77th and Broadway
A Decade in a World of Crime
by Richard Wills
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
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Pub Date Dec 09 2019 | Archive Date Jan 12 2020
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Description
77th and Broadway shines a dazzling light on one of the most lucrative and secretive businesses on earth in this gritty, yet hilarious at times, urban, true-events crime fiction.
Follow the colorful life of Richie V. Smooth, a gutsy small-time hustler with a shady past looking for a career change when he's hired to help struggling, conniving LA bail bondsman Wilbert Lee Buck save his failing business during the advent of a cocaine epidemic.
Mr. Buck's goal is to retire with a million dollars, however, he's desperately trying to recover from $250,000 in bail forfeitures caused when a former employee succumbed to the free drugs and sex provided by a local drug dealer in exchange for bailing out members of his gang.
Mr. Buck has a glimmer of hope to fulfill his dream when he makes Richie a partner and reopens a second office in a nearby city. Business began to boom, but so did the senseless craziness of thefts, robberies and murders.
The story unravels into a roller coaster ride interweaving twenty-five true event crime stories, reflecting a day in the life of a determined bail bondsman who breaks all the rules, entailing unscrupulous characters, thieves, hustlers, thugs, con men and women whose lives illuminate issues of social injustice, corruption, betrayal, power and punishment...all who roll the dice and gamble to come up big, wind-up in prison, or stretched out on a cold slab in the coroner's office, DOA.
Advance Praise
“77th and Broadway is the perfect read for crime noir enthusiasts who will find it vivid, satisfyingly true to real life, and hard to put down, who like their protagonists edgy and compelling.” – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"The novel's central focus on bail bondmen in a distinctive time period in Los Angeles is highly original, as is its piecemeal structure and integration of true crime. The two primary bail bondsmen, Wilbert Lee Buck, and Richie V. Smooth are smartly developed." - Publishers Weekly, BookLife's Critic's Review
"The author, a former bail bondsman, brings verisimilitude to the daily flow of bail bonds work, and the universe that Richie inhabits is a rich and lively one, both in appearance and dialogue." - Kirkus Reviews
Available Editions
ISBN | 9780962282294 |
PRICE | $4.99 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
i liked the use of fiction and nonfiction, this read was really well done and I loved the characters. I'd look forward to reading more from the author.
I really enjoyed this book immensely. Great writing and good character development. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.