Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on March 18, 2025

Friends Helping Friends tells an unusual crime story. For that reason alone, the novel is better than its more predictable competitors.

The novel’s first half focuses on Bunny Simpson, Jerry LeClair, and Helen McCalla. Helen is a lawyer who has issues with her ex-husband and his new wife. Helen pours her heartbreak into exercise, then scores steroids from a gym rat to fuel her workout body obsession.

Helen hears the words You will not be okay until you make him pay, a message she attributes to God rather than steroid-induced psychosis. Helen wants to have her ex roughed up without doing serious damage. The gym rat connects her with Jerry, who enlists the help of his friend Bunny. Both guys need money, but this isn’t their typical line of work. They confront Helen’s ex in a park and are surprised when he fights back. Bunny comes to the defense of Jerry and does just enough damage to get himself arrested.

ATF Agents Howley and Gana visit Bunny in jail. They threaten him with a lengthy sentence but promise to help him avoid the consequences of his crimes if he’ll go undercover in their investigation of Bunny’s uncle. Bunny knows his Uncle Willard served some time for manslaughter but doesn’t know the details. He hasn’t seen Willard in years.

The ATF agents are vague about the nature of their investigation — they mention conspiracy and racketeering — but they tell Bunny that Willard is leading a Christian Identity group of white supremacists. Snitching on Willard doesn’t appeal to Bunny until they promise him a payment of $100 a day. Bunny’s lawyer should know better than to trust ATF agents but he tells Bunny to take the deal.

At ATF’s direction, Bunny takes a janitorial job with a used car dealer where his uncle makes occasional appearances, perhaps in connection with the used car dealer’s drug dealing.. Pretending to meet his uncle by chance, Bunny takes a job on his uncle’s ranch, where he sees young men training with firearms. He knows they are planning a major operation but the ATF agents only seem to be interested in recovering a notebook that Willard keeps in his safe. The novel’s second half follows Bunny’s effort to recover the notebook, his discovery of its purpose, and his hapless attempt to rip off Willard and foil the ATF agents.

Bunny and Jerry are affable losers, the kind of young men who have big dreams and little hope of achieving them. They don’t shy away from hard work but they are attracted to the possibility of easy money. It is in their nature to assume that attractive women are essentially good (a bad assumption to make if you’re a character in a crime novel). As earnest and uncomplicated dudes with reasonably good hearts, they easily win the reader’s sympathy. Helen is ambitious and petty, making her a good foil to the protagonists, but she’s likable in her own way.

The plot is a fun mixture of light and dark. The bad guys are evil but a bit bumbling. The novel’s violence is not particularly graphic although it features one of those "his head exploded in front of me" scenes that have become ubiquitous in crime stories. The story moves in unexpected directions as it nears the end -- it almost turns into a road novel -- but surprises are telegraphed by earlier events, so Patrick Hoffman plays fair with the reader. Early scenes that seem important to the story turn out to be relatively inconsequential while events that seem insignificant are important by the end.

The final bro bonding scene is a bit sappy and the conclusion is improbably happy. Those aren’t really complaints. The protagonists deserve a happy ending, so even if it stretches the boundaries of plausibility, I don’t care. Set against a disturbing backdrop of white straight male supremacy, a happy ending for decent people is a good way for the story to end.

RECOMMENDED

Patrick Hoffman’s contemporary-set novel, Friends Helping Friends, isn’t like anything I’ve ever read: unique, one-of-a-kind, strange and alienating on the one hand, compelling on the other. I enjoyed and disliked it and had the refrain “What am I reading?” running on a loop in my head while reading it. To start, I think you have to take its title at face value: it’s about “friends helping friends” if the friends are gormless, morally ambiguous idiots, acting illegally but not consistently immorally, and possessing a strange sense of honour. I’m glad I read, and not so glad I inhabited, Hoffman’s world for as long as it took me to reach its end, the weakest point. Here is the publisher’s blurb for the deets:

Bunny Simpson grew up poor in Grand Junction, Colorado. Now in his twenties, working in Denver, he has simple dreams: He wants to help his uncle pay rent, save a little money, maybe start a business one day. His best friend Jerry LeClair fantasizes about moving to California. The problem is, they don’t have any prospects. Enter: Helen McCalla, an attorney with an ax to grind against her ex-husband, who happens to be a judge in the local court. She offers the boys a deal: scare the man, rough him up a little, and she’ll give them a few thousand dollars. It’s simple—just friends helping friends, right?

Part crime novel, part portrait of friendship, extremism, and inherited trauma, celebrated novelist Patrick Hoffman is at his brilliant best in these pages. Bunny never wanted any trouble. So how the hell did he end up at a white supremacist compound in rural Colorado? Fast-paced, suspenseful, and by turns funny and terrifying, Friends Helping Friends is an electrifying thriller that moves at a breakneck pace, examining the vulnerability of our destinies—and how friendship can survive it all.

I don’t know that friendship “can survive it all”. I’m not sure what the nature of friendship depicted in Friends Helping Friends is, other than two idiots going off into the sunset like Thelma and Louise without the suicide pact. And certainly Helen McCalla, a fascinating character, who left the page too much as we focussed on Bunny and Jerry, isn’t anyone’s friend. She knows Jerry because he’s her steroid “supplier” and a petty criminal who’s willing to beat up the ex, which makes her a psychopath, but one who pays her debts, if that’s what a friend is. And Jerry is willing to let Bunny in on the McCalla job and Bunny, the gormless one, agrees and they sit on a park bench in full view of a security camera and beat up the ex…in full view of the security camera, which is how Bunny and his equally morally dubious public-appointed attorney make a deal with the cops to have Bunny infiltrate his uncle’s white supremacist compound to gather evidence for them…except nothing and no one turns out to be on the right side of the law.

Instead, in a morally bankrupt America, Bunny is as heroic as we get. And, much as I hate to admit it, there’s something quite likeable about Hoffman’s character: he wants to make good, doesn’t know how, isn’t bright enough to exploit people or situations; instead, he goes willy-nilly into this police “mission” and genuinely tries to stop the white supremacists: he may be a petty criminal, but he draws the line on being a racist. To give all the nods to Hoffman, he manages to make the Bunny-stance sympathetic. I was slightly rooting for him and not taken aback by his riding off into the sunset, having if not won the girl (there’s no girl) then won something. What we have in Hoffman’s novel is a portrait of America’s lumpenproletariat (not MAGA, not Bernie, not anything), stumbling along, drinking and doing drugs (not addict levels, but taken as a matter of course), dreaming modestly and utterly incapable of achieving anything which would be considered respectable “success”.

What was interesting was how Hoffman conveys his characters and their plight (because sometimes we do feel for them, even the psychopath McCalla) is how he tells their story: with a prose flat and, well, prosaic I didn’t realize I was under its spell until I came to the end and things fells apart: too pat, too neat. I don’t know if that’s a literary criticism or my inability to suspend belief in the ribbons being tied as they were. On the other hand, thematically, in a morally failed America, why shouldn’t gormless Bunny and feckless Jerry emerge triumphant? When there’s no revolution and the good guys are these two boneheads, this is as good as it gets. I disliked Hoffman’s novel and I kind of loved it; I certainly won’t forget it and it’ll have to be in the running for my book of the year…

Patrick Hoffman’s Friends Helping Friends is published by Grove Atlantic and released on March 18, 2025. I received an e-galley from Grove Atlantic, via Netgalley. The above is my honest, AI-free opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Spoiler alert**** (kind of? if you want to read this book and mind key details then I wouldn't read this)

Solid book. Took me much longer than expected, but only because life and school got in the way. Anyhow, I liked how the title "Friends Helping Friends" is an underlying remark as to how nasty some people are. Tod, Ted, or whatever your name is, you are an absolute menace to society.
I didn't like Jerry or Bunny in the beginning. I thought they would snitch on each other once they spoke to the DA, but their loyal friendship surprised me, and in the end I found myself rooting for them and their escape/survival/getaway life. I like the "will they, won't they" dynamic between Helen and Jerry. I genuinely believe that the plot of this book either has happened or will happen – the fact that the characters go through enough shit makes it believable.
Hoffman might also be awarded the hat for literary genius because what do you mean this book is one chapter? 200 something pages and there was good flow? Consistent with switching the POV between three different characters and still making it clear who's boss (main character)? I'm impressed.
However I do have one remark- and it isn't specifically towards Patrick Hoffman but rather all current authors attempting to play the role of a parent trying to relate to their teenage child. I hate, hate, hate, any mention of real social media in books. When Jerry was "scrolling on TikTok" I considered putting the book down and dnf-ing it. But fear not- I pushed through. My point is (and I hope others will agree with this as well), no one wants to be reminded of the real world when they are reading fiction! It's awkward and makes us physically cringe.
I do however love the idea that Jerry wants to escape to California, San Diego in particular. Me too, bud. Me too.

Friends Helping Friends by Patrick Hoffman is a story of male friendship and what happens when a bad idea gets worse.
Bunny is just trying to get by working at the neighborhood cigarette shop. His friend, Jerry, approaches him with a fast cash offer that seems too easy to turn down. They quickly realize that the offer was too good to be true and both get arrested.
When Bunny agrees to work with law enforcement as an informant, he has to make difficult decisions about loyalty, friendship and family.

I enjoyed this book very much. There were a lot of unexpected plotlines. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

A fun read. Fast paced. Engaging characters. And a satisfying end. What more do you want?

Bunny Simpson and Jerry St Clair are two ordinary guys doing a favour for a friend. Helen wants a bit of payback for the way her ex-husband dumped her for a younger model. But Helen's ex is a vindictive judge and when Jerry and Bunny throw a few punches he retaliates with the law. So now Bunny ends up doing a favour for the FBI.

And so the story continues. One favour leads to another, bigger one and Bunny and Jerry get drawn deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that could end all their dreams of a better life. And just because they'd tried to help a friend.

This is a really entertaining read. I was rooting for Bunny and Jerry all the way through. They're not entirely angels but they're very likeable. The story feels quite organic and anyone you meet along the way (which includes gun-toting old ladies, drug dealing music afficionados, evil relatives and even a few white supremacists) can influence what happens next. I really had no idea what the outcome would be - good or bad. There is a definite conclusion to the novel but not the one I expected at all.

Definitely recommended. I'd look out for more by this author.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy.

What a weird and wonderful, and sometimes dark, little book! I thought the pacing was nearly perfect with no slow sections and a satisfying ending. A cast of complex, morally gray characters you can’t help but root for. Would be great for fans of Lisa McInerney’s Glorious Heresies. 5⭐️!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Patrick Hoffman walks a fine line between social comment, gritty urban realism, satire and caper in his latest novel Friends Helping Friends. But by walking this line he manages to be informative, insightful and entertaining. Even the title is a sly dig at the various real and predatory and accidental relationships that power this novel.
When Friends Helping Friends opens Bunny is being arrested. It turns out that the crime Bunny committed was helping his friend Jerry beat up the ex-husband of lawyer Helen, who commissioned the deed while tweaked on the steroids that Jerry sells her. What the pair don’t know is that Helen’s ex-husband is a judge and soon they are facing serious jail time. But Bunny is thrown a lifeline by a pair of cops – they can get him out if he agrees to go undercover with a white supremist organisation that is run by his uncle. As that undercover operation goes on though, Bunny, and readers may start to suspect that nothing about this deal is what it seems.
Friends Helping Friends can be fairly dark. It takes readers into the prison system and later into a training camp for white supremacists. And there is no such thing as a truly good person in Bunny’s world, just shifting shades of grey. But there are webs of co-dependence and people doing favours for each other. So that when Jerry tries to lean on Helen to post bail for him, Helen enlists the help of gym buddy and casual hook-up Sam. But the darkness is leavened by the almost comical interactions of the characters and Hoffman’s side-eyed view of society. It helps also that the narrative will occasionally skew in directions that readers do not expect but in ways that all build on that web of connections.
Overall, Hoffman has actually delivered a kind of heist caper novel in a kind of Coen Brothers vein. And while the full shape of this does not come clear until very late in the piece, the set up and progress of it keep the novel from descending into some potentially very dark places. And while there are plenty of bizarre characters the plot itself anchors around Bunny who despite occasionally doing bad things, and possibly has a bit of a violent streak, is a character that readers can cheer for.

Bunny just wanted a happy and better life as did his friend Jerry but they took a lot of wrong decisions that put them in jail. They had to deal with murderer white nationalists, cops who wanted to rob someone's money, and a hurt woman who also wanted to have a happy, normal life and a family. Friends Helping Friends could be a true story in most parts and it just shows as decisions big or small affect the lives of many and may put people in danger or in simple bliss. I liked Bunny's and Jerry's characters, they were simpleton boys who had no big dreams but reached them.
I thank the author, his publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Patrick Hoffman writes like a gorgeous hybrid of Denis Johnson, Charles Willeford, and Richard Stark. Like the best noir, his novel nails how folks on the margins fall into bad choices. Yet his almost brutal matter-of-factness about events and character is coupled with a tremendous empathy, getting inside their decisions, their dreams, the destructive traumas they've lived through.

Highly recommended as a great crime novel, and equally as just a great American novel. I loved it.

Hoffman is one of my favorite crime writers, someone who can immerse himself in a subculture and wrench up the tension. This is his fourth book, and they are all great, he has a knack for illuminating the world of losers and giving them dignity. This book centers around Bunny Simpson, who works at the counter of a cigarette store and stumbles his way into becoming an undercover snitch in his uncle’s white supremacist gang. Hoffman has a real knack for finding poetry in the dirty corners of the world, and this is another banger.

A good story with twists and lots of action, I enjoyed the ending a lot, it felt really well developed.
I wanted to read more about these characters, more about this topic, even though there are some loose ends and randomly brought up plot points.
A good easy read, quite a page turner to be honest.
The only thing I didn't like was the beginning and the way the book was organized (it took me some time to get used to the writing style) but other than that a very solid and enjoyable read.

I saw a lot of good reviews about it this and was excited to get my hands on it. However, the writing and the story telling weren't for me. I didn’t find the characters likeable, which was frustrating and the story itself read so choppy that I had a hard time following the story line and frankly caring about the characters. There were good themes woven throughout. I will give Hoffman that, but overall this was a read I could have passed on.

I was looking for more of the relationships between characters and honestly the fact that this was described as a thriller doesn’t track for me, a mystery of sorts sure, but I didn’t find the events thrilling which was a bit of a let down when that was what I went in expecting.

TDLR:

4/5

a very well written book about two friends who get involved into a mess. Both the main characters are likable and the story is good.

Bunny and Jerry are two friends who are paid to beat up a lawyer's ex husband. They're then arrested and then one thing leads to another and they end up helping the police to crack a white nationalist group.

Both the main characters are extremely likable and well fleshed out and the best part is they aren't hateful or plotting against each other

Wherever you think this book is going, you're wrong! This book was full of twists and it was quite a fun ride.

This book addresses some important topics, but doesn't add anything significantly meaningful to the narrative. I feel like more of a 'lesson' could have been provided with more reflection from the characters.

The characters were great. Not great people, but as characters they really helped build the story.

The ending was satisfying, although a bit rushed. Ultimately, I would have liked more of the book. But it's an easy read with straightforward writing and dialogue and I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS-PATRICK HOFFMAN-Publishing March 28th, 2025 by Atlantic Monthly Press.

A young man must gain access to his own families white nationalist group, or go to prison.

Bunny Simpson is a young man, early 20’s living in Denver, working a crap job. He lives in a trailer with his uncle, taking care of him, and maybe thinking he would like to start a business. His friend, Jerry LeClair, sells drugs and wants to move to California.
They have nothing going on, until Helen McCalla enters their lives. Helen buys steroids from Jerry. Helen hates he ex-husband. Helen offers Jerry and Bunny a few thousand bucks to rough him up a little, get in a fight.

One thing leads to another and the boys take on a lot more than they thought they would.

Friendships. Crime. Trauma. Fast paced. Suspenseful. Thriller.

Good read.

#writing #fiction #patrickhoffman #groveatlantic #grovebooks #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookreader #bookreviewer
1m

Solid thriller, solid characters, solid plot. I went into this book thinking I was in for a mellow reading, but instead I got a very intricately woven story full crime, action and imperfect people not very virtuous motivations.

Reads like a good movie, even if a bit too serious most of the time. None of the twists and turns were predictable. Each character was very genuine. Hopefully it will be adapted into a movie.

I didn't really know what to expect with this one as white nationalism isn't really my preferred reading material BUT i was so engrossed with the story in this one, I couldn't put it down. I loved the flawed characters and the story of what I imagine is quite a common occurrence for young men of a certain economic background, having to enter the world of crime just to get by and getting themselves into situations they struggle to get out of without some sort of comeuppance. I liked Bunny, he seemed like a nice kid who got caught up with the wrong crowd from the beginning. This is more than a story of a crime gone wrong and a young man being taken advantage of, it's also a story of finding family in others, the lengths we'll go to to survive, identity, the things we do for love and respect AND what defines us as human beings. Is it nature? nurture? experiences? why do we dislike great swathes of people? and for what? also, Helen! LOVED HER. I'd have read a full novel just about what she was up to! The only downside I'd say was the structuring of the book, it takes a while to get used to but perhaps that may chance with the final print.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic and Patrick Hoffman, the author of Friends Helping Friends for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book!

This is my first time reading Patrick Hoffman's work, and I truly enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. The story's premise is very simple: Bunny will get $500 to beat someone up; however, he doesn't know this will later spiral into a disastrous chaos that makes him choose to either get involved in his uncle's white nationalist group or go to prison for 10 years. The story is very engaging, just when I think it cannot get worse, things get worse and Bunny has a lot more mess to deal with. The language is simple but effective. There are only brief mentions about Bunny's childhood trauma, but they give me chills every time.

I also can't help but notice the satirical message this book delivers. The title is Friends Helping Friends, and in the book Bunny gets involved with two cops who keep telling Bunny that they are friends, but whenever Bunny refuses to do something they ask him to do, they will lash out on Bunny and become aggressive and threaten him. Is that what friends do?

Overall I really like this book and can't wait to read more work of Hoffman's.

I cannot remember the last time I wanted to scream at a book—and I mean that in the best way. Patrick Hoffman's Friends Helping Friends really riled me up. It felt like watching a personal friend make poor choices, and wanting to rattle their brain to choose differently. An incredibly fun, tense, interesting, and frustrating story I'm grateful to have read.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

I’ve read all of Hoffman’s books now. Every Man A Menace was a weird masterpiece. White Van more of a straight grizzly crime novel but framed in a bizarrely different way. Clean Hands was a legal thriller but also has an off kilter vibe.

Which brings us to this one. It’s good, but a much more regular gritty crime story with stock characters. I kept waiting for something else to kick in, story or language wise, and it sort of does toward the end when the plot ratchets up - but overall this book was playing it safe for me.

The exception to this was the Helen character, who was delightfully oddball. The book touches out some zeitgeisty themes like white nationalism (which to be fair is not really a new phenomenon, as American as apple pie and gerrymandering) and the stuff about steroids was different - never really seen this sort of thing in a crime novel before.

Worth reading if you’re into that gritty crime vibe, but after Every Man A Menace I think I was expecting something a bit more epic in scope.