The Long Fall: A Novel of Crime [Hardcover]

Lynn Kostoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003 | Series: Otto Penzler Books

At once authentic and flip, by turns wildly funny and deadly serious, as riveting as it is inventive, The Long Fall twists sibling rivalry inside out and sets the conventional crime novel on its head. In sunbaked Phoenix, Arizona, this never-predictable tale tosses into its antic mix a dead father, his two sons—one a small-time ex-con with a consistent genius for sabotaging his own best interests, the other a straight, uptight solid citizen with a moneymaking chain of dry-cleaning stores and a restive ex-stewardess of a wife named Evelyn—and a sicko cop with a twisted worldview. Recently released from prison—twenty-four months for possession of a truckload of black-market saguaro cacti—and in deep debt to an unforgiving crank dealer, Jimmy Coates returns home only to discover that his brother has cut him out of his inheritance. A not-unjustifiable desire to settle old scores and new sends Jimmy on a robbery spree that wipes out four of his brother’s dry-cleaning establishments. But when he finds himself tumbling for a mutinously sexy Evelyn, the impulse to vengeance reverses itself. Unwittingly, however, Jimmy has already set in motion a series of dangerous consequences—adultery, blackmail, love, betrayal—that culminate in a blueprint for murder. And it could be Jimmy himself who is taking the long fall.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This craftily written noir thriller by Kostoff (A Choice of Nightmares) stars Jimmy Coates, a downtrodden Phoenix ex-con whose primary goal in life is sidestepping his loan shark, Ray Harp ("the kind of guy who could make Darwin blush"). Fresh from a two-year prison term for illegally transporting rare, state-protected saguaro cacti, Jimmy spends his time working at the Big and Bigger Jones's Old Wild West Park to make ends meet, but his mounting excuses aren't enough to keep Harp from trying to collect on his looming $6,000 debt. Dispatched to "accelerate" the collection process, Harp's henchmen Newt Deems and Aaron Limbe set out after Jimmy. Limbe in particular is eager to complete this assignment, since his career with the Phoenix police force was terminated after Jimmy bartered incriminating information on Limbe in exchange for his release from a grand theft auto charge. But Jimmy has devised his own solution to his money woes by robbing several dry-cleaning establishments owned by his squeaky-clean brother. It isn't hard for him to justify the thefts, since he's never gotten along with Richard anyway-and now Richard has bilked Jimmy out of their recently deceased father's inheritance. In the process, Jimmy falls for Evelyn, Richard's distracted, disenchanted wife, and their affair brings new complications. Jimmy's love for Evelyn (fueled by great sex) creates the whirlwind that propels this dark tale to its final, violent end. Kostoff's narrative goes down nice and easy, but there's not a congenial character in sight-certainly not Jimmy, whose melting heart does little to take the edge off his boorishness. His final comeuppance feels rightly deserved in this deft, oddball entertainment.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ex-con Jimmy Coates is a man who always has a plan, but his plans have a way of falling through. Fresh out of prison and already deep in debt to a man who doesn't like to be kept waiting, Jimmy wants his portion of the land from his father's estate to use as collateral for a quick loan. But his upright and uptight brother, Richard, sees to it that the land stays safely out of his troublesome sibling's reach. Jimmy's long fall begins as he lands in bed with Richard's wife and spirals steadily downward through confrontations with angry thugs and heists involving Beanie Babies and defective athletic shoes. Characters are drawn with broad brushstrokes, and the story often strays toward the ridiculous, but there is some genuine suspense and dark humor here. Recommend Kostoff to fans of Carl Hiaasen and Corson Hirschfeld. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786711655
• ISBN-13: 978-0786711659
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Off beat and compelling, June 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Long Fall: A Novel of Crime (Hardcover)

Kostoff's novel grabs you from page one. His stunning use of language is a treat. More than this, he tells a compelling tale of losers, loss, and lost causes. Jimmy Coates is the archetypal schlemiel who just can't quite understand what's gone wrong in his life. Why else would he take a job as a doomed bad guy (killed six times daily) with the ludicrous Big and Bigger Jones Old Wild West Park? The comparison of other reviewers to Elmore Leonard is appropriate: this is a page turner with a payoff. Unfortunately, and despite the book's humor, for most of the characters the payoff is a downer. But the reader of Kostoff's second novel is richly rewarded indeed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, May 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Long Fall: A Novel of Crime (Hardcover)

This is a sensational novel. It's hilarious and harrowing by turns and superbly written from top to bottom. Kostoff's style is reminiscent of Elmore Leonard at his best, and The Long Fall is dark and devilish and all but impossible to put down.

5.0 out of 5 stars A sleek sucker punch of a literary crime novel, June 25, 2011

By 

Jim Thomsen (Bremerton, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Long Fall: A Novel of Crime (Otto Penzler Books) (Hardcover)

An absolute gem of a literary crime novel, "The Long Fall" is an expertly concocted cocktail of character development, tight plotting and musical language that explores deep themes of discontent and desire to change.

It somehow manages the trick of not wasting a single word while rising high above the Patterson writing waterline. It has all the tone and discipline of high literature but skips the flat affect-less affectations of the "serious" MFA-grad-style novels, balancing wit and generous color with a genuine, undistanced affection for its multi-dimensional dirtbags. (The scene in which main character Jimmy Coates, a minor-league criminal, wins a bar bet by listing at least fifty synonyms for breasts in a minute's time, is just one example.)

An absolute pleasure to read, and re-read. And re-read again.

A sample of Kostoff's sublime sucker-punch prose:

"Jimmy figures his teachers, Mom and Richard had been right all along. There must be something missing in him. He's never wanted things bad enough to work for them. He knows he's supposed to want them, but it never worked out that way. The idea of accumulating a bunch of things just never held any juice for him. That's why it was so easy to take them. Most people had more than they needed anyway, and they always wanted more, and Jimmy basically filled the gap between the attic and the yard sale."