The Golden Gizmo

by Jim Thompson

Book Overview

"Gizmo" is the GI term for the unidentifiable -- and that's the way that Toddy Kent has begun to think of the reasons behind the rapid swing of his days. Somehow, Kent seems always to find himself regularly confronted with The Big Break every man would kill for -- only to see it slip through his fingers.

Kent's grinding out a paycheck buying gold on the cheap and selling it for the slimmest of profits when he stumbles into his latest, almost...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316403989
• ISBN13: 9780316403986
• Release Date: August 2014
• Publisher: Mulholland Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

What happens to the confidence man who tries to go straight?

Like most of Jim Thompson's novels, the story turns on a series of criminal events. Toddy Kent is a man with the "golden gizmo" -- a psychic sense that can lead him to riches just as readily as to disaster. This book is textured with curiosities -- Teddy is married to a woman who drives him mad; a gold buyer for a reputable dealer, he stumbles into a steady supply of the highest grade gold and finds himself pursued by a ruthless, chinless man, a beautiful young woman, and a blood-thirsty dog that can talk and sings hymns. Most other writers would see the story fall around their ears, but Thompson deftly, gleefully pulls it off!