchell Hosowich is pleased as a puppy with two tails that the great American rust out has rendered parts of Detroit rural again, wild. For him, the “Green Ghetto,” as the bureaucrats have come to call it, is a safe place to grow some fairly decent Detroit dope. But when two DEA agents start sniffing around his spread, only to wind up dead, Mitchell finds himself with a lot of explaining to do. Left with two stiffs, a dead dog, a shot cow, and fifty-nine missing marijuana plants, Mitchell decides not to wait around for the law to come down on him. Instead, he goes after his stolen pot, a chase that becomes a tense, and at times hilarious, cross-border road trip to nearby rural Canada. Set in a hyper post-9/11 culture, The Green Ghetto explores the universal theme of being compromised. But mostly, it is the story of how America got there from here in the war on drugs, terror, and words.
I was hooked from the beginning. Mitchell had me laughing out loud, one engaging man and is going to win his battle. I would back this hilarious man any day. Well done Vern Smith, very well done.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of the book for my honest review.