The Get

A Crime Novel

by Dietrich Kalteis

tagged: crime, historical

Description

“If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you.” — Globe and Mail

A surefire plan that will end his marital and money problems in one swoop … what could go wrong?

Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets, and his wife, Paulina, has become a liability. His life would be so much better without her in it.

It’s the mid-’60s in Toronto, and Lenny works for a ruthless gangster whose travel agency is a front for a collections racket in the Kensington Market area. Lenny’s days are spent with his partner, Gabe, terrorizing the locals into paying protection on their shops and their lives. On the side, Lenny and Gabe co-own a tenement block that they bought with dirty money borrowed from shady individuals. Overextended, Lenny plans to pay them back with more borrowed money from other loans and by re-mortgaging his house, without the knowledge of his wife.

Tired of his lies and scheming, Paulina demands a divorce. Lenny is certain she’s going to take him for everything, leaving him unable to pay the debt on the tenement block. And that’s likely to get him pitched off one of his own rooftops. Lenny would rather get than be gotten, so he comes up with a surefire way to end both his marital and money problems — Paulina’s going to have to get whacked.

About the Author

Dietrich Kalteis

Excerpt

Two years of marriage and Lenny Ovitz was thinking of tying a different kind of knot — the one around his sweet angel’s neck. Not something most guys think about back when they’re saying their vows.

His Galaxie 500 sat parked the next street over, Lenny kept eyes across the tiny park, past the kids’ swings and slide between him and their house, hoping to catch her coming out. Finger and thumb spinning his wedding band around the ring finger, replaying the rabbi’s words: “Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring …”

Talking to a sleazy lawyer about a divorce, Paulina was wanting to take Lenny to the cleaners, and he was guessing she had another man in the shadows. The reason he was parked there, hoping to catch her. Saying to himself, “Yeah, and I’m the bad guy.”

It crossed his mind to save the time in court and the money on a lawyer. Be easier to just fix her: a car coming out of nowhere, or a mugging gone wrong. Or work up an alibi, then face her himself with his .32 and do it straight up. Yeah, he could do it, then sit shiva, put in the seven days. Move back into the house, lug the old recliner from the rafters, put it back in front of the Zenith, pull the side handle and up’d go his feet. Then hit the Bakelite buttons on the clicker.

No dividing the assets, and no hearing her kvetch how the chair’s green vinyl didn’t go with the room, or pointing her finger at the circles he left on the coffee table. The porch light came on, something she did every time she left the house, and he lifted the Minolta by the strap, focused the telephoto and watched her through the lens.

Setting the camera on the passenger seat, feeling irked for wasting his time, guessing by the outfit she was heading to the club to play her goddamn tennis. The ladies’ club champ two years running — the woman with too much time on her hands — and Lenny paying the crazy membership fees so she could play with club pros who looked like Manuel Santana.

Starting his engine, he eased the Galaxie away. Thinking of her with some other guy, something that pissed him off. He’d been thinking if he could prove it, it would come in handy in the divorce proceedings. Now, he figured he’d skip all that, but he wanted to hear her deny it. Maybe he’d catch her, show her the snapshot, then plug her and maybe Manuel too.

Putting it from his mind, thinking he had time for a couple of collections before meeting his partner, Gabe Zoller, at the tenements near St. James Town, the new dumping ground for the poor. The slum block the two of them had bought, catching wind that the city was going to rezone for high-rises — Paulina not knowing anything about it — Lenny thinking of his own future, the extortion business not what it used to be.

Contributor Notes

Dietrich Kalteis is the winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He is a critically acclaimed author of ten novels. Dietrich’s debut was hailed as one of Vancouver’s best crime novels, his second was translated and became a bestseller in Germany, and two others have won Independent Publisher Awards. He enjoys life with his family on Canada’s West Coast.

Editorial Review

“Smooth plotting, vivid characters, and sharp dialogue (especially from the rough-edged leads) bolster this darkly comic story, which Kalteis shepherds to a hugely satisfying conclusion. Fans of Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos will find much to enjoy.” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“Joyfully reminiscent of Elmore Leonard’s writing, The Get is not only whip-smart funny with crackling dialogue and memorable characters, but it’s also a propulsive read full of twists and turns I never saw coming. I absolutely loved it!” — Daniel Kalla, international bestselling author of The Darkness in the Light and Pandemic

“Clipped and black, The Get rips along with hard-boiled precision. This is Canadian noir.” — Tara Moss, International bestselling author of The War Widow and The Ghosts of Paris

“Beautifully written in jagged, bruising rhythms, Dietrich Kalteis’s The Get crackles with poetic dialogue, desperate cold-blooded thugs, and an airtight plot that twists into a perfect knot. Inevitable and perfect. Highest rating.” — James W. Ziskin, award-winning author of Bombay Monsoon and the Ellie Stone mysteries

“The Get —unpretentious, seamlessly plotted, dripping with atmosphere —The Get is sure fire entertainment for fans of high-octane crime fiction from an author who knows how to get the job done.” — The Miramichi Reader

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