K. C. Frederick

Ziggy Czarnecki was a numbers runner, a highly successful one in Detroit in its hay day. But something, someone fingered him, the police broke up his operation and now years later he hears a rumor about who the rat was that turned him in.
Przybylski, the local undertaker, now lives in California and Ziggy wants to find out if he is really the one, the one who took away his easy life. So Ziggy heads west on a Greyhound bus and on the way meets up with characters who change his life.
An interesting, never flagging, trip/… (more)

This is an average story about an average man with an average past. Writing and pacing? Both average. In other words, there's nothing particularly wrong with this novel. The problem is, there's also nothing particularly right.

As a protagonist, Alan just doesn't hold up the weight of the novel--he ponders and worries and wonders and regrets and wishes...but he doesn't do much else, and none of those wanderings are all that interesting or unique. Just as problematically, we don't see enough about his current life to care about it, or enough of his relationships to really have any feeling for him as a father or as a part of society. Similarly, a lack of focus to the narrative makes each subplot as important to the next--after all, there's no single plot to focus on in determining where the tension Should be.

And, perhaps that's the crux of the problem. What conflict exists is imagined by Alan--and, perhaps most importantly, the reader can tell that the conflict is imagined, and that little or nothing is actually at stake. Perhaps, maybe, Frederick's point is that nothing at all happens in Alan's life...but, one way or another, the nothing happening in this novel was not enough to keep me interested, and I've really no real reason to recommend this book on. I wouldn't pick up anything else by Frederick either, I'm afraid.… (more)

This is an interesting little book. Set in the early 70's it centers around Ziggy who back in the day was the top numbers man in Detroit. The police broke up his operation and all his associates went to jail. Ziggy didn't but might as well have because his life never really recovered from that time. Now he's heading to California to confront the man who might have ratted him out. Along the way he meets some colorful characters and faces some truths about his life. This is a very atmospheric novel that does a great job of capturing the times. It took me a while to decide whether I like it or not but in the end I decided I do.… (more)