Ravens by George Dawes Green

From Barnes & Noble

Bosom buddies since childhood, Shaw and Romeo now share mostly boredom. Stuck in dead-end jobs, going nowhere in their lives, these hapless Georgia compatriots hatch a supposedly foolproof plan to wrest $159 million from a recent lottery jackpot winner. Concocted with more enthusiasm than forethought, their "harmless" kidnapping soon collapses into a medley of unscheduled snafus, engulfing the pair in a breathless comic romp. A 21st-century Dog Day Afternoon.

From the Publisher

When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko drive into the small town of Brunswick , Georgia, their only thought is to fix their car's leaky right tire and continue on to Key West, Florida, away from their dead-end jobs as computer technicians in Ohio. But when Shaw discovers that the 318 million dollar Georgia State Lottery has just been claimed by an ordinary Georgia family, he sees an opportunity - he and Romeo will blackmail the Boatwright family for half their winnings and ditch their deadbeat lives for good.

Disguised as a state lottery representative, Shaw enters the Boatwright's home and holds the family hostage, while Romeo patrols the town, staking out the homes of the family's loved ones, should the Boatwrights refuse to comply with their demands. But Shaw isn't your average criminal out to make a quick buck. Instead, he has a grand messianic vision and he'll stop at nothing to see it through — and soon, the Boatwrights find themselves living a Flannery O'Connor American nightmare from which they can't properly awaken.

At once frightening, comic, and suspenseful, RAVENS is a wholly original and utterly compelling novel from one of our most talented writers.

Publishers Weekly

The Boatwrights are struggling to get by when they win $318 million in the Georgia State lottery. But the family's joy is short-lived when drifter Shaw McBride shows up at their door with a gun, takes the family hostage and demands half of the winnings. If they refuse or try to contact help, Shaw's partner in crime, Romeo Zderko, will kill everyone close to the Boatwrights. Robert Petkoff renders Shaw and Romeo with a perfect blend of menace and panic, while Maggi-Meg Reed's theatrical Southern drawl captures the community perfectly. This is a top-notch presentation with performances that will keep listeners enthralled and entertained from beginning to end. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, May 11). (July)

Kirkus Reviews

Fourteen years after he vanished from the bestseller lists, Green (The Juror, 1995, etc.) is back with a tale of two losers who see a Georgia family's lottery jackpot as their ticket to nirvana. Shaw McBride and Romeo Zdenko are just passing through Brunswick, Ga., when they hear that a local couple, Mitch and Patsy Boatwright, have won $318 million. Shaw's facility at ferreting out online information about the family-especially about daughter Tara, 21, who wishes she were just passing through Brunswick as well-persuades him that they can grab half the payout if only they can persuade the Boatwrights that they're crazy and remorseless. Their scheme depends on nothing more than threats. If Mitch doesn't appear at a press conference to announce that Shaw was an old acquaintance who'd asked Mitch to pick up some lottery tickets for him too, Romeo, who's driving around the area from one set of friends and relatives to the next, will start killing whoever is closest. At first the scheme works improbably well, considering that although Shaw is a con man with a gift for telling people what they want to hear, Romeo is neither a killer nor a mental giant. As days pass, however, things start to change, and not in the ways you might expect. Instead of ratcheting up the tension, Green begins to plumb the unexpected depths of his characters. Romeo finds his only peace in caring for the dying father of the trailer-park queen who picked him up at a bar. Ineffectual local peace officer Burris Jones, aka Deppity Dawg, rouses himself on behalf of his high-school sweetheart Nell Boatwright, Tara's grandmother, who hasn't given him the time of day for a generation. And Tara, who craves excitement and maybesubmission, begins to confuse imperious, insinuating Shaw with God. The Desperate Hours on crank, with a deeply unsettling spiritual spin.

Product Details