The Devil's Redhead [Hardcover]

David Corbett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

In this masterfully written fiction debut, David Corbett combines a gripping crime story with a poignant tale of enduring love.

Freelance photographer and wildcat smuggler Dan Abatangelo blows into Vegas to hit the tables and taste the night life. In his path waits Shel Beaudry, a knockout redhead with a smile that says, Gentlemen, start your engines. The attraction is instant–and soon the two are living the gypsy life on the West coast, where Dan captains a distribution ring for premium Thai marijuana, His credo "no guns, no gangsters, it's only money."

But the trade is changing. Eager to get out, Dan plans one last run, judges poorly, and is betrayed by an underling and caught by the DEA. To secure light time for Shel and his crew, Dan takes the fall and pleads to ten years. Now, having served the full term, he emerges from prison a man with a hardened will but an unchanged heart. Though probation guidelines forbid any contact with Shel, a convicted felon, he sets his focus on one thing: finding her.

Shel’s life has taken a different turn since her release from prison. She met Frank Maas, a recovering addict whose son died a merciless death. Driven by pity, Shel dedicates herself to nursing Frank back from grief and saving him from madness. But his weaknesses push him into the grip of a homegrown crime syndicate in command of the local methamphetamine trade. Mexicans are stealing the syndicate's territory, setting in motion a brutal chain of events that engulf Frank, Shel, and Dan in a race-fueled drug war from which none will escape unscathed.

A brilliant crime novel of betrayal and retribution, passion and redemption, The Devil’s Redhead heralds the arrival of a powerful new voice in fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Corbett thunders out of the gate with this gritty, moving debut about an ex-con's readjustment to freedom and his efforts to reunite with a former lover. Ten years after being sentenced for drug dealing, Dan Abatangelo emerges from prison with one thought in mind: finding Shel Beaudry and rekindling their relationship. Abatangelo is a changed man harder, less patient, prone to bursts of violence. Despite the advice of friends, who warn him that no good can come from reuniting with Shel, he pushes forward. He eventually finds her living north of San Francisco, beholden to a drug-addled, mentally unstable man named Frank Maas and the crime ring that employs him. When Shel and Abatangelo finally meet, she waffles on returning to him, but before he can convince her, a local drug war breaks out and Shel is taken hostage. Abatangelo responds with a daring rescue mission that takes him deep into his former world and ignites a gruesome chain of violence and death. Corbett, a San Francisco private investigator for more than a decade, brings a wealth of real-world detail to his swift, highly atmospheric narrative. His plotting could sometimes use a little more glue, and a few characters particularly newspaperman Bert Waxman border on caricature. But Corbett's prose dazzles, cutting across the page with passionate force, articulating themes of devotion, lost hope and spiritual renewal in an unforgiving world.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Will leave you weak and shaken, exhilarated.”
—JOE GORES
Author of Hammett

“CORBETT WRITES WITH AN INTENSITY OF FEELING. . . . Without compromising the stark realism of his bruising style, [he] has written an astonishingly tender love story.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A TENSE, TERRIFIC STORY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN . . . When I finished it I thought of Ross Macdonald; David Corbett is that good.”
—MAX BYRD
Author of Jefferson, Jackson, and Grant

“ENGROSSING . . . RICHLY DEVELOPED . . . [A] STAR IS BORN WITH THE DEVIL’S REDHEAD.”
—Deadly Pleasures

“ADDICTIVE, BRUTALLY REALISTIC, AND ULTIMATELY VERY MOVING . . . Corbett writes crime with a deft touch, a professional investigator’s knowledge, and a rare talent for telling details.”
—MARK COGGINS
Author of The Immortal Game

“The Devil’s Redhead isn’t a walk on the wild side, it’s a flat-out run for your life with the hounds chasing after you. David Corbett writes with flair and passion, creating characters who live and breathe and do very bad things. I believed every word of it. Hit me again.”
—ROBERT FERRIGNO
Author of Flinch

“Corbett handles both selfless love and unspeakable brutality with a poet’s hand. The Devil’s Redhead is the best debut novel I’ve read in years.”
—MARTIN J. SMITH
Author of Straw Men

“Often dark, often hopeful, The Devil’s Redhead takes you deep into the world of crime and drugs and the lives they inevitably consume. This is a compelling novel about loyalty, love lost and renewed, and the price we all must pay when we live too close to the edge.”
—JAMES BROWN
Author of Lucky Town

“What a story . . . Corbett has taken the threads of life . . . and woven a roller-coaster ride through tunnels of good, bad, murder, and redemption. Hold on tight, readers, you’re in for a thrill.”
—The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)

“A THRILLING DEBUT . . . Its scintillating plot and edgy characters create a wrecking ball story with a flash-bang ending.”
—Easy Reader

“There are no easy answers in [The Devil’s Redhead]. It is at once a novel of white-knuckle suspense, a serious and even literary exploration of the human psyche, and a love story of two badly flawed people fighting against the odds in any way they can. The Devil’s Redhead is a bullet-fast, high-wire act without a safety net.”
—JOE GORES

“Set in a brilliantly evoked Northern California landscape, The Devil’s Redhead succeeds as both a gritty romance and a terrifying insider’s view of the awesome stupidity and insanity of methamphetamine-fueled criminal elements.”
—Pages magazine

“The Devil’s Redhead is filled with taut suspense and wonderfully vivid details—Corbett uses his words to maximum effect. . . . [He] is a talented author who will take the mystery world by storm.”
—Romantic Times

“Corbett thunders out of the gate with this gritty, moving debut. . . . [His] prose dazzles, cutting across the pages with passionate force.”
—Publishers Weekly




From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345447522
• ISBN-13: 978-0345447524
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Corbett is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: "The Devil's Redhead," "Done for a Dime" (a New York Times Notable Book), and "Blood of Paradise," which was nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar, and named both one of the Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers of 2007 by the Washington Post and a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book; it was also selected for the US Southern Command Reading List by Admiral James Stavridis.

His fourth novel, "Do They Know I'm Running?," will be published in March 2010, and has earned the following praise from John Lescroart:

"This is not just a thriller, but an elegant novel, full of heart, soul, music, food, cruelty, betrayal, poverty and love. The line runs through Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, straight on to David Corbett. I'm not kidding. He's that good."

David's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including "San Francisco Noir" and "Phoenix Noir," and his story "Pretty Little Parasite" (from "Las Vegas Noir") was selected for inclusion in "Best American Mystery Stories 2009."

David has also contributed a chapter to the world's first serial audio thriller, "The Chopin Manuscript"--which won an Audie Award for Best Audio Book of 2008--and also to its follow-up, "The Copper Bracelet."

For more, go to www.davidcorbett.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An epic character rich novel, March 5, 2004

By 

Larry Gandle (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Devil's Redhead (Hardcover)

Dan Abatangelo is a drug dealer who smuggles marijuana into the country from Asia. While on a jaunt to Las Vegas, he meets Shel Beaudry, a card dealer in one of the casinos. They run off together, fall in love and live happily ever after until they both get busted for the drug smuggling. Ten years later, Dan is released from prison and searches for Shel who has gotten herself involved in a relationship with a mentally imbalanced man and a criminal organization. Dan must try to rescue her from this complicated living arrangement while trying to keep both of them alive. It proves to be a near impossible task.
David Corbet has written an epic novel rich in characterizations. However, I question the need for the sheer size of this volume. It is 370 pages long, yet, reads like a work of much greater length. True, we get to know the main characters very, very well. But nothing happens for many pages as we concentrate on detail after detail in almost every scene. The pacing is, therefore, lethargic. Nonetheless, the writing is strong and sure, as well as, the characters so realistic that these positives outweigh the negatives thereby allowing for a rewarding reading experience.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A violent tale, beautifully told, October 12, 2003

By 

Pat Browning "Author of ABSINTHEOF MALICE" (Yukon, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devil's Redhead (Hardcover)

THE DEVIL'S REDHEAD is a violent tale, beautifully told.
The writing flows. The pace never falters. At its tender
heart, this is a story of love, loss and reconciliation.

Opening line: "He blew into Las Vegas the first week of
spring, primed to hit the tables, sniff the wildlife and,
basically, cat around."

That's Danny Abatangelo, freelance photographer and
wildcat smuggler of Thai marijuana since college days. His
motto: "No guns, no gangsters, it's only money." Then he

meets Shel, a knockout redhead, and they slam together
like a couple of magnets.

Danny wants out of the drug trade. Everybody's moving in
-- Cubans, Marielitos, Vietnamese, Colombians, Mexicans,
the Mob. No more room for someone like Danny, who's in it
for kicks. End of an era.

He sets up one last job as a nest egg for retirement. What
follows is a harrowing sequence of events, resulting in
near-total destruction of everything Danny and Shel hoped
for.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Until Corbett came along,the only crime writer who could guide me through such violent material without setting me up for nightmares was James Lee Burke. Good company, those two!

For information about Corbett and his novels, check out his website:www.davidcorbettauthor.com.

Pat Browning, author of FULL CIRCLE

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great new noir, September 3, 2002

By 

John Shannon "John Shannon" (Culver City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devil's Redhead (Hardcover)

A great noir in the tradition of David Goodis and the masters. Here is a writer who knows just what he is talking about, presumably based on his years as a genuine PI in the Bay area. His dialogue is superb, tough, surprising and unsentimental, and his convoluted revenge and counter-revenge tale reminds you of Elmore Leonard at his best, except you have a feeling any of Corbett's characters could have had Leonard's for lunch. His characters do surprising things, just like real people, and you desperately want them to get past their own blind spots and weaknesses, as they get swept up into a Central California Delta drug war with racial overtones--rednecks vs. Mexicans. You desperately want the couple to get back together after their separate ordeals, worthy of Odysseus. It's a book you can learn from, about Spanish slang, about the changes that have taken the drug trade down several notches in viciousness, about the whole fascinating industrial Delta region itself--I read the book with a map by my side. It was compulsive and fun and ought to get a nod or two as best first novel.