Payback [Hardcover]

Thomas Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 1997

As the wild building boom of the 1980s galvanizes the construction rackets, both the Mafia and the feds stake out territory in New York City's eternally explosive Hell's Kitchen, longtime turf of the Irish mob.

At the center of the story: two Irish brothers, Paddy and Billy Adare.  One is an enforcer for the mob.  The other, about to enter law school, works as a sandhog in the tunnels below Manhattan.  Important to each other since childhood, they are caught in a crossfire of greed and savage violence that puts their loyalties -- to family, neighborhood, and each other -- to a brutal test.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a richly textured, impressive first thriller with links to everything from Upton Sinclair's pioneering exposes of brutal working conditions to Mario Puzo's family- oriented crime novels. Set in the 1980s building boom in New York City, it centers on two brothers: Paddy Adare, a former boxer who works for the Irish mobs that control the construction business in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, and his younger brother, Billy, who is trying to pay for law school by digging foundations for the new buildings. It's Italian gangsters fighting Irish ones, workers battling bosses, and brother against brother in a meaty stew of meaningful action.

From Library Journal

Kelly uses the cranes that towered over New York during the Reagan-era building boom as a backdrop to his searing tale of greed, corruption, and loyalty. Paddy and Billy Adare are brothers descended from a long line of Irish sandhogs?miners who dig tunnels for cars, subways, and water. After Paddy's boxing career ended due to injury, he turned to crime and became an enforcer for a West Side boss. Billy went to college and is working what he hopes is his last summer as a sandhog before he enters law school. When the sandhogs contract runs out, and powerful contractor Joe Harkness is willing to use extortion, threats, and violence as negotiation tools, Paddy is forced to choose between his profession and his past. The vivid characterizations, crafty pacing, and authentic millieu makes Payback a very impressive debut, despite the race-against-time ending.
-?Adam Mazmanian, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (February 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679450513
• ISBN-13: 978-0679450511
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,535,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "One can pay back the loan of gold, but one lies forever in debt to those who are kind." Malayan Proverb, March 28, 2010

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Payback (Hardcover)

During the '80s building boom in New York, Billy Adare was a sandhog (tunneler). He attended school at night with a goal of getting a law degree. His brother, Paddy, is an enforcer for Jack Tierney, who runs the construction racket in the West Side.

We learn of the difficulty these sandhogs had building the tunnels under the skyscrapers. Most of the sandhogs were Irish and the Mob wanted to replace the Irish with newly immigrated Poles, pay less and pocket the difference.

When a union rep is beaten to death by Tierney's crazed brother, Butcher Boy, Billy's friends ask him to check with his brother, Paddy, to see if he can learn who is strong-arming them.

The author does a good job in describing New York amidst the building boom, and with the music and views of the time. There is a great deal of violence and much of it is against these sandhogs who want nothing more than to make a living.

We also see the view of the wealthy towards the working man, represented by Billy. This is seen in the way he is treated by the family of a girl he was fond of. He was considered less than a desirable person for their daughter because he uses his hands to make a living.

Well done and interesting.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clifford Odets would have hung out with Kelly, March 4, 2000

By 

joe flood (Los Angeles,California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Payback (Hardcover)

Shades of "Waiting for Lefty" and "The Sopranos" This guy Kelly Had me smelling the freshly dug rock and damp soil down in that aqueduct. He's a Tom Clancy in coveralls. The feel of NYC was there page after page. I'd like to be as eloquent as the other critics,but it's not in me. My gut tells me if this guy Kelly keeps his feet on the ground ,as indicated in this novel, he's gonna be around for a spell.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A union vs. mob thriller that is becomes really personal., December 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Payback (Hardcover)

I never heard the word "sandhog" before I met Thomas Kelly on a plane. I bought Payback the next day. Now, driving through a tunnel, or taking the subway or something as simple as turning on a water tap in New York City will never be quite the same. A gripping thriller set in a New York underground water tunnel and the bars of Hell's Kitchen, the book deals with union politics, graft and the struggle of the common man who must risk his life to earn a paycheck, keep the union alive and functioning, keep his family relatively intact, get an education and earn a place in a society that doesn't really care or know about the struggle. If I wondered about who dug those tunnels and at what cost, I think I know.