Order RUMRUNNERS here
(also reviewed)
Order DIG TWO GRAVES here
''I'm not a criminal.''
''No. You're a McGraw.''
First impressions often are accurate. Call me shallow all you want, but unless you're having a spectacularly bad day, if you're an asshole to someone you don't know, you're probably an asshole. Of course, every rule has its exceptions. Californian author Eric Beetner seem to enjoy being the exception to just about every rules in crime writing. Some people are just like that. They like to willingly stack the deck against themselves just because they would get bored without a challenge. RUMRUNNERS starts deliberately slow and cliché just so it can take sharper turns and destabilize you better. Eric Beetner's probably the best storyteller you've never heard about and that is about to change.
The McGraw family have been outlaws for several generations. They are drivers. They have been carrying illegal carg from point A to point B since the turn of the century. All of them, except Tucker who spent his adult life taking his distances with his family. His life is mediocre, but he takes pride in having a honest job and a son with a future. When his father Webb disappears with a big rig and ten million dollars worth of pseudoephedrine, according to the unwritten laws of gangsters, the debt transfers to him and he is pulled into the world of his father against his will. Frightened and ill-equipped for the task, Tucker turns to the elder of the family, his grandfather Calvin, who might just be the most die-hard, unrepenting McGraw that ever lived.
Eric Beetner is one of these authors who really understands what he's good at. The prose of RUMRUNNERS isn't going to overwhelm anybody, but the shifty, unpredictable storytelling will. Many authors don't understand how great storytelling work, that's why it's so satisfying whenever you come across someone who does: the reason why Tucker McGraw and his grandfather are working together is that he owes ten million dollars to the Stanleys, the local crime family. If this fact remains a constant for the duration of the novel (and it does), everything else is fair game, storytelling wise. What makes RUMRUNNERS so fun and dynamic is that Eric Beetner keeps altering the direction of his story whenever things start growing stale. Point A and Point B are well-defined but the trajectory of his characters is completely unpredictable.
The McGraw family have been outlaws for several generations. They are drivers. They have been carrying illegal carg from point A to point B since the turn of the century. All of them, except Tucker who spent his adult life taking his distances with his family. His life is mediocre, but he takes pride in having a honest job and a son with a future. When his father Webb disappears with a big rig and ten million dollars worth of pseudoephedrine, according to the unwritten laws of gangsters, the debt transfers to him and he is pulled into the world of his father against his will. Frightened and ill-equipped for the task, Tucker turns to the elder of the family, his grandfather Calvin, who might just be the most die-hard, unrepenting McGraw that ever lived.
Eric Beetner is one of these authors who really understands what he's good at. The prose of RUMRUNNERS isn't going to overwhelm anybody, but the shifty, unpredictable storytelling will. Many authors don't understand how great storytelling work, that's why it's so satisfying whenever you come across someone who does: the reason why Tucker McGraw and his grandfather are working together is that he owes ten million dollars to the Stanleys, the local crime family. If this fact remains a constant for the duration of the novel (and it does), everything else is fair game, storytelling wise. What makes RUMRUNNERS so fun and dynamic is that Eric Beetner keeps altering the direction of his story whenever things start growing stale. Point A and Point B are well-defined but the trajectory of his characters is completely unpredictable.
''I'm not all that interested in any trouble, real or imagined.''
Calvin stared down his grandson. ''You sure your Mom didn't fuck the milkman?''
RUMRUNNERS is, first and foremost, a novel about a man who stops following the rules of society. Graduate college, get on the payroll, find a woman to build a family with, that sort of stuff. Of course, in the context of the novel Tucker's survival depends on renouncing these rules and embracing his genetic calling of driving cars and to illegal shit, but it doesn't matter because it's liberating to see him gradually emancipate himself from the invisible shackles of modern society.
I've had the same kind of fun reading RUMRUNNERS than I'v had watching BREAKING BAD (minus all the queasy domestic scenes, Eric Beetner had the great idea to make Tucker McGraw divorced). The quiet, lawful existence doesn't have any use for some people. There's a visceral satisfaction to witness a character break it off, as he would with a bad girlfriend. It's a romantic thing for alienated, middle-aged readers like me. The American outlaw isn't credible anymore, he needs to at least have tried to live a honest life before giving up.
RUMRUNNERS sneaked up on me. I rolled my eyes once or twice during the first ten pages, then Eric Beetner threw-in his first curve ball and it became difficult to stop reading. It reminded me of Brian Panowich's BULL MOUNTAIN (one of my favourite reads of this year), Joe R. Landsdale's immortal COLD IN JULY (which, uh, made my year-end lists in 2014!) and, of course, the brilliant writings of Vince Gilligan. It's a brilliant, fun and engaging novel that you'll have a difficult time putting down. Eric Beetner is the real deal, ladies and gentlemen, and RUMRUNNERS was one of the pleasant surprises of my reading year.
I've had the same kind of fun reading RUMRUNNERS than I'v had watching BREAKING BAD (minus all the queasy domestic scenes, Eric Beetner had the great idea to make Tucker McGraw divorced). The quiet, lawful existence doesn't have any use for some people. There's a visceral satisfaction to witness a character break it off, as he would with a bad girlfriend. It's a romantic thing for alienated, middle-aged readers like me. The American outlaw isn't credible anymore, he needs to at least have tried to live a honest life before giving up.
RUMRUNNERS sneaked up on me. I rolled my eyes once or twice during the first ten pages, then Eric Beetner threw-in his first curve ball and it became difficult to stop reading. It reminded me of Brian Panowich's BULL MOUNTAIN (one of my favourite reads of this year), Joe R. Landsdale's immortal COLD IN JULY (which, uh, made my year-end lists in 2014!) and, of course, the brilliant writings of Vince Gilligan. It's a brilliant, fun and engaging novel that you'll have a difficult time putting down. Eric Beetner is the real deal, ladies and gentlemen, and RUMRUNNERS was one of the pleasant surprises of my reading year.