Plot or Premise

Arthur is a former acquaintance of McGee’s and Chookie’s who manages to make it as far as McGee’s and no further. He is spent and has been picked clean by professional grifters since he last hung out with the crew. Chookie convinces McGee to see if he can perform a salvage operation on the stolen money while she performs salvage on the man.

What I Liked & Didn’t Like

The con was nothing extravagant, a fake land deal from which they kept extracting money from Arthur. When it was over, everybody took off, leaving him high and dry. However, the twist in the tale was that a woman from the former gang of friends around McGee and Chookie was the one who set him up, which added an interesting side motive to help.

There is a lot of razzle-dazzle in the beginning as McGee tries to figure out the best approach, only to find that most of it is irrelevant. The man behind it all was a professional con artist, and McGee has too much respect for his abilities to waste time trying to get anything back from him. So, he pivots to go after the big, hairy lug who likely killed one of his former partners.

There’s a good fight scene early on, but the character is hard to pin down. Boo is, at most times, reasonably simple muscle, and then suddenly he’s more like a master tactician that McGee can’t outsmart. The ending is somewhat predictable, reminiscent of two previous stories that concluded with fights on boats.

However, the one shining light for most of the story is the rehabilitation of Arthur. It starts off slow, reminiscent of the type of rehab that McGee normally does with women to build up their self-esteem, but it’s nice to see him regain some of his persona and help out / dig in at the end. A bit of a cheer for the underdog.

The Bottom Line

Come for the con, stay for the justice