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Title details for Catchpenny by Charlie Huston - Wait list

Catchpenny

A novel

by Charlie Huston
Pete Cross
Audiobook
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A thief who can travel through mirrors, a video game that threatens to spill out of the virtual world, a doomsday cult on a collision course with destiny, and a missing teenager at the center of it all. With the world on the brink of every kind of apocalypse, humanity needs a hero. What it gets is Sid Catchpenny.
"I absolutely loved it. Catchpenny is a brilliant book, full of heart and the language is pitch-perfect. If Elmore Leonard had ever written a fantasy novel, this would be it.” —Stephen King
Sidney Catchpenny has had a bad run. Laid low by a years-long bout of debilitating depression, he’s all but squandered his reputation as one of the most uniquely talented thieves in LA. There aren’t many who can do what Sid does. He’s a sly, a special kind of crook with the uncanny ability to move through mirrors. And the spoils he’s after are equally unusual. Forget jewels and cold cash—Sid steals curiosities—items imbued with powerful mojo, a magical essence gleaned from the accumulated emotion that seeps into interesting, though often banal objects. That spot on the carpet where your old dog used to lay at your feet? The passed-down family heirloom nobody wants but everybody refuses to throw away? These curiosities are full of mojo, which is both the currency of the criminal underground and the secret source of magic in the world.
When a friend from Sid’s past comes looking for his help with an important client, and the chance to pay off old debts presents itself, Sid seizes the opportunity … as best he can. But the case he stumbles into is more complicated than it seems, and it portends a seismic shift in the world, one that will leave no one untouched. As the fog of his depression begins to lift, Sid sees connections everywhere he looks, and the once disparate threads of the case—a missing teenage girl, an entire bedroom saturated with mojo, and Sid’s own long-dead wife—begin to coalesce.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 9, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593821848
      • File size: 361316 KB
      • Duration: 12:32:44

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 1, 2024
      Novelist and screenwriter Huston (the Joe Pitt Casebooks) introduces thief and mystic Sidney “Sid” Catchpenny in this witty supernatural thriller. Sid is an aging former punk singer and occasional sleuth who can travel through mirrors, and often does so to steal trinkets that help him collect people’s “mojo”—a kind of magical currency. One day, Sid’s friend connects him with the frantic mother of Circe, a missing teen who’s been spending a suspicious amount of time attending a cultish Los Angeles theater club that meets in a barn. The action picks up when, while wearing his dead wife’s favorite Sinead O’Connor T-shirt, Sid finds the exact same image—with the exact same mojo—on the wall in Circe’s bedroom. He then attends a show Circe wrote for her theater group, where he meets her intense friends and the club’s shady director, Bruce, in whom Sid senses a reality-shifting darkness. As Sid digs further into Circe’s disappearance, Huston weaves in story lines about a dangerous video game, a death cult, and the fate of Sid’s long-dead wife, underscoring the antihero’s oft-repeated assertion that “everything is connected.” The resulting caper is fast, fun, and memorable. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pete Cross's dramatic performance of this fantasy/noir audiobook enlivens a fascinating story about a missing teenager and her connection to a popular video game and a doomsday cult. Cross's emotional commitment to the protagonist, Sid Catchpenny, showcases the messy, washed-up thief with debilitating depression and the ability to travel through mirrors. He can sense mojo, the magical essence tied to sentimental objects, which is used as currency by both criminals and elites in the story. His unique abilities and looming debts compel him to accept a case to find the missing Circe. In places where the prose meanders too long with Sid's thoughts, Cross is an immense pleasure, engrossing listeners within every passing contemplation. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 13, 2024

      Still reeling 20 years later from his wife's mysterious death, supernatural thief Sid Catchpenny must drag himself out of his depression to find a missing teenager. Lost somewhere between reality and a magical world where nothing is as it seems, this girl is the key to keeping the world intact. Sid, along with other mojo (a kind of magical currency) users, can use mirrors as conduits into other realms. Now, he finds himself caught up in a dangerous underworld, where power-hungry mojo users steal and sell mojo-laden objects. Everyone seems to know a secret, but Sid has remained in the dark. Is he a hero or a villain? This audiobook is beautifully read by narrator Pete Cross, who infuses the main character's voice with relatability, realism, and warmth. Sid's self-effacing humor and glib repartee flow naturally. Cross's subtle changes to inflection and accent allow listeners to easily distinguish the large cast of characters. VERDICT Huston's (Skinner) newest is an excellent listen for those seeking a reality-bending fantasy with a quirky protagonist. Libraries hoping to offer tales that are off the beaten path will want to check this out.--Lisa Youngblood

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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