Flicking the Bic
Ratings8
Average rating4.7
Jean-Max Renaldo was a Quebecer at heart. Nothing and no one would stop his ambitions.
Jean-Max Renaldo was always a proud Quebecer. A much feared criminal, he met an untimely death at the pinnacle of his criminal success. Post mortem, a manuscript detailing his most intimate confessions of the tribulations he faced growing one of the most untouchable and feared enterprises in Toronto, a city he despised for its Anglophone influences, surfaced. For the first time since his death, Jean-Max’s journey into the depths of the criminal underworld are finally revealed, giving the public a glimpse of the criminal underworld Jean-Max ruled with an iron fist.
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I've been a fan of Tia Ja'nae for a very long time so when I saw this I had to get it day one. It's different than her last novel for sure but it's two books that chronicle a up and coming asshole trying to act like Tony Montana running Toronto. The first book has some harsh scenes that make you reach for the rosary but baby, that book two, NOTHING BUT THE BUSINESS. Jean-Max has the ultimate FAFO moment dealing with Hambone (which is that bad bitch from Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep) and gets more than one itch scratched in that. Highly recommend.
Whew. This book took what Vern Smith's "Scratching The Flint" did at kicked it up 100 notches. A bonafide prequel to his book and to Tia Ja'nae's "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep", this book tells the story of Jean-Max Renaldo's early days through a journal he left behind after his untimely death in Smith's book. You don't need to read Smith's book to jump in with this one, and trust me it's all types of 1970s dirt, grime, crime, thriller, erotica all in one. The author did not disappoint us fans of "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep" either, as this is the closest return of Hambone we will get.
The young Jean-Max Renaldo is the truest depiction of a real life villain I have ever read. Joker has nothing on the guy. He's more polished in Scratching The Flint but in this he's embracing his youth for all its worth, living everybody around him's life like it's their last day, which knowing Jean-Max it just might be.
