Flipping Boxcars

July 1, 2023
From actor/comedian Cedric the Entertainer, a 1940s crime caper that's also a valentine to his grandfather and his hometown. Forty-year-old Floyd "Babe" Boyce is a gambler, a fringes-of-the-law entrepreneur, a fixer, a family man, and a central figure in the Black community in post-World War II Caruthersville, Missouri. As the Fourth of July looms in 1948, he and his sidekick, Karter, learn that their Chicago connection for smuggled booze has been liquidated and replaced by a thug with a tantalizing but dangerous offer: not the usual several crates but an entire boxcar of whiskey. The initial problem Babe faces is how to pull together $54,000 posthaste--but he figures he can rely on what he's always had, a combination of luck with the dice and an ability to tweak the odds with a fast-talking trickster's wiles. Alas, luck deserts him, and he ends up losing not only his cash, but also the one stake that means everything to his loving wife, Rosie. When, almost simultaneously, a simmering feud with racist rednecks turns deadly, Babe has no choice but to double down, and fast--he decides, with the connivance and the resources of a friend from the war years, to plan and pull a daring midtransit heist. Kyles' novel isn't groundbreaking or rich in nuance, but it moves briskly, and it's fun to see Babe and his crew repeatedly put one over on racists who underestimate or plain fail to see African Americans. According to an author's note, Kyles based Babe and Rosie on his grandparents, and perhaps the book's most charming element is its affectionate portrait of their marriage and of this close-knit, vibrant community. A solid crime novel with a core of sweetness and nostalgia underneath.

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July 24, 2023
The promising fiction debut from comedian Cedric “the Entertainer” Kyles (Grown-A$$ Man) chronicles family man and community fixer Floyd “Babe” Boyce’s bootlegging operations in post-WWII Caruthersville, Mo. In 1948, Babe and his partner in crime, Karter (whose life Babe saved in the war), commit to a deal with Tommy Wojak, who heads the Polish arm of a Chicago crime syndicate. The pair has 72 hours to raise $54,000 to buy 3,000 cases of untaxed bourbon arriving by railroad from Canada. An expert gambler, Babe banks on his ability to read cards, dice, and people to hopefully win the cash from the bustling Sportsman Hall casino. His plans are derailed, though, when he suffers a shock defeat at the craps table after an all-night hot streak convinces him to make a hefty bet, and loses his savings along with the deeds to farmland his wife has purchased. To salvage his marriage and his children’s futures, Babe enlists the help of an enterprising army friend to pull off an audacious train robbery. Despite an underbaked subplot involving Ku Klux Klan attacks in Caruthersville, Kyles and Eisenstock deliver stirring gambling scenes, strong characterizations, and vivid prose. The result is an energetic caper that’s more than meets the eye. Agents: (for Kyles) Anthony Mattero, CAA; (for Eisenstock) Eric Rhone, A Bird and a Bear.