Every Man a Menace

Hoffman follows his well-received debut, 2014’s The White Van, with an unrelentingly grim noir set in San Francisco that explores the violent underside of the drug trade from a variety of overlapping perspectives. The first section, which is the best, introduces small-time criminal Raymond Gaspar, who’s about to complete a four-year prison term that was the upshot of his arrest for possession of crystal meth and trying to sell a stolen boat. After Raymond’s release, Arthur, a power broker who “could make a call to the Black Guerilla Family or the Aryan Brotherhood and get action from either group,” turns to him for help. Arthur still has his hand in selling Ecstasy, but he’s not comfortable with the middlemen he’s been working with. He asks Raymond to get to know both Gloria Ocampo, who brings the narcotic into San Francisco, and her buyer, Shadrack Pullman, so that Raymond can protect Arthur’s interests. Though the format and basic story line are nothing new, Hoffman, a private investigator, makes his version feel real. [em]Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. (Oct.) [/em]