Shovel Ready

November 4, 2013
A dirty bomb explosion in Times Square leaves New York City half-emptied, save for the rich and the poor, in Sternberg’s first novel, a low-rent Raymond Chandler noir told in the style of very late James Ellroy. A former sanitation worker who calls himself Spademan now makes a living as a hit man. When Spademan agrees to kill 18-year-old Grace Chastity “Persephone” Harrow for an unknown client, he seeks her out among the park-living poor. That Persephone’s father is famed evangelist T.K. Harrow, who is about to hold a revival service in Radio City Music Hall, is just one of the complications that leads Spademan into deep trouble—both virtual and real. Evidently inspired by 1980s cyberpunk and movies like Strange Days, Sternbergh, the New York Times Magazine’s culture editor, adds nothing new to a near-future scenario in which the narrator, despite his insistence on strict moral standards, is little better than the book’s bad guys. Agent: David McCormick, McCormick & Williams.

December 1, 2013

Former garbageman Spademan is a box cutter-wielding death dealer in a near future New York City decimated by car bombs and dirty bombs. Geiger counters are chic accessories for stylish youth, and jacking in to a thoroughly immersive virtual reality world is all the rage. Spademan thinks his life is simple--do the job, get paid--until his new mark turns out to be a young girl who calls herself Persephone. She's on the run from her very powerful father, and he'll do anything, and take down anyone, to get her back. Persephone's got secrets that could topple an evangelical empire, and she is determined at all costs to save herself. VERDICT First-time author Sternbergh takes a heavy dose of noir and sets it in a dystopian setting. Spademan is an unlikely yet tragic hero, and it takes a talented author to make a reader root for such a damaged and ruthless man. Lean prose is punctuated by moments of shocking violence that only serve to underscore the novel's underlying humanity, and Persephone is a shining, brutal example of the will to survive at all costs. This is a gripping genre mash-up and a stunning debut. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/13; this title was selected for Barnes & Noble's Spring 2014 Discover Great New Writers season.--Ed.]--Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX

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