go-to guy

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。

He'd been booted from the Marines for insubordination, then hired by a private U.S. mercenary gang to do dirty work in Iraq. He'd survived two years in a Syrian jail for smuggling guns. He'd been indicted in New Orleans for importing cocain, but somehow walked. He'd spent three years in a federal prison for an insurance scam, and a week after being paroled landed a five-million-dollar defense contract to supply orange juice to U.S. troops. Somewhere along the way he took up killing for profit and became a go-to guy for high-end contracts.

"go-to" の意味を辞書で調べます。


・Merriam-Webster: relied on and regularly turned to for expert knowledge, skill, or performance: Brown became the go-to researcher for genetic conundrums.
・Collins Dictionary: You use go-to to say that someone or something is the best person, place or thing for a particular purpose or situation.: He is normally my go-to guy when I am struggling.
・Wiktionary: likely to perform in difficult circumstances.: Smith is your go-to person if you want lasting results.

pegged her age

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。
"Twice a year. The usual, shopping and Broadway and a new restraunt or two, with some girls from Houston."
It was obvious Dad had expensive tastes and lived well. Noelle pegged her age at forty-one, max.
Bruce returned to the sofa and asked, "Now where were we?"

"pegged her age at forty-one" は彼女の年齢を４１歳と自信を持って推測したのでしょう。 "peg" の用法を辞書で調べます。なかなか引用文にピッタリの説明は見つかりませんでしたが、次の辞書が最も合っていると思います。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to guess the cost, amount, or level of something:　Future costs stemming from those lawsuits have been pegged as high as $8 billion.
又、次の辞書の後半の例も合っていますね。
・Vocabulary.com: A coat rack might consist of a line of wooden pegs, and you might also secure a tent by driving metal pegs into the ground to hold it there. When you fasten or pierce something with a peg, you can say you peg it. Informally, if you peg a person, you make a judgment about them: "I'd peg him as a messy housekeeper based on the way his dorm room looks."

chicken scratch

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。
"We went through Nelson's stuff after the police were finished. There wasn't much. Virtually all of his notes and research were, evidently, in his computer and heavily encrypted. But there were three notebooks with all sorts of random chicken scratch.

"chicken scratch" は乱雑に書かれた字の様ですが、辞書で確認します。
・Wiktionary: Cramped or illegible handwriting.: The pencil in my hand was limp between my fingers and I couldn't focus on the chicken scratch on the pages.
・American Heritage Dictionary: An instance of cramped or illegible handwriting: "his signature—an unforgeably idiosyncratic chicken scratch".

スラングとなっていましたが、意味は容易に推測できますね。

burner

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。

Lindsey pulled out a business card with little accurate data on it. The name was Jackie Fayard. The phone number was for a burner with a monthly plan. The lwa firm's address was in downtown Louisville at a corporate registry, along with a hundred others.

"burner" のここでの意味がさっぱり分かりません。辞書を見ます。上記引用文に合う意味を載せている辞書は余りありませんでしたが、何とか見つけました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a cheap mobile phone, paid for in advance and often only used for a short time: He used three different burner numbers to conceal his identity.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a mobile phone without a contract, that is typically only used for a short time and then thrown away, for example when you do not want people to have information about you: Police found that the gang were using burners to avoid number tracing and wiretapping.
日本でプリペイドフォーンと呼ばれている電話の様です。

from soup to nuts

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。
"We don't guarantee a win in this business," Elaine said.
"I understand. It's a long shot."
"Three hundred thousand," Lindsay said. "From soup to nuts. All up front. No hourly billing, no monthly statements, expenses included."
"From soup to nuts" は初めて見る表現ですが、文脈からして何から何まで一切の意味だと推測できます。　辞書で確認します。

・Merriam-Webster: covering every detail or part of something: The book provides a soup to nuts look at the current political scene.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: From the very beginning to the very end. Refers to a once-traditional full course meal, beginning with soup and ending with a dessert of nuts.: OK, let's go over the plan again, from soup to nuts.