Darlington
by Tripsy South
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Pub Date Nov 01 2019 | Archive Date Nov 08 2019
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Description
"Killing Eve invades Old Florida."
Tommy Darlington is one hot mess: a former US Army Airborne Ranger who walks through life as a closet anxiety-depressive. He’s also the largest distributor of pimp body parts in the good State of Florida, but only one man knows his secret.
Sarasota's de facto hit man works for Tampa Bay's hidden hand, the secret billionaires who conduct their dirty business well behind the black curtain, and who have no issue killing anyone who gets in the way of their illegal business activities, including innocent citizens.
Over time, Darlington discovers disturbing facts about his bosses, even well beyond his own Code of Deathics and sizable body count, and begins to grow an itchy conscience that only an industrial cheese grater can scratch off.
Now on a personal mission to clean up Tampa Bay, he encounters all that is evil and crooked, forever trying to bend it into a righteous path for good people to respect and follow.
Still, you don’t ever want to find yourself in Darlington’s crosshairs or on the business end of his blade.
Darlington is a clever and gripping story for those who love the taste and smell of Old Florida, wrapped up in a lifelike suspense/thriller.
A Note From the Publisher
Darlington is the first book in the Tommy Darlington series of Old Florida novels. Stay tuned for Silladar, launching in June 2020.
Advance Praise
A hit man finds no easy career exit in this Florida thriller.
Sunny Sarasota starkly contrasts with South’s (Suicide Tango, 2019, etc.) dark story, in which titular character Tommy Darlington works as a well-paid assassin hired by “unforgiving men with silent billions.”
A former Army ranger and low-profile artist, Tommy initially has no problem with the deadly commissions he refers to as “taking out the trash.”
His girlfriend, Rachel, a successful novelist, supports the couple, as publicly Tommy ekes out a living as a nighttime cabbie. Rachel knows nothing about her boyfriend’s deadly business or his ill-gotten gains that amount to millions, all of which he has hidden and earmarked to fund their retirement in Costa Rica.
Witnessing a higher-up known as the Old Man feed Tommy’s bespoke-suited handler, Alfred, to a dozen alligators, the hit man has a change of heart about his line of work. The shift in his attitude is bad for business, and his employers take notice.
Then Rachel disappears. Readers may feel an adrenalin rush as Tommy desperately tries to find her. There’s a disconnect between his incomprehension for his employers’ “casual disregard for human life” and his own sniper activities, although some kills bother him.
Snuffing out an elegant older woman who heads a foundation that a dirty organization wants in its portfolio, Tommy cries along with the doomed victim.
Fans of the award-winning television series Barry will find similarities between the show’s main character and Tommy, as both are damaged, military-trained hit men with a desire to change but seemingly no way to do so.
Told primarily in the first person, the novel will elicit readers’ sympathies for Tommy’s impaired psyche as he works for men dealing in the “top three commodities in the world: firearms, drugs, and humans.”
The author’s descriptions—be they sexy, humorous, or terrifying—are notable: for example, “she fragranced her way to the bedroom,” “his huge sausage fingers,” and “hollow eye sockets were illuminated by a deadlight that made me rocket-vomit and cough in rolling spasms.”
A gripping crime tale that becomes as complicated as its main character. —Kirkus Reviews
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"It is clever, original, and kept me going . . . pacing was excellent, reminded me a bit of Elmore Leonard . . . characters were very solid . . .
"The action sequences and violence were very original and quite satisfying. I'm not an expert on the horror genre, but man, I can't really think of anything I've read like it, so bravo on making that unique and riveting.
"You kept things moving in an exciting, original, and dangerous world, and that kept me reading happily."
—Max Mobley, author of Howard and Debbie
Marketing Plan
Kirkus Review.
NetGalley reviews.
Goodreads Giveaways.
Showing at Tampa Bay Times' Festival of Reading in St. Petersburg, FL, November 2019.
Kirkus Review.
NetGalley reviews.
Goodreads Giveaways.
Showing at Tampa Bay Times' Festival of Reading in St. Petersburg, FL, November 2019.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781944855208 |
| PRICE | $21.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Account D, Reviewer
They weren't kidding when they said "Killing Eve invades Old Florida" that was the reason I requested the book and I really enjoyed it. It was able to set up what it needed to for a first part in a series and I look forward to more in the series.
Sharon S, Reviewer
Addictive, engaging, intense, easy-to-read.
Darlington was a super fun read, I thoroughly enjoyed the main character Tommy Darlington. The story's told from his point of view, which is addictive. I made quite a few highlights of the witty creative thought processes of Tommy. When he gets in the mood to murder someone, there's no qualms about taking that action. I would've liked more gory details, and a few more killings but overall the story was entertaining. There's drugs, murders, some violence, great descriptions, and criminals abound. I would recommend this as a to read.
Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle e-read ARC. This is my honest review.
C.S. O, Reviewer
“Sometimes it was just best to shut the f*** up and let the wisdom flow over you.” – (p. 217)
Such was the approach I attempted to take when reading Darlington. This novel is a sort of Kerouac-like stream of consciousness that follows a few months in the life of Tommy Darlington – a part-time Florida cab driver and full-time hitman, who makes such an astronomical amount of money in the latter profession that I am considering a change in career. The book does not follow a traditional story arc. It leads down some blind alleys, and the chapters are more a loosely linked series of vignettes of Tommy’s violent life contrasted with his romantic one. But the gleaming pearls of wisdom that are interspersed within the deep darkness of this gritty noir are worth the brief moments of disorientation. I found myself time and again, highlighting one insightful, poignant and brilliant line after the other. Tripsy South can coin a phrase in the flick of a Florida gator’s tale, using the same seductive grace and threatening beauty as that dangerous reptile.
Unfortunately, Tommy uses some wildly offensive words to refer to Latinos in the book and in one passage blames “racial refugees” for turning a neighbourhood to “sh**” (p. 77). These types of comments are not a frequent occurrence, but enough to turn me off, although I’m sure the author was only using this type of behaviour to convey the amorality of the character. I don’t know why this should offend me more than the fact that the man kills dozens of people in cold blood for a living, but it does. If we are meant to see Tommy Darlington as one of the “warriors with a heart (p. 228),” then these types of comments are not in my image of what that means.
Despite this, I look forward to reading more from this author, and allowing her wisdom to flow over me like a warm but dark Sarasota Bay wave.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
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