Dirty White Boys | Stephen Hunter | Fantastic cop thriller

Dirty White Boys | Stephen Hunter | This will not convince you.

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Dirty White Boys

	Dirty White Boys Stephen Hunter Island Books, 1995 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

They busted out of McAlester State Penitentiary--three escaped convicts going to ground in a world unprepared for anything like them....

Lamar Pye is prince of the Dirty White Boys.  With a lion in his soul, he roars--for he is the meanest, deadliest animal on the loose....
Odell is Lamar's cousin, a hulking manchild with unfeeling eyes.  He lives for daddy Lamar.  Surely he will die for him....
Richard's survival hangs on a sketch: a crude drawing of a lion and a half-naked woman.  For this Lamar has let Richard live...

Armed to the teeth, Lamar and his boys have cut a path of terror across the Southwest, and pushed one good cop into a crisis of honor and conscience.  Trooper Bud Pewtie should have died once at Lamar's hands.  Now they're about to meet again.  And this time, only one of them will walk away....

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Fantastic cop thriller

I'd read several of Stephen Hunter's Earl Lee Swagger novels lately. One was a real turkey, the others were okay. But at the basck of my mind, I sort of remembered that Hunter had done some really fine work, so I went back to reread "Dirty White Boys", one of his early works.

What an adventure! Hunter in his prime was at the top of the heap in this police thriller.

Bud Pewtie is in his late forties, married, two teenage kids - and he's messing around with a rookie Oklahoma state trooper's 26 year old wife, a trooper Bud had mentored during his probationary period.

Bud is dealing with the malaise of growing old, the guilt of sneaking around with a woman young enough to b his daughter and the recognition that his best days are most likely behind him.

Lamar Pye, on the other hand, is a lion among men, which may not be all that great an honor if the men around you are fellow inmates in the McAlester State Penitentiary.

It's a rough place, but Lamar has been in prison for more of his years than out of it. For the most part, no one messes with him or his mentally deficient cousin, Odell - until one day when Junior Jefferson "wins" the "right" to have sex with Lamar for a month.

A shower room fight persuades Lamar to take Odell and their other very cowardly cellmate, Richard Peed, an aspiring artist whose single act of violence has brought him into this living hell.

Just getting out kills three people and Lamar on the run is no one to be trifled with.

The hunt for Lamar and Bud Pewtie's involvement is the stuff of cop thriller masterpieces - and "Dirty White Boys" is one of them. The action is non-stop and finishing one page is only the immediate prelude to reading the next.

Lamar Pye and Bud Pewtie have their archetypes in the Old West and Hunter brilliantly plays out the theme of the dedicated toug-as-nails Western lawman against the smart, ruthless amoral outlaw.

Great stuff. Much better than Hunter's curent work. I'm glad I paid it another visit.

Jerry

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This will not convince you.

I love to read. But if the book does not grab me from the first couple pages, back it goes.
Simply and ignorantly put, without all the details, I can surely say that this is one of, if not the best books
I have ever read. I know!!!!! Not very helpful. But ya just gotta read it!!!!!!!!

Dirty White Boys

I was notified by the seller that the book was no longer available. I notified her that I appreciated the follow up and even though she could not fill my order, I would still do business with her in the future.

super novel

Inside the mind of a brilliant sociopath....why would any of us want to go there? Perhaps to understand , or try to understand, what normal people cannot even imagine. Nature vs nurture......this is an exciting book but sad and morose as well. Sad that humans who can be so much can also be so little, so terrible. you absolutely MUST read this book prior to reading Black Light!!!!!! No exceptions now y'all hear? Point of Impact would be a good prequel too.....POI, then DWB, than and only then Black Light. Keep em in order and you'll enjoy ( and understand) em all the more.

And, and, and......how can a society not preemptively care for its' "baby Odells". There is sadness in this great novel. You better be prepared to get slapped by some of it if you're an empathic person such as this reviewer.

eek....my liberal side is leaking out again.......

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Tough, hard-core crime fiction

This was my first Stephen Hunter novel. I have been frustrated by the lack of edgy, tough genre fiction out there to match Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, James Ellroy, Robert Crais, Andrew Vachss, James Lee Burke and others I've read and enjoyed. Too often, crime/genre fiction just seems too implausible to hold my attention.

Stephen Hunter is a good find.

Dirty White Boys is worthy of comparison to the work of the above list of genre authors and even the work of other writers like Harry Crews.

I loved Dirty White Boys, but it is not for the faint-of-heart or squeamish. It can even be downright depressing at times. The antagonist, rapist-robber-thief-murderer Lamar Pye, is a violent but crafty sociopath, and Hunter does a great job of detailing the inner workings of the career criminal's psyche and his survive-at-all-costs ethic. The protagonist, Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer Bud Pewtie, is admirable but also has many character flaws. He is sympathetic because of his determination and bravery, but he is not that admirable otherwise. He struggles with many issues (cheating on his wife, making time for his family, turning his battle with Lamar Pye into a personal vendetta) and he often gives in to his worst impulses rather than taking the high road. In a way, both Lamar Pye and Bud Pewtie are mirrors of one another -- they are both hard, determined men who can't help but give in to their impulses; but Pewtie is tormented by his conscience. Lamar Pye has no conscience. Pewtie adheres to a "law and order" morality. Lamar Pye adheres only to his own whims for destruction and domination.

There are very few redeeming characters in this novel (one of the detectives on the case is a wily but bitter old drunk, the head of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is a politician, Bud's wife is loyal but mercurial, the other criminals are dastardly or cowardly, etc.). This gives the book a dark feel, especially considering all of the violence in the novel.

Nevertheless, it is great genre fiction. The tension never lets up, with Hunter placing each of the characters under constant duress. He stretches it out a little too much towards the end, but if you like your hard-boiled fiction hard, then you'll like this.

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