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Sucker Punch: A Cal Innes Novel

Name: Sucker Punch: A Cal Innes Novel
Author: Banks, Ray
ISBN: 9780151013234

by Banks, Ray

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Overview

Cal Innes is back, in a “ferocious asskicker of a novel” (Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone), visiting the City of Angels for a boxing tournament that turns deadly.
In this, the second Cal Innes novel, Cal is looking forward to continuing his job as caretaker at Paulo’s gym without the barbed-wire collar of parole. But a prodigal amateur boxer named Liam needs someone to go with him to his first major tournament in Los Angeles, and with rumors of a rigged competition, Cal’s babysitting job swiftly turns into something dangerous. As his codeine habit and Liam’s temper spin out of control, Cal finds himself in the desert, staring down the barrel of a gun. Suddenly the City of Angels doesn’t seem quite so heavenly.
With his trademark dark humor, emotional acuity, and pulse-pounding action, Ray Banks takes Cal Innes, the “P.I.
who always pays the price” (Boston Globe), where he has never gone before.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Banks's excellent sequel to 2008's Saturday's Child, Manchester PI and ex-con Callum Innes is taking a break from the investigation business by working as a caretaker at the Lad's Club, a boxing gym run by Paulo Gray. Paulo decides to send Cal to Los Angeles with young Liam Wooley, who's fighting in an amateur bout there. Cal's not happy about going, but Paulo's the boss, so the two fly off to L.A. and into trouble. In what turns out to be a serious mistake, Cal links up with Nelson Byrne, an ex-boxer he meets in a bar. Before Liam gets to fight his final bout, Nelson's dead, Cal's been shot and Liam's been drugged and kidnapped. The writing is the real star of the book: violent, dark, funny and always profane. When a tough guy in L.A. threatens him, the unintimidated Cal replies, "I been told and warned by people who could shit you without grunting." This is the cream of contemporary British noir. (Feb.)

Kirkus Reviews

There's trouble on both sides of the pond for Manchester ex-con Cal Innes. Cal's pal Paulo has asked him to escort Liam, a young fighter he has big dreams for, to Los Angeles, where he'll box in the Alvarez amateur competition and maybe earn a shot at turning pro. Before they leave, Cal tries to do another good turn by threatening an old nemesis, Mo Tiernan, who's been sticking his nose into Paulo's business. On his arrival, Cal-dehydrated, aggrieved at surly Liam, dying for a smoke in a no-smoke zone and crippled by back spasms-takes his charge to Shapiro's gym, a boxing venue where trouble's brewing in the form of Josh Callahan and his dad, who taunt the opposition, then try bribes to win their match. Repairing to the nearest bar to wash away his back pain with pills and hooch, Cal meets up with Nelson, a trainer who convinces him he can turn Liam into a winner. But all is not well. Calls to Paulo back in Manchester aren't connected; Cal doesn't know who's on the level; Nelson is killed; Liam lands in hospital; and Cal finds himself in an LAPD interrogation room. The hard-boiled parlance so sublimely tawdry in Cal's debut (Saturday's Child, 2008) seems forced here, while the jabs at American strip malls, air conditioning and fast food rarely rise above the mundane. Consider this a step on the learning curve and hope for a better follow-up. Agent: Marc Gerald/The Agency Group