Tuesday, August 25, 2009

How to Rob an Armored Car-Iain Levinson

How to Rob an Armored Car
Iain Levinson
Soho, Oct 1 2009, $15.00
ISBN: 9781569475997

In Pennsylvania Mitch Alden manages an Accu-mart store; he also struggles with the stress and poverty level wages by buying weed to numb the work. However, his purchase fails to help this time as he becomes introspective wondering why he would spend his last money on getting high in order to get through his shift.

Mitch needs a new source of income to pay for his numbing devicers: beer and drugs. He persuades two friends, married father Kevin and Doug who is having an affair with his buddy’s wife to help heist a TV from the store. The three feel a natural high, which encourages the planner of the trio Mitch to go for something more expensive. However, the gang who can’t walk straight (nod to Jimmy Breslin) fail at swiping a Ferrari from a doctor, but become teammates with him trying to sell his Oxycontin hoard. That is half of an afternoon as Mitch and his buds dream of the million dollar deal.

Timely with the economic recession, HOW TO ROB AN ARMORED CAR is a tense yet amusing crime thriller as working class slackers go after the American dream by stealing their way to wealth only doing it the lower middle class way through hard core robberies. The story line is character driven mostly by the three amigos but also to a lesser degree their new business partner. Fans will enjoy Iain Levinson’s entertaining look at DOG EAT DOG working class capitalists.

Harriet Klausner

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