Reviews

Small Crimes by Dave Zeltserman

lelandbuck's review against another edition

4.0

I've come to expect a fast ride with a few unexpected hard turns from Dave Zeltserman, and this book delivered. His style is solid, though not overly polished, which I find lends a great deal to the experience. I wasn't totally absorbed by the characters, and was aware at a few moments that plot alone pushed me to the next chapter. But on the whole, I thought this a good gritty story.

laurelinwonder's review against another edition

5.0

Let's be clear, I generally don't read books about naughty police officers, let alone a book that has a police car on the cover. However, I watched the movie version on Netflix of this when it came out in 2017, and of course after I watched it I found out it was a book, and I was really curious about the book at the time. This year I remembered that I wanted a copy of this book, having mostly forgotten what the book was even about let alone that it was a movie; and it showed up at my house a few months ago and sat in my to be red pile, which is outrageously tall. But I've been working on really getting through books as they come in my door, which is difficult for me, as I usually find more books that I want to read literally every day. I got a wild hair, and I saw it I flipped through it, and I was like you know what This looks good. Needless to say I inhaled this book over about a day and a half, constantly squeezing in a chapter. It was really interesting book, very propulsive. As I say I don't usually care for a police books, it's one thing if there's police involved because it's a crime thriller, but I usually don't care about naughty cops, but I managed to care about this particular naughty cop. And that says a lot about the writing, a lot of good things. Usually if there are bad cops they are side characters, and they certainly aren't complicated in the way that Joe is. This book is a fantastic example of how people fall into dangerous patterns, and life choices that ultimately bite them in the ass. It's also a really interesting exploration of the interior monologue of someone who falls into these patterns, and what it's like to try and get out of them and rectify after the fact. What begins as Joe looking for a way to handle his gambling debt and cocaine habits turns into a pretty brutal act of violence, and no one wants anything to do with him after that let alone when he's released early from prison. This is also a hot house small town novel, which I think adds a delicious element, because in small towns you can't hide. I managed to feel bad for Joe, even though he was trying to figure things out after being released from jail, it felt like everyone was against him, and I do mean everyone. He was set up to fail, it was near impossible to do anything but that, he just got roped into the same old things, not because he wanted to, but because he had to. Some really interesting complexities, I'll quit rambling now. If you're looking for a quick character study, this is a really good one to think about. I enjoyed it.

ericwelch's review against another edition

4.0

Joe Denton, ex-cop, ex-cokehead, ex-arsonist, is released on early parole after having spent only seven years in a jail instead of doing 20 years in a maximum security prison. He had slashed the face of the district attorney who stumbled on him during a robbery attempt and then he had tried to set fire to the office. Joe wants nothing better than to get his act together and be left alone. Unfortunately, the corrupt sheriff who had kept Joe out of maximum security in return for keeping quiet about the crimes they had committed, now wants Joe to kill a prospective informer or the DA who ever since his disfigurement has made a crusade of trying to root out all the corruption in the community.

Since the narrator is totally unreliable, one never quite knows the truth of the story as he recounts it, nor his motivations. Joe is abandoned by his parents, his ex-wife, his former colleagues, everyone. The police are all corrupt, he is manipulated and betrayed at every turn. We try to feel sorry for him, yet one wonders all the while of his true motivation. Does he really want to support his children, does he really like Charlotte, does he really want to stay off cocaine. He’s ostensibly a very bright guy who has gone horribly wrong. Yet how much of it is self-delusional.

Very hard to put down. I read this because I had enjoyed Zeltserman’s Julius Katz charming stories. This book is very different but very good. He is definitely on my list of not-to-miss authors.

mbp's review

4.0

I think I admired this more than I enjoyed it - it's a story without heroes, where everyone, including the narrator, is morally compromised to some extent. What the author did, he did very well - good plotting, characters interesting in their different, damaged ways. It has stuck in my head more than I thought it would.