Publishers Weekly
Oct 15, 2007

Returning to the mean streets of South Boston, Marinick`s taut, hard-hitting second novel (after 2004`s Boyos) is the literary equivalent of getting assaulted by a gang of psychotic street thugs. Delray McCauley, a former Massachusetts state trooper, has just finished a three-year prison stint after being wrongly convicted of beating up an undercover DEA agent. Now working as a bartender in the area where he was born and raised, McCauley is equally hated by his former law enforcement comrades and by the local Southie boyos. So when he decides to help out an old friend in the Boston police department with a highly sensitive case involving a stolen safe from a prominent lawyer`s office, he unwittingly makes himself the prime target for a chilling assemblage of sadistic hit men and cop-hating gangsters. While the gritty authenticity of South Boston`s criminal underworld is an obvious highlight, it`s the spot-on characterization and dialogue as well as the subtle existentialist theme that distinguish this bloody neo-noir thriller. Fans of authors like Ken Bruen, Jason Starr and Charlie Huston are in for a treat . (Dec.)

Kirkus Reviews
Nov 1, 2007

An ex-cop/ex-con does a friend a favor that threatens to make him expendable. Delray McCauley works the bar in a South Boston bistro, and happy he is to be there. Three months ago, he was in the slammer, finishing a three-year stretch he didn`t deserve. Everyone knows stalwart, stoical McCauley was scapegoated, but he`s managed to rise above bitterness. Now his old friend, Boston PD Captain Conway Lilly, comes to him with a problem involving a stolen safe and the politically explosive CD that lawyer Edmond Cotter has imprudently stashed in it. Lilly wants McCauley to dust off the investigative talents for which he was once justly famous and employ them in Cotter`s behalf. `I`d sooner work for the Klan,` says McCauley, who detests lawyers on principle. Lilly, however, persists and eventually succeeds-mostly because McCauley, Southie born and bred, regards friendship as a high calling in his good old neighborhood. Having signed on, McCauley is soon in harm`s way. Old enemies recalling old wounds relish fresh opportunities for payback. On the other hand, there`s the undeniable pleasure of being back in harness—and finally, when he least expects it, the heady reward of vindication. Though this follow-up lacks the force and dark atmospherics of Marinick`s impressive debut (Boyos, 2004), the solid storytelling will hook you and keep you.

USA Today
Sep 9, 2004

This gritty tale of South Boston street gangs comes from the voice of experience. This first-time author ran with the Southie gangs as a youth and learned to write in prison. Not for the faint of heart, BOYOS is the story of the brutish Curran brothers. Their cold-blooded plottings and run-ins with rival gangs are slightly tempered by their occasional doubts about street life. BOYOS has the feel of a cult classic. - Carole Memmott

Boston Globe
Oct 11, 2004

South Boston isn`t hell, but it can get hot. Alongside all the families that have peaceably occupied its triple-deckers for generations lurks another kind of South Boston native — the `boyos,` or tough guys, whom Richard Marinick chronicles in his merciless and engaging debut. Their South Boston is a small town run by one man, crime boss Marty Fallon. And for two brothers, Kevin and Jack `Wacko` Curran, who want to step out on their own, the streets that run off Old Colony, East Broadway, and Dorchester Avenue are very short, very crowded, and very, very dangerous. In Marinick`s adrenaline-fueled adventure - more of an action thriller than a mystery - the Currans are the closest thing to heroes this South Boston knows. Wacko, especially, is trying to do right: working hard to keep his younger brother, Kevin, from getting busted or snorting his way into their coke profits, and also to develop his own business. That this business involves a mix of crimes ranging from drug dealing (the brothers` bread-and-butter) to armed robbery is a given in a world that regards `workin` stiffs` as fools and patsies, as is the kind of violence that brings a hammer down on an elbow or a knee more often than on a nail. It`s a world Marinick knows well. A resident of South Boston, the author served 10 years in state prison as part of an armored car and bank robbery ring, and his intimate knowledge of this local underworld gives the characters and their language a stunning realism. Even minor players, those who circle the Currans` seemingly rising star, shine with clarity, their language approaching street poetry. Take, for example, the musings of Mary Rose O`Connell, a local girl who dreams of leaving the projects and sees her work as one of the Currans` street-level coke dealers as the way out. `No more eating welfare cheese and hearing the next-door neighbors argue so close you could almost smell the Budweiser on their breath,` she says to herself. `All she had to do was keep moving.` That some of these minor characters will end up as collateral damage is another given in this milieu, where wakes or memorial `times` are regular events. Nor does it appear to dissuade potential recruits. In fact, the sole local person who remains unimpressed by the Currans` occupation is the beautiful Elaine Ramsey, who is putting herself through college. It`s not only the women who have goals in the South Boston of BOYOS. The Currans are part of Fallon`s unofficial crew, working most of their jobs for him and paying him a percentage, the `Fallon tax,` on their outside activities. Wacko dreams of leaving Fallon`s orbit, and when the brothers pull off one heist and begin planning another without the big man`s involvement, the plot heats up. Although the concept of loyalty is much bandied about, this small world is filled with informers, and it doesn`t take long for Fallon to hear of the brothers` activities. An unnamed snitch may also be leaking information about the two to the FBI, and when the Currans` plans take them outside of their usual hunting grounds and into the North End, they end up raising the ire of the Italian mob as well. With all these explosive elements combining in one small neighborhood, confrontations are inevitable, and in the best hard-boiled fashion, Marinick doesn`t shy away from having characters, even major ones, maimed and killed in horribly graphic scenes. With so much violence and some truly unlikable characters, it is a tribute to Marinick`s skillful pacing and dead-on visceral language that the reader remains engaged. Both are key to keeping the complicated story lines clear. The FBI and informant meets, Fallon`s struggle to retain control, Mary Rose`s career trajectory, and Elaine`s subtle battle for Wacko`s soul are only a few of the clearly distinguished sidelines that parallel the Currans` own adventures. If at first some of these minor stories - such as the anonymous FBI conversations - come across as flat due to lack of detail, such omissions end up playing into the plot, and are largely righted by the book`s end. At times, in fact, BOYOS could do with less detail. Although the local color sets the scene for Marinick`s complicated world, we don`t need every place passed on every drive named, or such details as `after waving two cars and a bus along, he crossed the street.` Such space would have been better used on the one weakly drawn character, Elaine, who never loses her halo to become a full-fledged person. She`s the good girl, sure, but she feels some connection to Wacko, as well as some loyalty to Southie. As she sees her old friend - and her old neighborhood - get drawn into escalating violence, she must be experiencing a bit of inner turmoil. If not, such cool would have been instructive as well. These are minor quibbles, however, and easily passed over by the reader, who will be carried along at breakneck speed by Marinick`s headstrong and often doomed players as they set out to make their names in their criminal community. For Boston-area readers at least somewhat familiar with the slang and the locale, BOYOS offers a shiver-inducing peek into a criminal community. Nationally, this book may serve as an antidote, finally, to the fake bonhomie of `Cheers.` In this Boston, to have everyone know your name is not necessarily a good thing. - Clea Simon