Ricky 'Ghost' Mendoza, Jr. is trying to be good. Working as a freelance safecracker for any government agency willing to pay him, Ghost is determined to live clean for the rest of his days. And maybe he could, if the most important person in his life hadn't gotten into serious financial trouble. To fix it, Ghost has to crack a safe and steal drug money from under the noses of the gangs and the Feds without getting caught. Or killed.
Rudy 'Glasses' Reyes runs drugs and cleans up messes for the baddest of bad men. When Ghost hits one of his safes, Glasses must hunt him down or be held accountable. But Glasses is worried about more than just money. The heist puts everything in his life at risk - his livelihood, his freedom, even his family.
About the Author
Ryan Gattis is a writer & educator. He is the author of Kung Fu and All Involved, which won the American Library Association's Alex Award & the Lire Award for Noir of the Year in France. Gattis lives and writes in Los Angeles, where he is a member of the street art crew UGLAR works & a founding board member of 1888, a Southern California literary arts non-profit.
Industry Reviews
No ordinary gangster cat-and-mouse chase . . . While the gangsters-with-a-heart story might sound improbable, Gattis compensates with whip-smart vernacular and a narrative that zips along. Gattis has created a gripping novel about opportunity, transformation and hope. * Observer * A literary novel and a thriller with more twists than a DVD box-set make quite a combination. There is a lathed quality to Ryan Gattis's prose, which is reminiscent of Raymond Carver or Ernest Hemingway. Gattis is superb with the staccato sentence, honed to a few words. I have previously been enthusiastic about Gattis's polyphonic All Involved; this duet shows he is as assured on a closer frame. * The Scotsman * Inherently compelling. This macho, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet novel benefits from the extensive research Gattis has done on the L.A. gang scene and that deep knowledge informs electrifying plot twists. * Time * Ryan Gattis has a feel for street slang and nimble characterisation. A bobby-dazzler of a thriller. * Metro * Combining All Involved's facility for tenderness in the midst of stories of brutality, Safe is the perfect read to have in your suitcase * GQ * Engrossing ... Gattis's refreshingly smart characters doggedly try to do the right thing in this satisfying upbeat tale of the drug world. * Publisher's Weeekly * SAFE is a propulsive thriller that confirms Ryan Gattis as one of our most gifted novelists. The book has unstoppable momentum yet is as finely layered and detailed with the gritty truth of life and the streets as I've ever read. It shoots you down a path that is fraught with surprise and insight, and you can't ask for more than that. -- Michael Connelly, creator of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series. Safe is an immensely satisfying crime thriller, but it is also a deeply moving novel about one flawed man's attempt to create good in a corrupt world. Ryan Gattis has a great ear for the patois of the street, and he reminds us that in 21stcentury America the worst predators often wear suits and work in offices. -- Ron Rash, author of Serena Without glamorizing his subject, there's a lyricism in the vernacular and street language that makes it hard not to be moved * GQ * A thrilling heist novel with a big beating heart -- Paula Hawkins, author of Girl on the train
