Michael Cala
Finders Keepers is a tale of the greed we all hold secret in our hearts. It focuses on real-life protagonist Joey Coyle, who finds $1.2 million dropped from an armored car in the early 70's. The author takes us into Joey's blue collar South Philadelphia, where we come to know Joey as a man full of self-loathing, who's chronically unemployable, and frequently high on drugs and alcohol. The second half of the book is darker, even tragic, as we watch Joey and his cronies slowly but inexorably sabotage his dreams of "being a big coke dealer or opening a body shop" with the purloined money. The ending is unexpected, and disturbing because, after all of this, Joey is a pretty likable character as screw-ups go. Excellently read by the author, I highly recommend this piece of offbeat Americana.