Calumet City

By: Charlie Newton

Narrated by: Eliza Foss

Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Among the most self-assured and sharply crafted debuts in recent years, Calumet City detonates a Molotov cocktail of character-driven suspense and ghetto-Chicago intrigue.

Meet Patti Black, the most decorated cop in Chicago. On her ghetto beat, Patti Black redefines the word badass. But her steel-plated exterior - solitary, stoic, loveless - belies the wrenching legacy of her orphaned childhood. Haunted by the horrifying abuse she suffered at the hands of her foster parents, Patti Black sublimates past torments into a meticulously maintained tough-gal persona.

When a series of unrelated cases - a drug bust gone bad, a mayoral assassination attempt, the murder of a state attorney, the exhumation of a long-concealed body from a tenement basement wall -- all point in Patti Black's direction, she finds herself facing the dark truth: You can't hide from your history, no matter how far into the fog you run. For Patti Black, that history didn't die in the tenement wall; it's alive -- and riding her down.

In researching this electrifying thriller, Charlie Newton rode in the squad car with real-life street cop Patti Black. The result is a powerful fiction debut that captures the precise emotional landscape of one cop's hard-bitten life in the trenches. This first-time author joins that rare breed whose fiction is suffused with profound authenticity

©2008 Charlie Newton (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An atmospheric shocker...Newton certainly has all the hallmarks and above all the classic noir tone -- urban and nocturnal, stealthy and smoky, grim determination doing its two-step with gallows humor." (Chicago Sun Times)
"The best cop noir in years." (Lee Child)

SHOOT ME, PLEASE! PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY.

Lee Child should be much more careful as to whom he attaches his star. The actual 15 or so hours it took to get through this dog felt a lot like 61.....days. The inmates are certainly running this asylum. I do not know where to begin, as this book is so flawed, so poorly written and ineptly edited that I surprised myself by getting through it.
Newton has taken a tired old premise and filled it chock full of implausible, undeveloped characters, all the while beating a psychoses laden drum at a pace that would put Ginger Baker to shame. If a crescendo, per Webster, is the peak of a gradual increase, what then is a prolonged peak taken ad nauseam.
For a bit I thought it was intended to be a parody of sorts, Mad Max meets Lethal Weapon MCMLCVIII meets methamphetamine hydrochloride directed by David Lynch. A multi-dialectic scream-fest with unbelievable characters which included a gratuitous member or two of an obscure tribe of Native Americans. A kind of Wayne's World does lesbian Cops and Robbers shoot-em-up. And Guilt by the bucketful with a pinch of sports fan.
Even Reacher would have caught the first bus out of town after getting an earful of Ms. Black (aka Wonder-Woman). Lee, you should read these things before signing your reputation away.

Horrorable

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A better writer. I've been listening for years to Audible books and this has been the worst I've been subjected too.

Would you ever listen to anything by Charlie Newton again?

NO

EXCELLENT! HE GOT THE STREETS RIGHT!

I grew up and was a journalist for 25 years in Chicago. I've read all Chicago literature. He's one of the best ones to come along. Can't wait for his next book--Denise DeClue

Poor choice

I bought this audiobook solely on Lee Child's recommendation. I love Lee Child's novels, This seems to about sum up why most of us bought this book. I won't finish it.... too bad. I might try a short read at the local book store just to see if the reader made it worse.

Gripping, fast paced, a surprise around evey corner! I'll be looking for more Eliza Foss!

Gripping, fast paced, a surprise around evey corner! I'll be looking for more Eliza Foss!

Don't Bother

Would you try another book from Charlie Newton and/or Eliza Foss?

No, I would not buy another. The writing is too mannered, the performance reflects that by being 'breathess'. If I hadn't needed a book to relieve a long journey, I'd have quit after one hour.

Has Calumet City turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just from this author and this performer.

Would you be willing to try another one of Eliza Foss’s performances?

No,

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story was interesting, despite the poor writing and poor reading.

ugghh

What disappointed you about Calumet City?

i gave it one star for effort. narration was terrible. Hoping the book was the issue.

Sick downer.

Wish I could un-listen-to this. The story never had a payoff. It was a sick downer.

Get a new Technical advisor on Police

What disappointed you about Calumet City?

These officers have so much baggage they could not get hired by a Columbian Police Department.

What was most disappointing about Charlie Newton???s story?

First person narrative that dwell on the minutia is wearing.

What didn???t you like about Eliza Foss???s performance?

Way too dramatic for the subject and location.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Calumet City?

Rewrite the entire scen on Ronnies mothers pourch. Running through the cemetary at night having flashbacks of her previous life.

Any additional comments?

I know that police departments have had to lower their hiring standards but it seems that almost everyone one of these characters have issues that would prohibit them from being certified as police officers in Illinois. While Chicago PD has problems the majority of the officers are squired away professionals not dangerous mental cases. If Officer Black could have somehow gotten hired after all the stuff in her background she would never have lasted 17 years on the street in any major police department. Why can???t authors make normal people be cops that are interesting heroes?

Pretty Rough

Rough story, graphic and dark. I found it too dark and disturbing to be enjoyable. The Reading was good and the characterization was gripping but the story did no leave me with any feel-good factor at all.