Bunny Simpson, the protagonist of Patrick Hoffman’s oddly affecting crime novel, grew up poor in Grand Junction, Colorado. Now in his 20s and working at a convenience store in Denver, his needs are few --- help his uncle pay rent, save a little money, maybe start a business one day. His best friend, Jerry LeClair, fantasizes about moving to California.

"Each time it seems that the direction of the novel’s trajectory is obvious, the narrative takes a sharp turn --- and readers of FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS are rewarded with yet another startling perspective."

So when Helen McCalla, an attorney who buys drugs from Jerry, asks him to scare her ex-husband who happens to be a local judge, he agrees...for a fee. When he begs his pal to help out, Bunny is at first reluctant, but he needs the money and figures it’s just friends helping friends. Right?

When the cops discover that it was Bunny and Jerry roughing up the judge and send both to prison, they make a deal with Bunny that will clear his record. He must infiltrate a group of white supremacists and steal a notebook from a safe in their command center. Though the cops keep telling Bunny that they’re his friends, they don’t act like it. So after he carries out the theft, he decides that maybe he should keep it to himself. What he and Jerry do with it takes the story from a plot focused on small-time criminals to an exhilarating caper.

The characters, each carrying baggage from his or her past that constrains future prospects, are well drawn and sympathetic. And while the depiction of various lowlifes in and out of the band of white supremacist misogynists is dispiriting, there are plenty of funny or affecting scenes to offset the gloom.

Each time it seems that the direction of the novel’s trajectory is obvious, the narrative takes a sharp turn --- and readers of FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS are rewarded with yet another startling perspective.