Caught Stealing [Paperback]

Charlie Huston (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine; Trade paperback edition edition (January 1, 2004)
• ASIN: B001DJER4W
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,890,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlie Huston is the author of the bestsellers The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and The Shotgun Rule, as well as the Henry Thompson trilogy, the Joe Pitt casebooks, and several titles for Marvel Comics. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bedtime Story for Sam Peckinpah and Quintin Tarantino, October 6, 2005

By 

Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caught Stealing: A Novel (Paperback)

Hank Thompson, a once California high school baseball star destined for the "bigs", is permanently sidelined in a stolen base gone bad, and now, some ten years later, is tending bar in New York City. Part time alcoholic and full time slacker - albeit a lovable slacker - Hank does a neighbor a small favor and as a result finds his previously ordinary life spinning wildly out of control through a .44 Magnum-sized case of mistaken identity. Hank, whose biggest previous concern was a remedy for sore feet and the fate of his San Francisco Giants, is now the target of a motley crew of Russian gangsters, assorted New York freaks, and dirty cops.

Give first-time author Charlie Huston lots of credit: his irreverent, hip, and uncensored delivery assaults the reader relentlessly and without apology. A poor man's Cormac McCarthy, Huston dispatches the goods with none of the poetry but all of the impact; a visceral personal tour of one man's worst nightmare. Huston's gradual transformation of Hank from the basically docile ordinary guy to a stone cold killer is jolting, and guaranteed to trash any plans for the weekend you may have had. And despite his found talent for violence, you'll find yourself still rooting for Hank who, as the mayhem surrounding him mounts, his most pressing issue remains the outcome of baseball's regular season.

Brutal, blunt, and gritty, Huston's "Caught Stealing" satisfies the deepest addictions of the pop thriller junkie. The first in a trilogy, "Stealing" was followed by the equally outrageous "Six Bad Things", and is scheduled to conclude with "A Dangerous Man" next year. If you're anything like me, you'll be anxiously waiting for Huston to wrap up Hank's crazed odyssey of blood lust and baseball.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most memorable debuts of the year, May 11, 2004

By 

Larry Gandle (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caught Stealing (Hardcover)

A very powerful narrative voice is what drives this debut novel which just so happens to be one of the best of the year so far. The author, Charlie Huston, is also a screenwriter and as expected the dialogue is dead on.
Hank Thompson is a bartender on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His life has been a bit of a disappointment in that he was slated to become a major league baseball player until he broke his leg. His humdrum existence comes to an abrupt end when Russ, a neighbor, leaves his cat with him while he visits his sick father for a few days or a few weeks. That night Hank gets so severely beaten up in a bar by two thugs that he requires surgery to remove a damaged kidney. This is just the beginning as Hank is chased, beaten, tortured for an unknown reason. As friends start to die, Hank realizes he must get to the bottom of the problem as his life depends on it.
Hank is a complex character. He is tormented by an accident in the past and, in a sense, continues to punish himself with guilt. He is a sympathetic figure to the reader in that it seems everybody else in the book is evil. Rooting for this underdog drives the rapid pacing as the thrills continue one after the other. It is difficult to put the book down until the highly satisfying conclusion. With the superb characterizations, realistic dialogue and riveting story line, CAUGHT STEALING is one of the most memorable debuts this year.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but not for all audiences, January 3, 2009

By 

David Peterson (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson Trilogy) (Kindle Edition)

I loved this book. It reads like a good movie, but better. It seems like some books read like movie scripts, but they're flat. This book has the pacing of a good movie, but with an interesting voice and depth that makes a great book.

Apparently this is Charlie Huston's first novel. This amazes me. Usually I read the first novel by an author and walk away thinking - "it's a good first effort." I didn't think that with this book. It's a good book - period. No asterisk needed.

One word of warning since it seems like most of the negative reviews are based on people being offended by the content. This book contains drug use, language, and violence. If this offends you, this isn't the book for you. This is not a G rated, appropriate for age's story.