A friend is a gift you give yourself : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Goodfellas meets Thelma and Louise when an unlikely trio of women in New York find themselves banding together to escape the clutches of violent figures from their pasts.

After Brooklyn mob widow Rena Ruggiero hits her eighty-year-old neighbor Enzio in the head with an ashtray when he makes an unwanted move on her, she embarks on a bizarre adventure. Taking off in Enzio's '62 Impala, she retreats to the Bronx home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and her granddaughter, Lucia, only to be turned away by Adrienne at the door. Their neighbor, Lacey "Wolfie" Wolfstein, a one-time Golden Age porn star and retired Florida Suncoast grifter, takes Rena in and befriends her.

When Lucia discovers that Adrienne is planning to hit the road with her ex-boyfriend Richie, she figures Rena's her only way out of a life on the run with a mother she can't stand. But Richie has massacred a few members of the Brancaccio crime family for a big payday, and he drags even more trouble into the mix in the form of an unhinged enforcer named Crea. The stage is set for an explosion that will propel Rena, Wolfie, and Lucia down a strange path, each woman running from something and unsure what comes next.

A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself is a screwball noir about finding friendship and family where you least expect it, in which William Boyle again draws readers into the familiar--and sometimes frightening--world in the shadows at the edges of New York's neighborhoods.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Boyle's third Brooklyn noir (after Gravesend The Lonely Witness) follows three women as they navigate perilous relationships and flee a crazed mob enforcer. Sixty-year-old Mafia widow Rena fights off a lecherous neighbor by striking him over the head with an ashtray, leaving him for dead. She then steals his mint 1962 Impala and runs to her daughter Adrienne, who refuses to let her in the house. Adrienne's boyfriend Richie has just knocked off five members of the Brancaccio crime family, absconding with half a million. Adrienne's disturbed daughter Lucia eventually winds up with the money and the chase is on. But first Rena and Lucia stumble upon former porn star Wolfstein, who's pursued by a jilted chump she scammed out of 15 large. And then comes Crea, the enforcer who gleefully pulps his victims with a hammer. VERDICT Boyle's fiction rises above the stereotypes of urban noir, not so much for the plot as for the quirky, flawed female characters with rich inner lives, the gritty dialog, and atmospheric street settings, in which authentic details abound. Offbeat humor leavens the mix and adds to the fun.-Ron Terpening, formerly of Univ. of Arizona, Tucson © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Early in this addictive hardboiled crime novel from Boyle (Gravesend), Rena Ruggiero, the widow of murdered Brooklyn mobster "Gentle Vic" Ruggiero, hits her octogenarian neighbor, Enzio, over the head with a heavy ashtray after he makes an unwanted pass at her. Thinking him dead, she takes off in Enzio's prized '62 Impala. With no real plan, she flees to the Bronx, the home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and her 15-year-old granddaughter, Lucia. When Adrienne slams the door in Rena's face, Adrienne's neighbor, con artist and retired porn star Lacey Wolfstein, invites her into her home. Meanwhile, Adrienne's ex-boyfriend, Richie Schiavano, has just killed members of a major mob family, stolen a briefcase full of cash, and plans to grab Adrienne and Lucia and run. A violent confrontation between the hapless Richie and a brutal mob enforcer ensues, and Rena, Lacey, and Lucia end up in possession of the money fleeing for their lives. Boyle skillfully mixes a classic Westlake/Leonard-style caper with the powerful tale of three women facing the ghosts of their pasts. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Boyle's follow-up to the well-received The Lonely Witness (2018) is being promoted as Goodfellas meets Thelma and Louise, and this is one bit of marketing hype that pretty much works. The novel incorporates the snappy timing of both those films, and the Elmore Leonard-like cinematic prose begs for a film adaptation. In a classic screwball-noir opening, Brooklyn Mob widow Rena Ruggiero leaves her neighbor for dead after he makes an unwanted pass, and she beans him with an ashtray, fleeing in the neighbor's most prized possession, a 1962 Chevy Impala. The wackiness continues after Rena arrives at the Bronx home of her daughter, Adrienne, only to be turned away. But here comes Adrienne's neighbor Lacey Wolfie Wolfstein, retired porn star and grifter, to the rescue, taking in Rena and her granddaughter, Lucia, who is on the outs from Adrienne. Then Adrienne is gunned down right in front of the three women, and Rena swaps the Impala for another classic car, an Eldorado belonging to Adrienne's boyfriend, Richie, who left a half-million dollars swiped from the Mob in the trunk. We knew this had to end in a road trip, and, sure enough, Rena, Wolfie, and Lucia, after piling into the Caddy, head for the fast lane, as the trio bonds out of fear and respect for each other's determination. Better floor it, Wolfie! Mob henchman Hammer Dude is on your tail. Recommend this triumph of moral ambiguity to fans of black humor, including that of Carl Hiaasen and Dennis Lehane, in addition to Leonard.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2019 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Aided by an obliging grifter, a Brooklyn grandma on the run tries to mend her relationship with her estranged grandchild as the three outrun mob goons in the latest from Boyle (The Lonely Witness, 2018, etc.).Things haven't been good for Rena Ruggeiro ever since the death of her husband, Vic, nine years ago and her realization that her daughter, Adrienne, had been running around with Vic's right-hand man, Richie Schiavano, since high school. In spite of Vic's connections, Rena's always kept her nose clean and stuck to her routine in her Bensonhurst community, beginning with Mass and McDonald's coffee every Sunday. There's no sense in Rena getting overexcited like Adrienne would. After all, Adrienne hasn't spoken to Rena ever since Rena said her piece about Richie and his quality as a partner. Now, however, Adrienne has a 15-year-old daughter, Lucia, who doesn't even know her grandmother. Rena ponders these problems but doesn't act until her pushy neighbor, Enzio, makes a move and she wallops him with an ashtray that brings him down and maybe kills him. What can she do but grab the keys to his classic Impala and high-tail it to the Bronx in the hopes that Adrienne's in a charitable mood and can help her sort things out? But Adrienne is much the same, and Rena finds herself trying to figure out her next step as she sits in the living room of Adrienne's neighbor Lacey "Wolfie" Wolfstein, a soft-core porn star-turned-con artist who's taken a shine to Lucia. All this is prologue to the real drama, a caper-inspired road story of quirky personalities on the run littered with gruesome deaths as the truth about the hit on Vic comes outalong with so much more.Deploying an inimitable tone that packs sardonic storytelling atop action and adventure, with a side of character development, Boyle's voice works even when it feels like it shouldn't. It's just the right kind of too much. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His novels include: Gravesend , which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France; The Lonely Witness , which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself , an Amazon Best Book of the Year; and, most recently, City of Margins , a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.