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Airtight
Nick Copeland has lost his mind only twice in his forty-eight years—once in college on a bad acid trip, and once at this very moment, as the mountain of bills he’s been hiding from his family finally topples. But Nick’s chance meeting with an old friend, Rob Johnson, pulls on the memory wires. Rob—who’s already lost his wife and job—seems resigned to a life of basic cable and Chinese takeout. Suddenly, the answer to their problems arrives: two airtight jars of high-grade heroin they’d buried under the football field of their old college campus.
Returning to the scene of the crime-that-never-happened seems like a cinch—that is, until Nick takes a trip down Memory Lane and a sharp right turn on Law Enforcement Drive. This is not the beads-and-bellbottoms of their youths, but maybe the Stones were right, anyway: you can’t always get what you want.
Tarantino meets Mamet in this action-packed trip from the prolific literary novelist J.P. Smith.
Returning to the scene of the crime-that-never-happened seems like a cinch—that is, until Nick takes a trip down Memory Lane and a sharp right turn on Law Enforcement Drive. This is not the beads-and-bellbottoms of their youths, but maybe the Stones were right, anyway: you can’t always get what you want.
Tarantino meets Mamet in this action-packed trip from the prolific literary novelist J.P. Smith.
340 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
12 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
J.P. Smith
10 books164 followersJ.P. Smith was born in New York City and began his writing career in England, where he lived for several years with his wife and daughter, and where his first novel was published. As a screenwriter, he was an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semifinalist in 2014.
His ninth novel, The Summoning, a psychological thriller, was published on September 7th, 2021.
His ninth novel, The Summoning, a psychological thriller, was published on September 7th, 2021.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 16, 2015
ARC/Fiction: I see other reviews that are nixing the book and I guess those reviewers were under 35 and didn't get "it". Maybe they didn't read the ending.
Yes, there are two former college...I wouldn't call them buddies, more like acquaintances...who are reunited at a job fair thirty years later. After reminiscing, they remember they buried two mason jars of heroin back in the day. Not know what to do with it then and not wanting to get caught with it, it sat there for 30 years. Unemployed and desperate for money, they know what to do with it now. While one man, Rob, is a former lawyer; he knows someone, well, maybe, who can buy it. Nick, former burn-out and ad man and current family man, has no idea who to talk to.
MY THOUGHTS ON WHAT THE BOOK IS REALLY ABOUT:
Throughout the book, there are double-crosses on top of double-crosses. That is not the point of the book. The book is about Nick's life now, not his former life. Nick is having a mid-life crisis on top of losing his job and upper middle class lifestyle. He's questioning his career, his wife, his family, his life. The more he looks, the more he wants the carefree life of college. Rediscovering the heroin is just a means to an end.
It's a pretty good story and I recommend it.
Yes, there are two former college...I wouldn't call them buddies, more like acquaintances...who are reunited at a job fair thirty years later. After reminiscing, they remember they buried two mason jars of heroin back in the day. Not know what to do with it then and not wanting to get caught with it, it sat there for 30 years. Unemployed and desperate for money, they know what to do with it now. While one man, Rob, is a former lawyer; he knows someone, well, maybe, who can buy it. Nick, former burn-out and ad man and current family man, has no idea who to talk to.
MY THOUGHTS ON WHAT THE BOOK IS REALLY ABOUT:
Throughout the book, there are double-crosses on top of double-crosses. That is not the point of the book. The book is about Nick's life now, not his former life. Nick is having a mid-life crisis on top of losing his job and upper middle class lifestyle. He's questioning his career, his wife, his family, his life. The more he looks, the more he wants the carefree life of college. Rediscovering the heroin is just a means to an end.
It's a pretty good story and I recommend it.
March 8, 2016
After attempting to read this book I can't tell you why now I wanted to read this book other then it must have sounded good at the time. The book started out alright. I was not fully invested in Nick or Rob but there was something sort of charming about them. They are the down and out losers but I always like a underdog. So I stuck with the book for about the first 6 chapters. The book then went into my started but have not completed book. Going through this pile I picked this book up again. I still felt the same way about this book as I had before but I really was wanting to give it the benefit of a doubt. Which I was starting to warm up to this book despite the language and the conversations that read like a twitter post with a limited amount of characters. Yet when I got to the silliness of "Pussy Galore pleasuring herself with a black, rubber penis lathered with Crisco" I was done.
September 22, 2019
I’m not a thriller reader, preferring nonfiction. But I keep reading everything J.P. Smith writes because he’s really a writer of the complexities and vulnerabilities of the human predicament disguised in the pleasure of page-turner thrillers.
AIRTIGHT is no exception. On its face it’s the story of two middle-aged men, suddenly unemployed and down on their luck who go back to college, literally and figuratively, to find some drugs they buried there thirty years earlier. Their motive? Cash. They desperately need it.
But what happens is far more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller of two men whose crime goes very wrong. In going back in time to their glorious college days, both men find their real selves—what they did wrong, what they did right, and the sacrifices each made to get them where they are today. AIRTIGHT left me thinking about my own life choices. The forks in my own road where I chose the wrong path and the prices I paid for doing so. And ultimately, what sacrifices I’m willing to make, and what punishments I’m willing to accept, to make things right.
AIRTIGHT is no exception. On its face it’s the story of two middle-aged men, suddenly unemployed and down on their luck who go back to college, literally and figuratively, to find some drugs they buried there thirty years earlier. Their motive? Cash. They desperately need it.
But what happens is far more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller of two men whose crime goes very wrong. In going back in time to their glorious college days, both men find their real selves—what they did wrong, what they did right, and the sacrifices each made to get them where they are today. AIRTIGHT left me thinking about my own life choices. The forks in my own road where I chose the wrong path and the prices I paid for doing so. And ultimately, what sacrifices I’m willing to make, and what punishments I’m willing to accept, to make things right.
January 29, 2020
This was a crazy great read!
I'm an avid reader, been around the block a time or two and finding great read, one that keeps you looking forward to the next.chapter isn't easy. This guy knows how to write. You feel the characters like they are your family. It's hard to explain just read some of.his work it's an adventure from the safety of your armchair. It also gives you somethings to think about things to.ponder during and after the story.ends
I'm an avid reader, been around the block a time or two and finding great read, one that keeps you looking forward to the next.chapter isn't easy. This guy knows how to write. You feel the characters like they are your family. It's hard to explain just read some of.his work it's an adventure from the safety of your armchair. It also gives you somethings to think about things to.ponder during and after the story.ends
October 1, 2022
Trash
Filled with unlikeable people doing wretched things and making one another miserable.
Not worth your money or your valuable time.
Filled with unlikeable people doing wretched things and making one another miserable.
Not worth your money or your valuable time.
December 8, 2013
I didn't really know what I was getting when I bought this. It turns out to be an okay thriller, maybe a bit better than okay.
Nick Copeland was an advertising man until he was invited to make way for younger folks. He hit the job market and found nobody buying. He even went to a jobs fair. His whole life is looking bleak. His wife has found a job in a preschool, her advanced degrees getting her nothing better. They are on the hook for a large, expensive house and a more expensive private school for their two children.
Then Nick hooks up with an old friend from college, Rob Johnson, who is even worse off. The two were never close friends in the ordinary way. Instead, they shared a dark experience back then: moving drugs. The two were amateurs, however, and happy to be done with their primary transaction, but it left them with two jars of something that might be high-grade heroin. Or might not. They bury the loot.
Thirty years later the two discuss the potential of those two jars. They decide to dig it up and find a market.
Nothing's ever simple, and certainly moving two pounds of heroin isn't, especially for these two, who have been out of touch with each other and out of touch with any drug trade for all these years. How will they get their money out of the stash and come out clean?
The decision sends Nick on an even worse path with his family. Late night meetings, missing dinners, strained relationships with his wife and children. Even if he gets the money will that save him?
Nick Copeland was an advertising man until he was invited to make way for younger folks. He hit the job market and found nobody buying. He even went to a jobs fair. His whole life is looking bleak. His wife has found a job in a preschool, her advanced degrees getting her nothing better. They are on the hook for a large, expensive house and a more expensive private school for their two children.
Then Nick hooks up with an old friend from college, Rob Johnson, who is even worse off. The two were never close friends in the ordinary way. Instead, they shared a dark experience back then: moving drugs. The two were amateurs, however, and happy to be done with their primary transaction, but it left them with two jars of something that might be high-grade heroin. Or might not. They bury the loot.
Thirty years later the two discuss the potential of those two jars. They decide to dig it up and find a market.
Nothing's ever simple, and certainly moving two pounds of heroin isn't, especially for these two, who have been out of touch with each other and out of touch with any drug trade for all these years. How will they get their money out of the stash and come out clean?
The decision sends Nick on an even worse path with his family. Late night meetings, missing dinners, strained relationships with his wife and children. Even if he gets the money will that save him?
January 6, 2013
I must admit that prior to reading AIRTIGHT I was not familiar with any of the works of J. P. Smith and therefore had no clue as to what to expect.
AIRTIGHT opens in the 60's with a young college student named Nick Copeland in the throes of a bad acid trip, his cry for help leads to his accidental meeting with the dorm neighbor next door, Rob Johnson. It then flashes forward 30 years as they meet again under somewhat unusual circumstances. Both men's lives are in a downward spiral and as they reminisce over a few drinks about their "wannabe" drug dealing days in college, memories are rekindled and they recall a stash of heroin they concealed on campus those many years ago. If those drugs are still there, this could be the answer to their problems. And therein folks, lies the tale.
Generally speaking, AIRTIGHT is just what a thriller should be, a roller coaster ride through a series of twists, turns and corkscrews with a cast of compelling characters whose combined baggage could carry them on several round the world trips with never a visit to the Laundromat. Granted, the author isn't one for much subtlety and the messages delivered in this dark but profoundly moral tale are a bit "black and white" with very little grey area apparent as Nick undergoes his own involuntary vision quest.
Viewed as a whole, I did like this book - - - but not without reservation.
AIRTIGHT opens in the 60's with a young college student named Nick Copeland in the throes of a bad acid trip, his cry for help leads to his accidental meeting with the dorm neighbor next door, Rob Johnson. It then flashes forward 30 years as they meet again under somewhat unusual circumstances. Both men's lives are in a downward spiral and as they reminisce over a few drinks about their "wannabe" drug dealing days in college, memories are rekindled and they recall a stash of heroin they concealed on campus those many years ago. If those drugs are still there, this could be the answer to their problems. And therein folks, lies the tale.
Generally speaking, AIRTIGHT is just what a thriller should be, a roller coaster ride through a series of twists, turns and corkscrews with a cast of compelling characters whose combined baggage could carry them on several round the world trips with never a visit to the Laundromat. Granted, the author isn't one for much subtlety and the messages delivered in this dark but profoundly moral tale are a bit "black and white" with very little grey area apparent as Nick undergoes his own involuntary vision quest.
Viewed as a whole, I did like this book - - - but not without reservation.
December 9, 2012
I really enjoyed AIRTIGHT. Crime stories that involve normal people who become desperate and choose to engage in a criminal enterprise (Just this one time) to bail themselves out is a classic morality tale that never gets old for me. AIRTIGHT presents this tale from the point of view of middle-aged Nick Copland who faces financial problems that he must somehow solve. Enter an old college friend who's even more desperate than Nick, then add an old jar of heroin buried since 1970 and you have the recipe for a dangerous game that could get them both killed.
There are many "flashbacks" in the book, but unlike a lot of authors, Mr. Smith skillfully uses them to advance the story, not slow it down. And I must say that the book describes the effects of an acid-trip so well I had to check to see if my coffee was spiked. :)
Overall, if you enjoy crime fiction with a little more meat in the character department and less on endless plot turns, you should check this one out.
There are many "flashbacks" in the book, but unlike a lot of authors, Mr. Smith skillfully uses them to advance the story, not slow it down. And I must say that the book describes the effects of an acid-trip so well I had to check to see if my coffee was spiked. :)
Overall, if you enjoy crime fiction with a little more meat in the character department and less on endless plot turns, you should check this one out.
April 25, 2013
Nick, ultra cool and high most of the time in college, goes on to have a successful career/wife and family type life--until he is laid off at 50 and unable to find a job. When he runs into an old college buddy (also out of work) with whom he had once done a drug deal, they begin to talk of uncovering an old heroin stash.
I was definitely intrigued by the premise for this book, and the opening chapter, detailing Nick's epic drug trip, was quite riveting. But the writing when downhill after that. In fact, I almost wondered if it was the same writer. I still had hopes for the book but when I got to the movie producers girlfriend using a giant criscoed dildo while two thugs are threatening her boyfriend in the next room--well, the book began to seem ridculous. And unfortunately, the book didn't get any better . . . or at least it just wasn't for me.
I was definitely intrigued by the premise for this book, and the opening chapter, detailing Nick's epic drug trip, was quite riveting. But the writing when downhill after that. In fact, I almost wondered if it was the same writer. I still had hopes for the book but when I got to the movie producers girlfriend using a giant criscoed dildo while two thugs are threatening her boyfriend in the next room--well, the book began to seem ridculous. And unfortunately, the book didn't get any better . . . or at least it just wasn't for me.
December 19, 2013
A TRIP WORTH TAKING
This story can only be described as a “Real Trip.” Two former college buddies—30 years later, their current lives in a shambles—attempt to bail themselves out of hock by revisiting their old alma matter, where they dig up their solution. It’s worked before—back in the day—and you’d think it should work now, with a little help from their “friends” of course. Only these two losers are in trouble bigtime. And the more they dig, the deeper in trouble they get.
So hang with these dudes all the way to an unexpected conclusion. JP Smith will take you back to those crazy daze of yore, where he’ll even spin you a few of your favorite hard-rockin’ oldies. Most certainly, this is a trip worth taking.
A big HIGH—FIVE to JP Smith for sending us this one!
This story can only be described as a “Real Trip.” Two former college buddies—30 years later, their current lives in a shambles—attempt to bail themselves out of hock by revisiting their old alma matter, where they dig up their solution. It’s worked before—back in the day—and you’d think it should work now, with a little help from their “friends” of course. Only these two losers are in trouble bigtime. And the more they dig, the deeper in trouble they get.
So hang with these dudes all the way to an unexpected conclusion. JP Smith will take you back to those crazy daze of yore, where he’ll even spin you a few of your favorite hard-rockin’ oldies. Most certainly, this is a trip worth taking.
A big HIGH—FIVE to JP Smith for sending us this one!
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May 22, 2013excellent
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews