The Check Out is a satirical thriller that will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore. It is the story of a $10,000 giveaway, and the employees who independently decide to heist the money on the same night.
Failing grocery store manager Larry Prescott just wants a quickie. With a frigid wife waiting at home, Larry decides to have some extramarital fun with an employee named Maxine Watkins. Though he has no way of knowing it, Larry is sowing the seeds for a crime spree that will be dubbed “The MegaSaver Massacre.“
The Check Out is a satirical thriller that will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore. It is the story of a $10,000 giveaway, and the employees who independently decide to heist the money on the same night. An ensemble piece, each chapter focuses on the motivations and actions of a different main character. Larry Prescott is an arrogant drunk whose affair quickly spirals towards danger. Maxine Watkins is a scheming liar, determined to claw her way out of indigence. Terrence Claybrook, the assistant manager, is an escaped convict trying to keep his past from catching up to him. Roland Tillman, a blood thirsty fugitive, reunites with his former cellmate during the MegaSaver robbery. Brad, an addiction ridden stocker, tries to turn his life around while picking up the pieces of a broken marriage. They each see the prize money as their only lifeline, and are determined to do everything necessary to grab it.
Excerpt
The air was hot and sticky as the mid-July sun scorched the sky. Once-manicured lawns had become brittle and wilted as sprinklers fought in vain against the festering heat. The sidewalks had become giant griddles, encompassing the dying grass like electric fences. Mounds of exposed flesh bounced up and down, rippling out from underneath thrift store T-shirts and undersized cut-off shorts. The faint smell of body odor and discount cigarettes lingered in the air and clung to anyone who waddled through it on their way into the MegaSaver entrance.
The grocery store stood in the middle of a neighborhood long forgotten by anyone who could afford to. The building, with its flaking paint and leaky roof, was surrounded by empty parking lots and vandalized gas stations. Pot holes littered the streets leading to the store. The parking lot was pocked with trash and missing concrete.
Larry Prescott eyed the herd of customers wandering aimlessly, stalking them with his lion eyes. Behind his blind-drawn windows, Larry studied the position of each customer, cart, and carry-out boy, waiting for his moment to pounce. Would a box of chicken wings fall out of a basket? Would an employee duck behind a car for an unscheduled smoke break? Larry wished he could smell the draw of blood through the glass window of his air conditioned office.
At five feet, seven inches, most people would not consider Larry Prescott tall. In fact, many who did not know him would say he was short. Those who worked for him, however, knew the true power behind his small frame. He was a beast at heart; a man to be feared and respected. Though wisps of hair were plastered over his growing bald spot, most would swear to the thick mane surrounding his head. He was king of his domain; master over all that he surveyed. He protected his own, and ripped his enemies to shreds. He was powerful and terrifying, yet commanded love and admiration from those beneath him.
A soft knock startled him from his stalk, and Larry turned bitterly towards the office door.
“Come in,” Larry’s voice roared. There was a pause. His eyes bore through the wood in disgust. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Come in.”
The door opened to reveal the nervous smile of a twenty-five year old employee named John Turner. He stood cautiously as the door squeaked open. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he stared at his boss.
“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t hear you…” John’s words trailed off.
Larry stared at him for a moment, unable to believe that his voice had not carried through the door and down the hall. He swallowed his anger and met John’s eyes with his own.
“Well… what do you want?” Larry’s voice barked more than bellowed.
John took a step inside the office. His hands shook slightly, and he grasped his baggy, denim pants to secure them.
“Oh, well,” John swallowed hard, trying to find the words. “I’ve been thinking…”
A snort from Larry cut him short.
“Do I pay you to think, son?”
John looked down towards the concrete floor.
“Uh…no, sir. Not really…” he stammered.
“You’re goddamned right I don’t. I pay you to check in my produce and keep my freezers full of dead animals.”
John licked his lips.
“Well, isn’t that right?” Larry had cornered his prey with just a couple of sentences.
“Yes. Yes sir. You do.” John’s knees began to quiver.
“What’s with all this thinking then?” Larry bent his back legs, preparing to pounce.
“Well, I was just thin….I mean, I believe that yesterday was my one year anniversary with the company, and I just wondered if maybe a raise…”
“A RAISE?” Larry’s mouth was wet with spittle. “Do you know what a raise is, son?”
John opened his mouth to reply, but Larry continued.
“A raise is a reward for someone who does a good job. No, screw that, a fantastic job. A raise is something you give someone who works his ass off and makes things happen. Do you think you make things happen, John?”
A tear formed at the base of John’s eye. Larry grinned, exposing a portion of his stained, crooked teeth.
“Yes, sir. I think I do make things happen.”
“Not for the better!” Larry was enjoying the juicy soft meat of his lamb’s throat. “Remember that pallet of pork chops that came in April? You remember what you made happen then? You made the fuckers spoil! That’s what you made happen.”
“No, sir. That’s the way they came in…” John attempted a feeble protest.
“Then, “ Larry continued without pause, “You let a whole shipment of hamburger patties get freezer burned.”
“It was just two cases…” John’s dying corpse flapped once more in Larry’s jaws.
“And not just two weeks ago, you left a whole pallet of ribs out of the freezer and they completely thawed! I had poor Jose scrubbing the blood off the floor for a month afterwards. Hell, that’s probably what put him in the hospital!” Larry’s breath was hot and heavy.
“Jose? He was in a car wreck two days ago…” John took a step back only to bump into the office door that had mysteriously closed behind him.
“I’ll tell you what, John.” Larry’s voice had suddenly calmed and almost invited him to have a seat.
John took a step forward towards the chair in front of him. He placed his hand on the back. Larry’s stare rebuked him for such a brazen act of affability.
“I’m gonna make something happen for you, John,” Larry stood protected behind his desk as he prepared his final blow. A small sliver of a smile curled his lips.
“Yes, sir?” John asked; his was voice hopeful and naïve.
“I’m gonna make you fucking unemployed!” Larry blustered.
“What?” John’s voice cracked as the tear finally fell from his eye.
“You heard me, son. Take your raise and your thoughts and get the fuck out of my store!” Larry’s volume challenged defiance.
John turned and accidentally hurled himself into the closed door. His face burned with pain and embarrassment; his eyes stung with tears and anger. His hand fumbled for the doorknob as Larry growled behind him. Eventually, the door flew open and John ran out, never to be heard from again.
Larry chuckled to himself. He wiped the blood from his lips and picked up the phone. He dialed a three digit number and hit the “Intercom” button. He was surprised, but not displeased, to find an erection bulging in his pants.
Professional Reviews
Great Book Leaves You Wanting More
The characters were well described and each left you thinking about their lives and imagining what they looked like, it left me wanting to know more, loved the end and read it in under 24 hours and I am not a reader so if it kept my attention that much it was a very good book I couldnt put it down till I had finished it.
A story of desperate people whose plans go awry
Richard Lester's debut novel, The Check Out, is a gritty tale of life lived on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder and the attendant desperation that sometimes drives people to do anything and everything, up to and including murder, to try to better their situation.
Lester's story is set in the once pristine and manicured white and now rundown and crumbling black section of an unnamed American city that feels like Detroit but could be anywhere in the country these days, although the fictitious WTMC news crew in the prologue places the locale as somewhere east of the Mississippi.
The plot involves a $10,000 giveaway at a MegaSaver supermarket and the employees who independently scheme to heist the money on the same night. There's plenty of murder in Lester's story but it serves only one person any good purpose, which is to slip back into an assumed identity and get on with his life.
Lester's book is described as a "satirical thriller" and, indeed, most of his characters are portrayed as caricatures: Larry Prescott, the bellicose store manager and an arrogant drunk whose affair quickly spirals towards danger; Maxine Watkins a scheming liar who is determined to claw her way out of indigence; Terrence Claybrook, the assistant manager, an escaped convict who is trying to keep his past from catching up with him; Roland Tillman, a bloodthirsty fugitive who reunites with his former cellmate during the MegaSaver robbery; Brad, an addiction-ridden stocker who is trying to turn his life around while picking up the pieces of a broken marriage.
Not all of Lester's characters are caricatures, though, and Leonard Best is a perfect example. Best is an elderly black man, a retiree and widower who dearly loved and misses his wife, with whom he owned a market for many years before being forced to quit the business. He seeks employment at MegaSaver to make extra money to pay off his debts and is hired as a janitor whose principal duty is mopping up after clumsy customers. There is nothing at all satirical in Lester's portrayal of Best. He presents him as an honest, humble, hard-working man, wearied and bent by life but not broken and still strong and resolute. From the moment Best was introduced in the story my interest increased and I welcomed his every reappearance.
Lester portrays Terrence Claybrook, a young black man who bonds with Leonard Best, with the same sensitivity and depth and I wish his other characters had been treated the same way.
Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy reading the story. I did. It's a quick read and a fast-paced one, a mixture of pulp fiction and Greek tragedy and more so the former than the latter. Lester's characters would be right at home in a Tarantino movie and the denouement seems written in homage to the filmmaker.
Lester is unquestionably a talented writer and overall the quality of the writing is good but the book does have its problems. Here are a few:
The Check Out begins with a prologue that foreshadows events. All well and good; however, at book's end I felt that Lester could have served the reader better without it and for two reasons: first, since the fact that a massacre will occur at the store is given away in the book synopsis the prologue really serves no useful purpose; and, second, I assumed that the aging and washed up TV reporter in the prologue would play a part in the story and was perplexed when he never reappeared.
Lester has structured his book like an action pic, weaving the story strands together by quick cutting between them. While this technique, if done well, can feel seamless as it propels the story forward, Lester cuts a bit too finely, chopping the strands into such small segments that I found myself wrenched away from scenes only to return to them just a few pages later (chapters in the book are very short). As a reader I was able to overcome this by mentally piecing together the disconnected strands but it would have been a better, more fluid reading experience had I been spared having to do so. I encourage the author to have more confidence in staying with his characters and allowing their stories to develop more fully in future.
A few observations about Lester's writing style:
His word choice when describing things is curious at times; i.e., "Terrence cracked the mop handle down on the man's face with rancor," and, "Aside from himself, the bar was nearly desolate."
He also has a tendency toward hyperbole; i.e., "The driver's voice raised several octaves," and, "The hotel door burst open with a force more powerful than a gun shot."
The writing is also not without cliché; i.e., "Larry stared daggers at his wife."
These criticisms aside, Lester is able to write compellingly and movingly and does so for the most part in the book. A satirical thriller though The Check Out might be, the dire circumstances of Lester's characters' lives and their anguish about and fear of being hopelessly trapped comes through. I commend the author for having given voice to people whose voices often go unheard and whose plight often goes unnoticed and encourage him to continue to hone and refine his craft.
I look forward to reading more from Richard Lester in future.
For $10,000 this little grocery store is about to become infamous...
Richard Lester's novel, THE CHECK OUT, will grip you from the very beginning and not let go until the final, violent, conclusion. Set under the roof of a local grocery store, Lester strongly weaves the stories of upper management and employees along a darkened path of corruption, sex, and violence. It is a story reeling in dirt, as each chapter introduces a voice to the MegaSaver, each with their own evil plan in mind.
It is story rooted in the corruption of man, the struggles of daily life, and the sometimes painful consequences to choices. A superb first novel, Lester takes pride in crafting each character, each plot device, and each scene intricately stepping us toward that inevitable ending. He knows these characters, hell, we all know these sort of characters, which makes Lester's story more than just a one-genre-tale. It successfully blends a bit of Elmore Leonard, Roger Avery, and Gregory Crewsdon into 200-pages, gripping you at every turn.
My only struggle, if I had to name one, would be the timing of this book. I lost focus sometimes on the timeline itself (how many days did this story cover), but that was after the completion of the story. The story is where the core of Lester's talent lies, and it is obvious he did his research and left no question unanswered.
A very strong outing by a first time author, I would suggest asking your local bookstore to carry this gritty pulp story. The packaging is fantastic and it makes for a superb wind-down to the summer season. Well worth the time. This was a great read!
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