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Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko have been friends since grade school in Piqua.
Burned out on careers providing tech-support for Dayton area computer users, they set out in Romeo’s rattletrap car for Florida.
As “Ravens,” the new novel by George Dawes Green, opens the friends are headed south. Romeo is driving “when a raccoon or possum ran in front of the car. The impact was disturbingly gentle. No thud — just a soft unzipping, beneath the chassis. Still, it tore at Romeo’s heart. He braked and pulled over.”
This is our first clue that Romeo is the sentimental one. Green flashes back to their days growing up in Piqua. They have an unequal relationship. Shaw is in charge — Romeo’s the willing accomplice.
Their clunker car makes it to Georgia and “Shaw was roasting to death. So feeble the a.c. in this ’91 Tercel that he had to leave the windows open or die. Though the air that came in was as hot as jet exhaust, so he was dying anyway.”
Romeo is fast asleep. Shaw notices the car pulling to the left. He exits to find a gas station. Is it a faulty bearing? Shaw hopes “maybe they could ignore it. Just nurse it as far as Key West and then sell it (the plan was to hire out on fishing boats and work their way to Trinidad and never return to their zombie jobs at Dayton Techworld).”
This stop in Brunswick, Ga., changes the plan. Shaw overhears a convenience store clerk on the phone. Did a local family just win a huge lottery jackpot? He hears her saying “nobody even knew this was the store! It hasn’t been announced yet! And they buy tickets here all the time.”
Shaw’s eavesdropping piques his greed — he hears enough information about the lottery winners to take action. They check into a cheap motel. Shaw does research on his laptop. He Googles the winning family. Bingo — jackpot.
Meanwhile the Boatwrights, the lottery winners, are playing it cool, laying low. Their winning ticket is locked away and they have not filed a claim yet for their winnings. This gives Shaw time to hatch his plot to steal half of the jackpot of more than $318 million.
“Ravens” is a marvelous yarn. Green has created a cast of characters that is truly memorable. Mr. Boatwright is deeply religious. Mrs. Boatwright is an alcoholic with fantasies of spending their prize on a mansion in Malibu. Their young son is a brat who spends all day playing computer games.
The Boatwright’s daughter Tara becomes the central character — she holds the story together. The real scene stealer is Nell, Tara’s widowed grandmother. As Shaw’s dark extortion plot unfolds it is Nell who provides welcome comic relief.
“Ravens” poses the question: How far would you be willing to go to steal $100 million (after taxes)? These boys from Piqua give it a shot. Fasten your seat belts.
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 7/26/09; 5:06:02 PM
from the dept.
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