Read @ Joe’s

Title: The Debt Collector (2024) Author: Steven Max Russo Publisher: Steven Max Russo Books Book jacket: Abigail Barnes is young, pretty and petite, but her looks and size can be deceiving. She’s a tough as nails drifter who makes her living collecting outstanding debts for low-end bookies and loan sharks, Abigail arrives in Hackensack, NJ and gets a job collecting for a small-time bookie, who winds up dead. Joe says: The Debt Collector is a deceptively fast, hip read that punches all the requisite numbers.

Hey – a crime drama set in North Jersey that is not full of cliché mob palookas or Sopranos wannabes? Count me in, baby. The Debt Collector, in line with its central character, is a deceptively fast, hip read that punches all the requisite numbers, just like watching a Devils game at the Rock.

Steven Max Russo’s latest book stars Abigail Barnes, a pint-sized powerhouse who comes to Jersey looking for work after her last job down in the Charm City did not end so well. Abby – who inconspicuously also goes by Gabby, Sally, and possibly Grandpa Al – is a collector. Not of baseball cards. Or comics. Or dusty antiques. But payments. Armed with attitude and sass, as well as a good old-fashioned set of brass knuckles, Abby collects what is owed and takes her fee off the top. For a somewhat unreliable gig, Abby is rather good at what she does. She ends up in Jersey and finds her way to collect for Benny, a sports bookie who is waiting on an IOU from a Millennial with an overpriced haircut and a ridiculous sports car. But then Benny ends up on the wrong side of a beating and finds himself dead. And before your sack of sliders is ready from White Castle, everyone from the cops to the mafia to the local gardener is looking at Abby as the prime suspect.

Russo creates a fun character with Abby. She is not the abused runaway type with daddy issues. Nor is she portrayed as a “dude-with-boobs” action hero. She has faults and weaknesses. She is committed but also hesitant. Most importantly, she has a good heart and knows how to keep her eye on the prize. Russo also creates Hector, a believable side character who is part comic relief, part voice of everyman. Having the two remain cautious allies, and not slipping into a tired friends-with-benefits routine, adds to the originality of the story.

Russo keeps things moving, too. There ain’t too much fat on these here bones. Yet in keeping it all lean, his descriptions tend to get repetitive. When the denouement arrives – and it sneaks up on you, too – Abby rightfully gets the spotlight. But then Russo goes back and fills in that same action through Hector’s eyes. And then again with Jersey City detective Eagan. The final effect is less Rashomon, more “we got eight episodes we need to fill” heavy.

Sometimes less is more. Readers do have an uncanny ability to fill in the blanks. But Russo does succeed in The Debt Collector’s entertainment value. And that is an amount no one can withdrawal.