The main character of Recoil, Pat "Airplane Red" Cosgrove, is a prisoner in quest of a new life. Imprisoned for ten years to life for a spur-of-themoment bank robbery committed when he was eighteen, Cosgrove served fifteen years of his sentence. At the novel's opening, he searches for a way out of prison. Because he has no family or friends, and he must have a sponsor and a guarantee of a job in order to gain parole, he sends letters out to several strangers. The man who takes him up on his request for a job and sponsorship is Dr. Roland Luther, known as "Doc." The novel follows the progress of Doc's illicit scheme to use an unknowing Cosgrove to help him rob an insurance company of $200,000.

Thompson examines the opportunity for corruption in state politics, the manner by which such opportunism may spill over into...