Overview

On the sixth of December 1993, a drug dealer named Scrappy is shot and left for dead on her mother’s lawn in South Central Los Angeles. A heroin addict witnesses the shooting, and seizes the moment to steal Scrappy’s drugs, as well as the handgun that was dropped at the scene. When he’s busted, he names local gang members Wizard and Dreamer as the shooters. There’s only one problem: one of them is guilty; the other, innocent. None of that matters, though, when the gun turns up again – miles from where the shooting happened – and both are arrested. Innocent or not, the gang tells them both to keep their mouths shut and take their charges. With these two off the streets, Little, the unlikeliest of new gang members, is given a very serious job: discover how the gun got moved, who moved it, and why. Because it had to be a frame-up and the cops had to be involved. Hadn't they? Played out in the streets, precincts, jails, and courtrooms of Los Angeles, The System is a breakneck journey through every phase of the American criminal justice system. It is the story of a crime – from the moments before shots are fired, to the verdict and its violent aftershocks – told through the vivid chorus of those involved: the guilty, the innocent, the victim, the families who love them, and those simply doing their jobs. After all, justice is a matter of perspective.

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9781529055061

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Reviews

Praise for All Involved: 'A symphonic, pitch-perfect, superlative novel. It is visceral and adrenalin-fuelled, yet tender and even darkly comic. It is audacious, unflinching and subversive. It doesn't judge. It swallowed me whole.' -- David Mitchell No ordinary gangster cat-and-mouse chase . . . While the gangsters-with-a-heart story might sound improbable, Gattis compensates with whip-smart vernacular and a narrative that zips along. Gattis has created a gripping novel about opportunity, transformation and hope. * Observer * A literary novel and a thriller with more twists than a DVD box-set make quite a combination. There is a lathed quality to Ryan Gattis's prose, which is reminiscent of Raymond Carver or Ernest Hemingway. Gattis is superb with the staccato sentence, honed to a few words. I have previously been enthusiastic about Gattis's polyphonic All Involved; this duet shows he is as assured on a closer frame. * The Scotsman * Inherently compelling. This macho, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet novel benefits from the extensive research Gattis has done on the L.A. gang scene and that deep knowledge informs electrifying plot twists. * Time * Tenderness in the midst of stories of brutality, Safe is the perfect read to have in your suitcase * GQ * SAFE is a propulsive thriller that confirms Ryan Gattis as one of our most gifted novelists. The book has unstoppable momentum yet is as finely layered and detailed with the gritty truth of life and the streets as I've ever read. It shoots you down a path that is fraught with surprise and insight, and you can't ask for more than that. -- Michael Connelly, creator of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series. Praise for Ryan Gattis' last book - Safe: A thrilling heist novel with a big beating heart -- Paula Hawkins, author of<i> Girl on the train</i> The System is a tour de force that shatters all the usual categories: It is a page-turner, but one you will want to read slowly in order to savor every gorgeous sentence. It's got bad guys and good guys, but you're never quite sure who belongs in which category. And if a novel is magical when you feel like you know the characters intimately, and like them, despite the fact they are mostly people you would ordinarily cross the street to avoid, then Ryan Gattis is a magician. -- David Dow, author of <i>Confessions of an Innocent Man</i> The System took me back, powerfully, to my incarceration in the early 90s. Wow. I relate so much to this book, it's painful. I could swear I did time with one of these characters in County. That's how real this novel is. I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction. Front to back, it's not just an incredible work, it's an experience. Especially for those with no idea what it's like to be inside. -- Gustavo<i> </i>'Goose' Alvarez, author of <i>The Pawn</i> and <i>Prison Ramen</i>

'No ordinary gangster cat-and-mouse chase ... While the gangsters-with-a-heart story might sound improbable, Gattis compensates with whip-smart vernacular and a narrative that zips along. Gattis has created a gripping novel about opportunity, transformation and hope.' -- The Observer 'A symphonic, pitch-perfect, superlative novel. It is visceral and adrenalin-fuelled, yet tender and even darkly comic. It is audacious, unflinching and subversive. It doesn't judge. It swallowed me whole.' -- David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

The System took me back, powerfully, to my incarceration in the early 90s. Wow. I relate so much to this book, it's painful. I could swear I did time with one of these characters in County. That's how real this novel is. I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction. Front to back, it's not just an incredible work, it's an experience. Especially for those with no idea what it's like to be inside. -- Gustavo<i> </i>'Goose' Alvarez, author of <i>The Pawn</i> and <i>Prison Ramen</i> The System is a tour de force that shatters all the usual categories: It is a page-turner, but one you will want to read slowly in order to savor every gorgeous sentence. It's got bad guys and good guys, but you're never quite sure who belongs in which category. And if a novel is magical when you feel like you know the characters intimately, and like them, despite the fact they are mostly people you would ordinarily cross the street to avoid, then Ryan Gattis is a magician. -- David Dow, author of <i>Confessions of an Innocent Man</i> Praise for Ryan Gattis' last book - Safe: A thrilling heist novel with a big beating heart -- Paula Hawkins, author of<i> Girl on the train</i> SAFE is a propulsive thriller that confirms Ryan Gattis as one of our most gifted novelists. The book has unstoppable momentum yet is as finely layered and detailed with the gritty truth of life and the streets as I've ever read. It shoots you down a path that is fraught with surprise and insight, and you can't ask for more than that. -- Michael Connelly, creator of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series. Tenderness in the midst of stories of brutality, Safe is the perfect read to have in your suitcase * GQ * Inherently compelling. This macho, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet novel benefits from the extensive research Gattis has done on the L.A. gang scene and that deep knowledge informs electrifying plot twists. * Time * A literary novel and a thriller with more twists than a DVD box-set make quite a combination. There is a lathed quality to Ryan Gattis's prose, which is reminiscent of Raymond Carver or Ernest Hemingway. Gattis is superb with the staccato sentence, honed to a few words. I have previously been enthusiastic about Gattis's polyphonic All Involved; this duet shows he is as assured on a closer frame. * The Scotsman * No ordinary gangster cat-and-mouse chase . . . While the gangsters-with-a-heart story might sound improbable, Gattis compensates with whip-smart vernacular and a narrative that zips along. Gattis has created a gripping novel about opportunity, transformation and hope. * Observer * Praise for All Involved: 'A symphonic, pitch-perfect, superlative novel. It is visceral and adrenalin-fuelled, yet tender and even darkly comic. It is audacious, unflinching and subversive. It doesn't judge. It swallowed me whole.' -- David Mitchell

Author Information

Ryan Gattis is a writer and educator. His most recent work, All Involved: A Novel of the 1992 LA Riots, is grounded in nearly two years of research and background spent with former gang members, firefighters, nurses, and other LA citizens who lived through it. He is also the author of novels Kung Fu High School and Roo Kickkick and the Big Bad Blimp, as well as two novellas published by Black Hill Press, The Big Drop: Homecoming and The Big Drop: Impermanence. He lives and writes in Los Angeles, where he is a member of the street art crew UGLARworks. Feodor Chin was classically trained at the American Conservatory Theater. His acting career includes numerous credits in film, television, regional theatre and voiceover. Feodor wrote, executive produced and starred in a comedic television pilot called Golden Boy. He has received an Earphones Award from AudioFile for his narration of Snakehead by Patrick Raden Keefe. Other narrations include Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and The Ruin of Kings. Tim Campbell (AGMA, APA) is an award winning voice actor who lives in Sherman Oaks, CA. He specialises in audiobook and long form narration, as well as commercial VO. He has produced spots for 20th Century Fox, Hot Wheels, Macbeard Media, Santa Anita Park, Pacific Opera Project, Trend Company and other clients in the LA area. A classically trained actor and professional opera singer, in addition to his VO career, Tim is a master of accents and dialects, and has trained with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed with such prestigious organisations as Los Angeles Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Aspen Opera Theater Center. Timothy Andrés Pabon is an actor and voice artist based in Washington DC. He works in both English and Spanish, having narrated nearly 200 audiobooks, and has worked across stage and screen, most notably appearing in HBO’s The Wire and as Mark in House of Cards. Timothy has previously narrated The Displaced, edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen, More that Words by John Howard and Stan Tatkin, and David Livingstone Smith’s Making Monsters amongst many others.

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