The Concrete Smile is the first installment in the novella series, A Grifter’s Song. It was a finalist for a Derringer Award in 2020.
A Grifter’s Song is a novella anthology series created and edited by Frank Zafiro. The series features a pair of grifters, Sam and Rachel, who are lifelong grifters in their late thirties. Their past is as shadowy as their present, but we know that they pulled a major long con on the mafia in Philadelphia, and now they are on the run. While one or the other may speak longingly of that quiet life in a beach house somewhere at the end of the rainbow, we all know that the likelihood is that they will never leave this life, unless it is in a box. They are who they are, and so they continue to find and exploit marks, trying to stay one step ahead of the mobsters bent on vengeance.
Each episode is a standalone story but is also part of the meta tale that evolves over the course of the series. The first (and several others) is written by Frank Zafiro, with many other authors contributing to the series.
The series begins in The Concrete Smile. Sam and Rachel are in St. Louis, Missouri, working a grift on the owner of a concrete business, along with their associate, Finch. When the opportunity to up the ante comes along, will they overreach and go for it? Or play it safe, take their small taste and get out of town. And when their past starts to catch up to them, will they even get out of St. Louis alive? Will that flash of an insincere, concrete smile from these grifters win the day for them, or will they find themselves wearing a permanent version of that smile, whacked by the mob or their mark, and dumped in concrete somewhere?
You can see all of the other installments on my page for A Grifter’s Song.
Get the audio, narrated by David Temple, anywhere you buy your audiobooks!
Reviews:
“The modest con turns into a possible big score – with added risks – along the way. The plot doesn’t get too bogged down in the details of the underlying transaction and instead chooses to focus on the human element of the coercion. The result is a fascinating character study of a con-game mechanics that recalls the glory days of Fawcett Gold Medal paperback originals from the 1950s. The tension and excitement is ratcheted up considerably for the last act of the book with an interesting twist propelling the couple into their next installment. Overall, “The Concrete Smile” was an outstanding debut of a series…”
— Tom Simon, Paperback Warrior