The Book:
The Yards by AF Carter
Published September 28th 2021 by Mysterious Press
Guest review by Patrick Callan
Amazon | Bookshop
The Characters:
Bridget “Git” O’Rourke: A single mother trying desperately to get out of Baxter and make a better life for her and her daughter, Charlie. She’s had a rough life, and a bad track record with men. From time to time she likes to go out, have some drinks, and engage in one-night stands. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with Bradley Grieg, her companion for that night, passed out on heroin, and a bag full of money and guns. When Bradley is found murdered the next morning, and the money is gone, Git realizes that her fling has suddenly become so much more.
Delia Mariola: Chief of Detectives in Baxter, and lead on the Bradley Grieg murder case. She has a hard time believing that this mysterious woman seen on camera with Bradley could murder him, and has an even harder time believing that the Schmidts aren’t involved. On top of all this, Mariola must deal with the struggles that come with being a lesbian in a town where that is not exactly considered
Conner Schmidt: Son of Carl Schmidt, local mob boss in Baxter. When one of his associates, Bradley Grieg, is found dead, with an empty bag in his motel room, Conner’s father tasks him with finding out who stole their drug money.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Git O’Rourke is from the wrong side of the tracks—even if, in the depressed Rust Belt town of Baxter, it’s not always clear where that designation begins. A single mother, she works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while, to go to a local bar, drink martinis and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix.
When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, a bullet through its forehead, officer Delia Mariola is one of the first on the scene. She recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime—a domestic violence call—but that does little to explain how he ended up in the situation in which they find him. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.
The Twist:
Conner murdered Bradley. Sometime after Git left Bradley passed out on the bed, Conner arrived at the motel room to collect his money. However, he found Bradley high on heroin, and the money gone. This wasn’t the first time that his friend had messed up, so Conner decided to put a bullet in his head. He also later killed the motel owner and her son, due to them cooperating with the police. Scheming even further, he plants the gun in his fathers room, and uses one of Carl’s mistresses to help set him up for the murders, allowing Conner the opportunity to take over the mob business. He then sets his sights on the woman who had been seen on video leaving the bar with Bradley, and entering his motel room. Unbeknownst to Conner, it was actually the motel owner’s son who had taken the money some time between when Git left and Conner arrived. He stashed the money in his closet, where it would later be found by Lieutenant Mariola as the police investigated the two additional murders.
The Ending:
Realizing that Git is neither a murderer or a thief, and also knowing full well that Conner set his father up, Lieutenant Mariola finally tracks Git down and the two work together to bring down Conner. Git finds Conner at the bar and offers a partnership, saying that she has family out of town that are in need of drugs and willing to pay. She’ll deliver the drugs, and Conner will see the profits. Conner agrees, but while he is driving to deliver the drugs to Git, he is pulled over and arrested for possession. Realizing that Git played him, he uses his one phone call to contact his right hand man, Augie Barboza, to kill her. However, Git and her mother are prepared, and when Augie arrives at their house late at night, Git shoots him dead.
One week later, Git is preparing to leave Baxter with her mother and Charlie. She has been accepted to a job in New Jersey; a job that will also pay for her to finish her RN degree, and a job that will get her and her family out of Baxter. Before she goes, Mariola, who has recently been promoted to Chief of Police, meets with her and informs her that she may need to come back and testify against Conner Schmidt. With that said, the two say their goodbyes and Git leaves Baxter with her family, moving towards a brighter future.
The Review:
Pat is back for another guest review! Penzler Publishers was gracious enough to gift us this ARC of The Yards for his review. The following are Pat’s thoughts:
Plot pacing:
The plot is paced extremely well. Even when bouncing between the three characters, you never feel like the book is slowing down or dragging its feet.
Page turner or slow burn? Definitely a page-turner.
Plot: The plot shifted between the perspectives of the three main characters: Git, Mariola, and Conner. There were quite a few twists and turns that kept you guessing until the end. I wasn’t quite sure who killed Bradley or who took the money for quite some time.
I also enjoyed the backdrop of Baxter, a small Rust Belt town that was down on its luck even before the COVID 19 pandemic. This is the first book I’ve read that has directly mentioned the pandemic, as well as the effect it had on people, and it is used to great effect. You can feel the desperation that Git experiences trying to support not only herself and her child, but also her ill mother.
Characters:
The author did a great job of making the three characters, especially the two lead women, feel like completely different people. My one wish would be that Git and Mariola would have had more interaction. Although drastically different, they are both single mothers trying to make a living in this downtrodden town and provide for their children. The two characters don’t meet until the end of the book, which I feel was a wasted opportunity to have the two play off each other more. I also feel like the author could have gone more into Mariola’s sexuality. She briefly talks about her issues being a lesbian in a public position in a town with old-school Christian values, but I feel like she only scratches the surface. I understand that it wasn’t essential to the plot, but it would have given her even more depth.
Did you like the ending?
The ending did a fine job at wrapping up loose ends. I’m glad that Git got to play an active role in getting out of the mess that she accidentally wound up in. This is a woman who had been wronged by plenty of men in her life, so it was nice to see her have agency to take down Conner Schmidt and his right-hand man.
Writing style:
The writing style is concise and easy to follow. The author not only does a great job with the characters and their thoughts, but also in describing the town of Baxter, which is struggling with not only a drug problem, but with the effects of COVID 19.
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