Let me first note that Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto is not about lawyers or lawyering, other than to say that should any of the characters live long enough, most are going to need some zealous advocacy. In fact, the only lawyer to make an appearance in the novel is not a shining beacon for the profession.

Galveston is a grisly, savage, and occasionally heartfelt noir novel, telling the story of Roy Cady, who has spent his adult life as an enforcer in small-time organized crime in East Texas and Louisiana. And while antiheroes are very trendy right now, Roy Cady has an honesty and vulnerability about him doesn’t quite let the reader feel that comfortable with him. On the day that Roy finds out he has a terminal illness, his boss sends him on a job that unsettles Roy’s sense of self-preservation. During the assignment, Roy’s path intersects with that of Rocky Arceneaux, a young prostitute who finds herself in as hard a spot as Cady. Together, they flee Louisiana heading west to Galveston, where they hope to find safety.

Galveston is Nic Pizzolatto’s first novel. He is the creator of True Detective and the author of a collection of stories, Between Here and the Yellow Sea.  Pizzolatto has an affinity for stories about hard men in hard times. As an avid consumer of fiction, I can only hope that Pizzolatto’s writing career will be long and prolific. Pizzolatto’s writing has the readability and seamless dialogue of Elmore Leonard and the dark tenor of Cormac McCarthy. You can find Nic Pizzolatto’s Galveston in any format on Amazon.