Dirty Metal

An electrifying new voice in crime fiction: Allison LaMothe´s debut is a gritty, fast-paced mystery about a reporter running down two huge stories at once "Allison LaMothe is a wildly talented writer with an exacting eye for detail and her tenacious tabloid reporter, Parker Snow, is gutsy, whip-smart, and the perfect tour guide through pre-Giuliani New York City." --Julia Dahl, author of I Dreamed of Falling New York City, 1992--Meet Parker Snow, the most tenacious reporter for a tabloid paper that thrives on juicy gossip over hard-hitting news, the New York Street. She also has a big black mark on her record from her last street crime story--and a habit of taking a few too many pills to erase the memory. Since the fall of the USSR, a new crop of Russian criminals have been arriving in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. It´s now Parker´s job to cover them. But her old beat keeps calling to her, especially when she learns of a murdered woman whose case the cops want to ignore. Trying to run down two stories at once--a simmering mafia turf war, and a homicide that leads to two more with no clear link between them--Parker must also fight the pull of her pills and the arrogant men who get in her way at every turn. Despite it all, she´s determined to find truth and redemption for herself, the victims, and a city in chaos--if her demons don´t get to her first.