Pariah by Dave Zeltserman

From the Publisher

"This fusion of hardboiled and bitter satire is brand new territory for noir and I suspect that it will be one of the most talked about novels of 2009."—Ed Gorman

"Pariah will keep you glued to its pages. There are no holds barred anywhere in this wonderful launch into evil. The meek beware . . . be-very-ware."—Charlie Stella

Praise for Dave Zeltserman's Small Crimes:

"[Small Crimes] deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The plot of Small Crimes is a thing of beauty"—The Washington Post

"A strong piece of work, lean and spare, but muscular where a noir novel should be."—The Boston Globe

Once part of the holy triumvirate ruling the South Boston Irish Mob, Kyle Nevin is set up with the Feds by head mobster Red Mahoney, who leads him to a court case and a stretch in the slammer. Now out of prison, Kyle wants revenge on his old boss and mentor and, just as importantly, to reclaim his former glory.

A kidnapping gone wrong leads, bizarrely, to a major book deal and a newfound celebrity status for Kyle. However, it also brings about bigger problems for both himself and anyone unlucky enough to cross his path.

With this dark riff and contemporary theme, Zeltserman shows why he is the heir of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain.

Dave Zeltserman lives in the Boston area with his wife. His previous novel Small Crimes was included in The Washington Post's best books of 2008 and was one of NPR's top five crime and mystery novels of 2008.

The Washington Post - Maureen Corrigan

What a sick puppy of a writer Dave Zeltserman is! I didn't think a suspense story could get any more dark and twisted than Zeltserman's pulp masterpiece…Small Crimes…Now comes Pariah, a doozy of a doom-laden crime story that not only makes merry with the justice system, but also satirizes those bottom feeders in the publishing industry who would sign Osama bin Laden to a six-figure contract for his memoirs, if only they could figure out which cave to send their lawyers into. If there's any other young writer out there who does crime noir better than Zeltserman, I don't even want to know. As it is, I can barely handle reading him without altogether losing whatever faith I've got left in humanity.

Publishers Weekly

The second in what Zeltserman calls his “bad-ass out of prison” trilogy, though less compelling than its predecessor, Small Crimes, is superior to his by-the-numbers Bill Shannon series (Bad Thoughts, etc.). In the nicely gritty opening section, South Boston thug Kyle Nevin, just out of prison after an eight-year stretch, has a long list of scores to settle, headed by his old boss, Red Mahoney, who he believes betrayed him. Nevin wastes little time before busting heads and jumping into the sack with a saleswoman with an appetite for bad boys. Hoping to solve his money problems with a kidnapping, Nevin persuades his brother to join him on condition that the victim not be harmed. Things head south rapidly after the child turns out to be a hemophiliac and dies after a tooth is extracted to be sent to the parents, and a treacherous middleman snatches the $2 million ransom. A slide into broad parody at the end doesn't do the forceful beginning justice. (Oct.)

Product Details