MysteryPeople Pick for November: Ranchero by Rick Gavin
Review by MP Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott M.
“The Delta is different” is a repeated phrase in Ranchero, Nick Gavin’s rollicking debut. He proves that statement time and again in a crime adventure with a satirical bent that takes us through a Mississippi that makes Carl Hiassen’s Florida seem normal.
The story itself is relatively simple. Most of it could have been the plot for a ’70s Southern exploitation movie with young a Burt Reynolds and Warren Oates. It starts when Nick Reid gets cold cocked by a shovel when he tries to repossess the TV of one Percy Duane Dubious, who takes his watch, wallet, and cell phone. If that’s not enough, Percy takes the Ranchero wagon Nick borrowed from his landlady and lets out of town with his wife, Cissy, and their baby. With the help of his hulking African American buddy, Desmond, Nick hits the road to get it back. Soon the two friends get drawn into a touchy triangle between Percy, Cissy, and a very violent meth supplier.
Ranchero shows off two of Gavin’s gifts. He has the ability to use a lot of humor without lessening the impact of the violence. Like Elmore Leonard and Joe R Lansdale, he does this by grounding the story in his colorful, weird, yet believable characters. A lot of the wit comes from Nick’s observations of the Delta, and it’s the great feel of the place that also make it a winning novel. From yuppies in converted slave shacks, to the intricacies of male Southern honor, to comparisons of Sonics from town to town, Gavin gives a fun, action packed tour through the new South with plenty of grit and grease. If only Burt were still young enough for the movie version.
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