Overview

Longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2021 'Excellent, lucid, intelligent and gripping' - Scotsman 'An utterly riveting read' - Guardian 6 December 1993. A drug dealer called Scrappy is shot and left for dead on her mother's lawn in South Central Los Angeles. Two local gang members, Wizard and Dreamer, are arrested. The problem is: one is guilty, the other wasn't even there. It had to be a frame-up. And the cops had to be responsible, didn't they? Narrated by the characters involved - the suspects, the victim, the families who love them, and those simply doing their jobs - The System tells the story of one crime, from the moments before shots are fired to the verdict and its violent aftershocks. It's a breakneck journey through the American criminal justice system. A system that can save you, or break you.

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9781509843879

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The System is as real as it gets - often brutal, but a beautifully written reality of not only life on the street, but also getting caught up or working in the justice system. -- David Swinson, author of <i>The Second Girl</i> Ryan Gattis ingeniously casts deeply researched novels of social protest as page-turning crime fiction . . . This book blew my mind. -- Dan Slater, author of <i>Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers</i> Gripping, fascinating, moving, and so very, very real. The System is one of the best books I've read in years. -- Marcia Clark, author of <i>Final Judgment </i>and former Criminal Prosecutor The System is an odyssey through the legal system . . . The dialogue isn't dialogue; it's what you'd actually hear - on the street, in a courtroom, on the prison yard. -- Joe Ide, author of the IQ series Through multiple narrators, [Ryan Gattis] tells a muscular, rousing tale of injustice, systemic racism and the desperation of those chunks of urban America abandoned by local and national government. -- Paul Connolly * Metro * The System's panoramic approach-eschewing one main character for a whole set of people associated with a crime-sets it apart . . . A tale of redemption, an examination of loyalty and a love song for family bonds. -- Patrick Hoffman, author of <i>Clean Hands</i> I relate so much to this book, it's painful . . . That's how real this novel is . . . Front to back, it's not just an incredible work, it's an experience. -- Gustavo<i> </i> Goose Alvarez, author of <i>The Pawn</i> The System is a tour de force . . . It is a page-turner, but one you will want to read slowly in order to savor every gorgeous sentence . . . Ryan Gattis is a magician. -- David Dow, author of <i>Confessions of an Innocent Man</i> Gripping, meticulously-researched and smartly-plotted, I devoured this brilliant novel over the course of a weekend. -- Paula Hawkins, author of <i>The Girl on the Train</i>

Author Information

Ryan Gattis is the author of Safe, Kung Fu High School, and All Involved, which won the American Library Association's Alex Award and the Lire Award for Noir of the Year in France. He lives and writes in South Los Angeles, where he is a member of art collective UGLARworks, a founding board member of arts non-profit Heritage Future, and a PEN America Prison Writing Mentor.

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