Successful businessman Wade Thomas has a loving wife and child, a spacious home and a bright future. But he also has a younger brother with bad habits and much worse secrets. Small-time suburban drug dealer Timmy’s lucky break threatens to take him on a free-fall plunge into the major league criminal underworld, and he isn’t going alone. Timmy has stolen something from some very bad people, and they want it back. As he and his girlfriend scramble to stay ahead of them, they thrust their friends and family into a situation none of them could have imagined, played out in a brutal world beyond their experience. Drawn into a web of deceit, betrayal and lethal confrontation, Wade, his family and Timmy’s friend Bobby find that they have become players in a deadly game they can’t afford to lose. But even they don’t know just how high the stakes really are.
Six-Gun Two-Step
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Page-turner with depth and surprises,
This review is from: Six-Gun Two-Step (Paperback)
The first thing I want to say is, if you're a movie or TV producer you might want to take an option on this thriller while it's still relatively cheap. I presume it's still relatively cheap. The publisher isn't exactly a New York, London, or Boston institution, and it's William C. Duncan's first novel.It's a page-turner, as all thrillers need to be, which means it's well plotted and full of interesting and easily identified characters doing the kind of things that make the reader want to know what happens next. It is also vivid with veracious detail--but not too much--precisely expressed. The events flow from previous events and the predilections of the characters the way they do in a great novel, surprisingly, yet aptly. Duncan also lays bare the greed and the consumptionitis for expensive things that plague contemporary American society. The way he captures the cultures of the big city and the M-13 gang, and the people from the wrong side of the tracks, along with that of the upper middle class suburban set, is exquisite. Here's the premise (a somewhat familiar one, but it takes off on it in a way that makes the book hard to put down): Timmy Thomas, young Middle American privileged underachiever, small time doper and dealer stumbles unto some weighty product. He makes off with it. Of course the "product" belongs to somebody who's going to miss it. That somebody is the M-13 gang operating out of Cleveland, Ohio. At first Timmy lucks out in staying one step ahead of the gang while some of his friends don't do so well. And then when he tries to unload the stash...things get a little complicated and even more dangerous. The story gets a bit fantastic in the last quarter or so of the book, and the ending features a lot of dead bodies and heroics by some ordinary Americans against a formidable foe that might strain credulity. Why I think this book hasn't yet attracted the notice of the big publishing houses is that (1) as mentioned above, the premise (in a different guise) has been done (the premise, not the story); (2) Duncan writes a little on the long side, sometimes telling us more than is necessary, sometimes giving us the thoughts of his characters when we don't need them (but on the other hand, the internal monologues give depth and texture to the story); (3) Duncan's narration identifies with Wade Alan Thomas III, Timmy's goody-goody older brother, too--shall we say--adoringly, so that Wade seems a little too perfect (but isn't); and (4) Chapter 3, barely 18 pages in, reads like something Wade himself might write in an effort to make himself look like God's gift to responsible fatherhood, responsible citizenship, and a successful career. And there's not even a hint of irony there, although--and this is the saving grace--the admirable portrait actually reveals someone who has been, unbeknownst to himself, indoctrinated into the conspicuous consumption of status symbols both in goods and services: the expensive vehicles, the health club, the country club, being perfect parents who take their perfect kid to perfect classes like tae kwon do, where he learns to kick bad guys in the groin (and does!), etc. This tone returns later in the book (Chapter 56) making it clear that the author himself is unaware (or doesn't care) that he himself appears to adhere to these superficial values. Then again, maybe, as in a TV commercial, Duncan is cleverly pandering to a certain audience that he knows will eat this stuff up. But forget all that. Zoom through Chapter 3 (short like all the chapters in the book), but don't skip it. It reveals a lot about not just Wade but the mentality of the Middle American society that Duncan is writing about. All the characters, from the M-13 bangers to Leroy, the fashion plate Harlem dealer; from Sandy, the trailer-trash-ish doper to "sure shot" Glendy Willard, the beautiful and very resourceful gentleman's club stripper; to Timmy, who you know is headed for a fall and his buddy Bobby, small time dealers who try their hand at big time dealing, to the bartenders and the cocktail waitresses at the stripper clubs--all of them--are agreeably authentic. The dialogue is sharp without being stupidly over the top (as in some novels and movies). Duncan knows the people he is writing about and their differing worlds and their differing ways of thinking. He's done his homework and he's polished every sentence. It is true that some characters who appear in the story towards the end are one dimensional; but even there, as in the case of "the tailor," Duncan supplies some realistic veneer. Here's a fifth possible reason a major publisher may have passed on the book: the ending is carefully contrived so that the people the author identifies with triumph and the others meet their various gods (or lack thereof) oozing a lot of blood. The "various gods" is an opaque hint about who the surprise villains turn out to be. I'll let the reader discover that as the author planned. There is a kind of warning here, a "cautionary tale" sort of feel to this novel that very well might be prophetic in a nightmarish sort of way. Be prepared to stay up half the night reading. Bottom line: Duncan put an enormous amount of work into this effort and he knows his stuff. A good editor might have suggested a more realistic endgame and a little more objectivity about some of his characters, but other than that, this is a thriller that sizzles.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating thriller,
This review is from: Six-Gun Two-Step (Paperback)
In Cleveland, Timmy Thomas supports his slight drug habit as a two bit neighborhood dealer. He has no ambition to go up the illegal drug selling pyramid. His girlfriend Sandy went to the apartment of their dealers Bam and Susie both of whom are dead; she from an overdose and he from blowing out his brains. She grabs two bags filled with the white powder she cam to purchase and flees the death scene.Sandy tells Timmy, who suddenly gains ambition as he sees a chance for a big score. Not sure how to sell so much, he enlists exotic dancer Glendy to assist him. However, their efforts upset the major gang dealers especially the Guatemalans, whose supply they stole. The pair flee to New York planning to hook up with the mob there, but things just get worse as he gets hooked on his product and back in Ohio an even deadlier gang than the Guatemalans demand he hand them his goods or else; two other gangs show interest too. This is a fascinating look at the supply and demand of illegal drug economics although the realistic cast of a zillion participants can be difficult to keep score. When the tale switches into a terrorist plot to destroy the Cleveland area, it loses steam as that seems surreal. Still this is an interesting glimpse at a two step player foolishly dealing with six-gun gangs even if the gangbangers' cumulative IQs sum in double digits. Harriet Klausner
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An exciting story, but I found the involvement of the Al-Qaida sleeper cell a bit too much,
By Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Six-Gun Two-Step (Paperback)
Falling into a major drug deal by accident is a plot scenario that I have not seen before. Timmy Thomas is a minor drug user and dealer and he suddenly has what may be a golden opportunity. His main suppliers are a man and a woman and when the woman dies via an overdose and the man kills himself, a large supply of cocaine and heroin are left lying in the house. Seeing his version of the golden goose just lying there, Timmy takes it and starts a deadly chain of events.Unaccustomed to dealing in such quantity, Timmy hooks up with Glendy, an exotic dancer with the looks and body to hit it big. They experience problems in dealing and the main supplier whose merchandise they have, a gang of ruthless Guatemalans, works to get it back. This involves the remainder of Timmy's family as well as some of his other friends. Timmy and Glendy embark on a journey to New York City, where the deal to sell off some of the heroin fails and gets a major crime family involved. Timmy eventually becomes a heroin junkie and Glendy leaves him, only to be reunited later. This story moves along very well and has a satisfactory conclusion, although there were too many players in the game of drug dealing. With at least four major drug gangs involved, one of which was an Al-Qaida cell, the amateur group of the Thomas family and friends would have been overmatched. To operate effectively and undercover in the United States for so long, this Al-Qaida cell was too professional to have made some of the mistakes they make in this book. For example, a terrorist sleeper cell would not deal in drugs when engaged in a plot to destroy a large section of northern Ohio. However, their failures did make for a satisfying ending.
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