"If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you." - Globe and Mail
A surefire plan that will end his marital and money problems in one swoop … what could go wrong?
Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets, and his wife, Paulina, has become a liability. His life would be so much better without her in it.
It's the mid-'60s in Toronto, and Lenny works for a ruthless gangster whose travel agency is a front for a collections racket in the Kensington Market area. Lenny's days are spent with his partner, Gabe, terrorizing the locals into paying protection on their shops and their lives. On the side, Lenny and Gabe co-own a tenement block that they bought with dirty money borrowed from shady individuals. Overextended, Lenny plans to pay them back with more borrowed money from other loans and by re-mortgaging his house, without the knowledge of his wife.
Tired of his lies and scheming, Paulina demands a divorce. Lenny is certain she's going to take him for everything, leaving him unable to pay the debt on the tenement block. And that's likely to get him pitched off one of his own rooftops. Lenny would rather get than be gotten, so he comes up with a surefire way to end both his marital and money problems - Paulina's going to have to get whacked. Lenny works for a ruthless gangster in Toronto, and his days are spent terrorizing the locals into paying protection on their shops. But Lenny has debts of his own, and he would rather get than be gotten, and so he comes up with a surefire way to end his marital and money problems.
Dietrich Kalteis is the winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He is a critically acclaimed author of ten novels. Dietrich's debut was hailed as one of Vancouver's best crime novels, his second was translated and became a bestseller in Germany, and two others have won Independent Publisher Awards. He enjoys life with his family on Canada's West Coast.
Sales and Market Bullets
• A CAPER NOVEL: For readers with an interest in crime fiction and dark humor and readers of Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos.
• INTERNATIONAL APPEAL: Kalteis was born in Köln, Germany, and speaks fluent German. His 2015 novel, The Deadbeat Club, was published in German by Suhrkamp Verlag under the title Shootout and was an instant bestseller.
Audience
• Fans of fast-paced caper crime stories
• Primarily men, 50+
• Readers of John McFetridge and Mike Knowles
• Toronto-based readers
