Small Crimes

“Unputdownable. Classic noir, dark, funny, shocking and absolutely no compromise. Pure magic of the blackest kind.”—Ken Bruen

“A superbly crafted tale. Like the very best of modern noir, this is a story told in shades of grey. This deserves to be massive.”—Allan Guthrie

“Zeltserman delves deeply into his specialty, an unorthodox look at the criminal mind. It kept me turning pages and glancing over my shoulder.”—Vicki Hendricks

"Zeltserman’s breakthrough third crime novel deserves comparison with the best of James Ellroy. Joe Denton, a corrupt cop, has just been paroled from the county jail in Bradley, Mass., after serving seven years for his drug-fueled assault on D.A. Phil Coakley, whose face was horribly disfigured in the attack. Denton’s parents, with whom he’s staying temporarily, are uncomfortable having him back in their lives. Likewise, Denton’s former colleagues on the force are uneasy. Gang boss Manny Vassey, who’s ill with terminal cancer, threatens to cut a deal with Coakley that would expose the tangled webs of graft and violence that have governed Bradley. When the local sheriff demands that Denton take out either Vassey or Coakley to preserve the town’s dirty secrets, Denton’s hopes for a return to some version of normality are dashed. Zeltserman (Fast Lane) pulls no punches, even as he makes Denton’s manipulations, evasions and self-deceptions comprehensible."—Publishers Weekly

Set in the pressure cooker of a very small town and following the promise of Dave Zeltersman’s earlier novels (Fast Lane and Bad Thoughts), Small Crimes is an explosive noir that brings the claustrophobic hell of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain right up to date.

Dave Zeltserman lives in the Boston area with his wife, Judy. He is a die-hard Patriots and Red Sox fan, and when he’s not writing crime fiction, he spends his time working on his black belt in Kung Fu.