Done for a Dime (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Satisfaction is a commodity in short supply for the myriad characters populating Done for a Dime, private eye-turned-author David Corbett's affecting follow-up to his debut novel, The Devil's Redhead. Among the significantly short-changed is Raymond "Strong" Carlisle, an irascible black saxophonist who used to play with the giants of blues music, but now does only about four gigs a year, "if he’s lucky, with a bunch of sorry old men the business forgot long ago." When Carlisle is shot dead at his home in Rio Mirada, an increasingly crime-plagued burg north of San Francisco, the cops, including lead detective Dennis Murchison and his racist partner, Jerry Stluka, figure it's the tragic result of a nightclub fight he'd provoked the evening before. Their two prime suspects: Arlie Thigpen, a gang tough employed by a local drug dealer; and Toby Marchand, Carlisle's musician son, who'd chafed under his elder's incessant tauntings, and whose white teenage lover, Nadya Lazarenko, witnessed the homicide--but is too traumatized to remember anything about it. However, Carlisle's death is merely a harbinger of worse troubles to come, among them a neighborhood-destroying fire engineered by greedy developers.

Regrettably, that cinematic hillside conflagration diverts attention from Corbett's more interesting study of people trying to cope with the inequitable vicissitudes of life. Murchison, for instance, comes off as a conflicted mix of determination and desperation, a man terminally unable to fulfill the expectations of his wife and parents. For Marchand, the challenge is to reject his late father's cynicism and find hope in Nadya's embrace, even as she refuses to trust in something so ephemeral as happiness. Other well-formed players here--from a suspect's strong-willed mother, to a smart and fetching lawyer who confuses Murchison's heart, to a cop-turned-hired killer who isn't so transparently evil as he initially appears--struggle to achieve their own forms of justice in an unjust world. Corbett has a sharp ear for street dialogue and an even sharper understanding of human emotion and pain. For a book that's all about dissatisfaction, Done for a Dime is decidedly satisfying. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly

Corbett (The Devil's Redhead) again uses some of the traditional tools of genre fiction in bold new ways in his sharp and exceptionally poignant second suspense novel. The feeling of a community under siege-in this case, a shabby but lively multiracial town called Rio Mirada, just north of San Francisco-comes straight from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, as concerned citizens and families trying to live decently come under attack from the forces of organized greed. There's a touch of Jim Thompson in the main villain, a hired thug calling himself Richard Ferry, who turns out not to be quite as detestable as he first appears. And Ross Macdonald might have created the head cop, a local detective named Murchison, who isn't as smart or as liberal as Macdonald's PI Lew Archer but nevertheless has aspirations to similar levels of achievement and humanity. The story begins with the murder of cantankerous black jazz musician Raymond "Strong" Carlisle, shot down in his front yard. Murchison and his racist partner, Stluka, have two suspects: Carlisle's son, also a talented jazzman, and a local gang member who is lucky enough to have a tough and resourceful mother to defend him. Corbett introduces such a large cast of characters in this sweeping narrative (including the cameo return of ex-con Dan Abatangelo from The Devil's Redhead) that some of them don't get enough time on stage. But the ones that do will linger in readers' thoughts for a long time.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st ed/1st printing edition (July 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345447530
• ISBN-13: 978-0345447531
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,999,914 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars stark, gritty and totally believable police procedural, August 3, 2003

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There is tension between father and son because famous blues musician Raymond "Strong" Carlisle has started drinking again only months after having a kidney removed. Toby Marchand moved in with his father to nurse him through his health crisis and is irate that his dad disobeys medical orders. Toby goes to play with his own band at a nearby club and his girlfriend Nadya escorts his father to see him perform.

Strong picks a fight with everyone he comes in contact with. When he returns home someone kills him with three bullets in his back. The police turn their attention to Toby and Nadya, but that fails to turn up any leads. What the police have yet to realize is that the killer lives next door to Carlisle in a boarded up Victorian, waiting to set fire to a part of the town that his clients want destroyed. These developers want to rebuild it in the image that will bring them the most profit. Whether the killer will succeed in carrying out his objective remains to be read.

David Corbett's story line is stark, gritty and totally believable. From the police to the average citizen to the criminals, Mr. Corbett creates a microcosm of life in the pages of DONE FOR A DIME. His perspectives is realistic and readers will accept that the lead detective on the case has to go outside the law to try to see that justice occurs. While many readers will not agree with the protagonist's solution, they will understand why he was driven to break the laws he was sworn to uphold. This is one police procedural it will be impossible to forget.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, passionate, and compelling, December 6, 2003

By A Customer

David Corbett's story of the murder of a jazz musician is an utterly compelling read from start to finish. The deadly consequences of the initial killing, the aching hearts of the survivors, the alternating brutality and compassion of the all-too-human policemen - all are rendered in powerful, vivid prose that makes no compromises. Readers looking for crime fiction on a par with Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER need look no further than this terrific novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not done enough!, July 9, 2008

By	giniajim (USA) - See all my reviews

This is the first of Corbett's books that I've read. It probably won't be the last even though I was underwhelmed. The writing was uneven. The plot was pretty good, the best part. The character dialogue was strained; I blinked a few times, wondering where that came from. Not fitting the character. The character development was weak; most of the characters I never could quite figure out. And there were a lot of characters, some with pretty ancillary roles that didn't seem to fit in very well. There were a number of things left hanging; don't like that. Maybe working toward a sequel (although the way things ended, that would be a challenge!). Worth a read and I'll read more of Corbett's stuff.