Dutch Uncle (Hard Case Crime) [Kindle Edition]

"Dutch Uncle" takes place in the real world and involves the kind people whom most of us have either known or at the very least observed and wondered about. That old college roommate who fell off your radar a decade ago. That handsome, well-spoken but slightly battered guy roofing your neighbor's house. That pretty, too-serious girl you see fixing her makeup in traffic on your way to the office. What's their story? Dutch Uncle tells you what it might be. That's one of the many qualities that make it an enjoyable, compelling and sometimes --- in a culture where an alarming percentage of Americans are a paycheck away from bankruptcy --- uncomfortable read. "Dutch" is the kind of story-telling that reminds us that "The Life" (of crime and despair) is troublingly accessible to even the best and the brightest. Peter Pavia masterfully places rather ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances that you reassuringly tell yourself they should have seen coming. Of course, the question in the back of the reader's mind is, would you have seen them coming? Plot twists that never disappoint as much for their believability as for their unexpectedness, chase and batter Pavia's characters into shapes that make them unrecognizable to themselves and uncomfortably familiar to us. Pavia knows his characters and his setting: The languid and often seamy stretches of white sand and fleeting dreams that is South Florida in the late 1990s. He writes in the economic style of his genre, but describes detail so adroitly that "Dutch" is at all times a wonderfully sensual read. You will hear the droning music and muddled din of the happy-hours crowd at every yuppie bar on the strip, smell the sun block, sweat and anticipation of sex on the beaches and verandas and feel the exasperated longing in characters who fall and get up again struggling to reach destinations that will not fail to surprise you at the close of every chapter. Where other "crime drama" spins out of control into the realm of the cartoon fantasy with too-obvious film-treatment tales of Nicholas-Cage-esque villains and Travolta-like heroes, (or vice versa, who cares?), "Dutch" is grounded in a creepy, any-exit-on-the-freeway plausibility so that no matter how safely tucked away in Squaresville you think you may be, you'll wonder just how close you may have come to The Life. How many times have you sat next to a dealer or a grifter on the morning train? Left a tip for a waitress with both broken soul and jaw? Or waited for the restroom while a boy-faced killer primped to impress the girl back at the bar? You'd be surprised. If you want a realistic portrayal of people in the wind, "Dutch Uncle" is the book for you.

When the "Ten Best" lists come out after the first of the year, fans of hard-boiled fiction will almost certainly have a space saved for DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia. DUTCH UNCLE is Pavia's first work of fiction; this is somewhat hard to believe, as this assured, steady tale of Miami Beach losers and bottom feeders contains the best elements of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, and Richard Stark while still possessing and maintaining its unique voice.

Pavia's protagonist is Harry Healy, a career criminal who has been on a downward trajectory almost from the day he was born. When we meet Healy he is on parole from the latest of a series of incarcerations. He is almost immediately set to get in trouble again, putting his freedom on the line when he is recruited to deliver a "package" of dubious legality for the grand fee of $200. The deal immediately turns south; Healy is almost ripped off when he delivers the package and later finds his employer, Manfred Pfiser --- the Dutch uncle of the tale --- murdered.

As a result, Healy assumes another identity and takes work as a nightclub bouncer in a seedy but popular bar in nearby Fort Lauderdale. A fringe benefit of Healy's job, and a potential turning point in his life, presents itself when he meets Aggie St. Denis, a bartender who is a straight shooter and appears to care for him. Healy, of course, remains true to form and unceremoniously dumps her, fleeing home to New York City while on the verge of again beginning the cycle of repeating his past mistakes.

Pavia does a masterful job here of introducing his readers to two members of Healy's family: his father, a once-famous jazz musician who revels in the memory of the old days, and his wildly successful brother, a famous financial analyst who is one of the major surprises of the book. Healy's trip to New York also provides an unexpected revelation concerning his immediate difficulties. Ultimately, however, Healy realizes that his major problems arise from within, and if he is to change his luck and circumstances, he must first change himself. It appears though that once again his past mistakes will catch up with him before he can undergo any remodeling.

Pavia has an extremely impressive debut here --- one more reason why Hard Case Crime is an imprint to continue watching --- as he deftly combines elements of dark humor, violence, and mystery into a modern morality tale with bits of subtlety and unexpected optimism. You couldn't ask for better, and even if you did, you'd probably never find it. DUTCH UNCLE (and Pavia) needs to be on your must-read list.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Some shmo at the top of this page called Peter Pavia's great modern Miami tale, "Dutch Uncle" a rehashing of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. The first mistake is that Hiaasen himself is the weak imitator of Leonard. He takes the outsized characters and laconic elliptic dialogue, throws in an environmental issue, some stock characters, corrupt politicians, mellow leonardian heroes, and everybody says "Genius!"

If you wanna talk about Florida hard-boiled, let's say Dwight MacDonald, Charles Willeford, and our boy Elmore Leonard. And if you're looking for the next great one: here he is: Pavia. This is a Miami that wasn't written about by Leonard, it's a little after his time. This is true 90's and 00's lowlife Florida, the tourist bars, Swamps, vicious Redneck Crackheads, Cuban lady cops with sensible shoes, aspiring fashion models and the creeps that surround them, and lots of cheap cocaine. Florida.

Pavia's next one is supposed to be about the Bay of Pigs, looking forward to it. Historical.