Suitcase City
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Sterling Watson
Sterling Watson is the author of eight novels, including Deadly Sweet, Sweet Dream Baby, Fighting in the Shade, and Suitcase City. Watson’s short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, the Georgia Review, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, the Michigan Quarterly Review, and the Southern Review. He was director of the creative writing program at Eckerd College for twenty years and now teaches in the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College in Boston. Of his sixth novel, Suitcase City, Tom Franklin said, “If this taut literary crime novel doesn’t center Sterling Watson on the map, we should change maps.” Watson lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Committee is his latest novel.
Read more from Sterling Watson
The Committee: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet Dream Baby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fighting in the Shade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Suitcase City
28 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent written story. Kept my attention.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I had never heard of this author before it appeared as a recommendation on Amazon. Solid story, a few too many convenient conclusions and happenings but overall a good story, although after the first 20 pages it slows down for the next 30 or so pages and you may wonder where is this book going? Don't worry it all ties in together at the end.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5James Teach was football star with a brief NFL career. When her returns home he falls back into old habits and gets involved in drug smuggling with disastrous consequences. About 20 years later he is a widowed father who has a run in with a teenager in a bar that threatens to destroy the life he has built for himself. I liked the writing and it was a page turner but I just didn't feel connected to the characters. There is suspense and despite knowing the truth more or less its still questionable about if Teach can escape his situation.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Suitcase City is a story of drug runners and prostitutes. It is the story of the life of Jimmy Teach, a once well known football player. He cheats on his wife who dies in a car accident and he is left to raise a beautiful young daughter. His former life puts this girl in grave danger. Many of the twists and turns in the story were a bit unbelievable. I did not think the story had many redeeming qualities and would not recommend it to anyone. I do appreciate LibraryThing allowing me to read and review this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A good read, a mystery that kept me guessing till the end. I liked the characters, especially the coach and all the scenes of Florida where I would have only enjoyed this book more if I were reading it on a beach. Keep writing and I will be sure to keep reading and recommending to all my mystery fans.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jimmy Teach was a former University of Florida Gator's quarterback hero and professional football player, his playing days are done, but some personal events that occurred before and during his football days come back to haunt his life. Now living in Tampa, Florida the area has there own serial killer on the loose with three prostitutes that have disappeared and the authorities questioning Teach of his involvement because of his violate past in and out of football. A very enjoyable and interesting novel about where this will lead, what's around the next bend for Teach.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters (while not ALL likeable) were real and the storyline rang true. I would definitely read other books by Sterling Watson.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a great book!Mr. Watson has created a compelling crime novel and woven in such authentic local flavor that it reminds me of being back in Tampa. His style is accessible without being dumbed down and the pacing of the novel makes it difficult to put down. I enjoyed the razor-thin timing and the uncanny coincidences - they made the story suspenseful and fun. Overall, I enthusiastically recommend this book to the Florida local, out-of-town visitor and crime-novel aficionados - Suitcase City will satisfy them all.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'd call this a beach read thriller. It took wonderful twists and turns, and the author clearly had a good grasp of his geography (this native Floridian especially enjoyed the references to Cedar Key - a favorite escape). The revenge plot is deep and complicated, but you really have to suspend disbelief to get engaged. It is rather far-fetched, the things Jimmy Teach has gotten away with thus far, and the way his and Blood Naylor's paths continued to cross and entwine over the years without them knowing it. But if you can do that, if you can suspend your disbelief, and just go along for the ride, it's an enjoyable one. I like a story that keeps you guessing, especially when you're sometimes guessing who the good guy really is, and who to root for.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A middle age, college foot ball star, Jimmy Teach, has become a successful pharmaceutical executive in his old stomping grounds of Tampa, His wife has died and he and his teenage daughter have a good relationship. When Teach is accosted by a high school honor student, his present comes unwoven only to entangle with his past. Skeletons are dug up, memories revived.I enjoyed the references to places I know in the Tampa area, like Bern's and Ybor City. It is obvious that the author is on familiar geographical turf. All the characters were well developed and described. SUITCASE CITY packs of wallop of suspense and mystery.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5loved this book by sterling watson, all about former college coach jimmy teach, a real page turner could not put it down,loved this author will look for more of his books...he left professional football in 1978, he went back home to cedar key, florida to start life again, got into some trouble shrimping that followed him for years..
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Review of Suitcase City by Sterling WatsonJimmy Teach is a football has-been living in Tampa florida, who continues to meander through his life when his past starts to catch up with him. His story is told in a series of flashbacks as various pieces of his own history come to haunt him.You want to like Jimmy and be in his corner, yet at every turn he does something or says something that makes you just slap your forehead and ask, “did he really just do that?” But Watson doesn’t let the story devolve into the tragi-comic, instead he keeps it just real enough to pull us along (and into) the story. I found myself captivated and reading, oblivious to what was going on around me as I followed Jimmy down this unknown road.I enjoyed Watson’s writing and descriptions--he writes cleanly and with vivid--although not poetic--descriptions. He sets an atmosphere that permeates his story that makes you wince as you follow the things the characters do. Many of the characters and scenes seem almost ripped from the TV show COPS--people doing a number of half-thought-through things getting pulled into an almost surreal semi-urban hell--yet are utterly believable in their motives and actions.Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book with the expectation that I would provide an honest review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jimmy Teach is a successful Vice President of pharmaceutical sales in Tampa, a former college football star, a father, and a widower. But he grew up poor in Cedar Key and as a teenager supported his mother with his seafaring skills – running pot into shore from mother ships in the Gulf of Mexico.Jimmy’s drug-running past is about to catch up with him as his former smuggling partner, Blood Naylor, now a convicted felon and Tampa pimp has devoted his evil self to wreaking vengeance on Jimmy. Blood Naylor has set things up so that The Tampa Police like Jimmy for a couple of different crimes, either of which could ruin his life. Jimmy has lived on his wits and charm in the past and even though he’s older and softer now, he’s going to need them both again. Suitcase City is riveting and entertaining literary crime fiction that sustains suspense while going a bit deeper than the standard crime plot.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This crime novel is fast paced, and a little violent. It has a nice revenge plot hidden in it, you just have to get past the first 1/3 of the novel before things even out, and send you on a nice ride. At about the 1/3 mark (just prior to the section 1 end), I said to myself that I really wasn't enjoying the book much and was uncomfortable with where it seemed to be heading. However, I pushed on, and with the resolution of the first crisis, I was more comfortable.
The storylines in the plot are nicely interwoven. the use of different viewpoints was quite useful, and not at all confusing to me. While gruesome, the death details are well presented.
This novel by Sterling Watson is a good and easy beach read. Not complicated, or too gritty. But while entertaining, it may not be a book I'd return to.
3 stars