Sandhogs: A Novel

Sandhogs: A Novel

The New York City underworld in the boomtown 1980s: land values are skyrocketing; new buildings are going up on every block; fortunes are being made overnight—and extorted in the morning. On the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, both the Mafia and the feds are moving in on the construction rackets, for now in Irish hands. In the Irish mob’s intensifying power struggle, an internecine war ignites in the back rooms and broad daylight of the neighborhood. At the center of the struggle are the Adare brothers: Paddy, a failed boxer turned mob henchman who never left the streets he grew up on; and Billy, a college graduate briefly working in the tunnels as a sandhog before entering law school to pursue the American dream—brothers divided by everything but their powerful blood-tie. Now, as their paths converge on familiar streets in a crossfire of greed, treachery, and violence, their loyalties—to family, friends, neighborhood, and, most important, each other—will be put to a brutal test. "A good, tough guy ending... Kelly knows how the palaver goes in the kind of bar that doesn't have ferns, the boozy, unchanging gab about sports, women, and the System that defines the deep, edgy pessimism of blue-collar men." -- Time "A tough talking tale about two Irish-American brothers... Mobsters, union troubles, and a female FBI agent also play a part in this well-received novel." -- USA Today "Powerful...a solidly realistic slice of a violent nether world and the seriously outgunned forces resisting it." -- The New York Times "Stunning . . . A righteous, teeming, hot-blooded novel of betrayal, retribution, and passion." -- James Ellroy "Tom Kelly proves he knows New York like his own skin. He might laugh if you called him a poet but that he is. His prose is hard and heartbreaking and the talk of his characters will echo a long time. It is the talk of men and women who have to keep face and if there is love they'll utter it with an obscenity. Payback is Tom Kelly's New York, a great book to read more than once." -- Frank McCourt "Stunning . . . A righteous, teeming, hot-blooded novel of betrayal, retribution, and passion." "A tough talking tale about two Irish-American brothers... Mobsters, union troubles, and a female FBI agent also play a part in this well-received novel." "Tom Kelly proves he knows New York like his own skin. He might laugh if you called him a poet but that he is. His prose is hard and heartbreaking and the talk of his characters will echo a long time. It is the talk of men and women who have to keep face and if there is love they'll utter it with an obscenity. Payback is Tom Kelly's New York, a great book to read more than once." "A good, tough guy ending... Kelly knows how the palaver goes in the kind of bar that doesn't have ferns, the boozy, unchanging gab about sports, women, and the System that defines the deep, edgy pessimism of blue-collar men." Thomas Kelly is the author of three novels set in New York City. Born in New York, Kelly spent ten years as a construction worker and sandhog--working in the subway tunnels beneath the city--before attending Fordham University and Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in public administration. Kelly parlayed his experience in union politics into a job as an advance man for the campaign of New York mayor David Dinkins, an experience which would form the basis for some of his fiction. Kelly began writing in the mid-1990’s, and published his debut, Payback , in 1997. A gritty look at the overlap between construction and the mafia, it was critically acclaimed and adapted to film by David Mamet. Kelly’s other works are The Rackets , Sandhogs , and Empire Rising , a historical novel about the construction of the Empire State Building. In a voice accustomed to ordering men around, he said, "I told you the last time, I got no business with you." He punctuated his sentence with a thick forefinger in Paddy's chest. Paddy nodded and held up his right hand, palm toward the contractor, as if to say, No problem, then came around hard with the left hook, catching the guy with a nice kidney shot, driving through four inches of love handle to land it. The punch brought the contractor to his knees, his face going green and scared. Paddy leaned over to him. "I got your fuckin' attention?" In a voice accustomed to ordering men around, he said, "I told you the last time, I got no business with you." He punctuated his sentence with a thick forefinger in Paddy's chest. Paddy nodded and held up his right hand, palm toward the contractor, as if to say, No problem, then came around hard with the left hook, catching the guy with a nice kidney shot, driving through four inches of love handle to land it. The punch brought the contractor to his knees, his face going green and scared. Paddy leaned over to him. "I got your fuckin' attention?" Used Book in Good Condition