Jim Thompson
Read by Brian Troxell
Hachette Audio
March 1, 2012 / ASIN: B007FN073U
Mystery/Noir / Audiobook (unabridged) / 6 hours and 8 minutes
Amazon
Reviewed
by Jo Rogers
The Rip Off is the story of Britt Rainstar, a mixed blood
Indian who found himself in trouble through no fault of his own.
He had married Connie Bannerman, after she claimed to be pregnant.
Shortly after the marriage, Britt and Connie had a car wreck, injuring
Connie but letting Britt walk away with only a few minor scuff marks.
The old man Bannerman claimed Britt tried to kill his daughter for
the hundred-thousand-dollar insurance policy, double indemnity if
she died in an accident. Britt agreed to leave the Bannerman home
if they would pursue the charges no further.
Britt returned to the family home, a large house sitting on the
edge of an illegal garbage landfill. It was illegal in that the
garbage company had claimed imminent domain rights on Indian land
granted in perpetuity to the Rainstar family. Britt didn't take
the garbage company to court because he always took the path of
least resistance. Needless to say, he had set himself up as an easy
mark for every unscrupulous person in the world.
Thus it was that he'd no sooner contracted to write pamphlets for
a company, he got a letter from Connie, who asked him to send money
to help with her medical expenses. Her father's savings were exhausted
and it appeared she would always be an invalid. She had refused
to give him a divorce, but she never said why.
The Rip Off is a story that keeps you wondering what is
going to happen to poor Britt next as he stumbles from the frying
pan into the fire. The characters are interesting and believable,
as is the plot. In the dangerous dramas he falls into, there are
brief areas of comic relief. So, listen to The Rip Off and
learn to not be so sympathetic to every hard-luck story you hear.
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