Crime Fiction Filled With Dark Passages and Dark Hearts

New York Times

3 days ago

Nightswimming
NIGHTSWIMMING (High Frequency Press, 322 pp., paperback, $19.95) made quite the impression on me. Anagnos smartly uses the structure of the police procedural to probe the ways in which the 1970s were both an incredibly progressive and sneakily regressive time for women — and the ways men struggled to keep up when things were changing at such a dizzying clip.
Jamie Palmieri, a cop in Paterson, N.J., wants to advance to the detective ranks after three years on patrol, but finds himself stymied. When two people — one of them an 18-year-old woman — are murdered at a local bar, Jamie sees his chance to make order out of chaos. But nothing goes as planned; someone seems determined to block Jamie's investigation, and a new romantic relationship, which may connect to the case, confuses him further. Danger will be close to home, but how much and from whom?
Anagnos, a writer and editor, explores the shifting terrain of gender and power and brings Paterson, at this juncture, to vivid life. 'Nightswimming' is the first of a trilogy, and I'm eager to see how the project will unfold.
Proof
It's perhaps no surprise that Cowan — a longtime writer and producer on 'Suits' — has delivered a terrific legal thriller. PROOF (Gallery Books, 372 pp., $28.99) stars Jake West, a lawyer who knows how to turn on the charm. It oozes out of his pores along with the fumes from his prodigious alcohol consumption, allowing him chance after chance even when his career seems as fully cooked as his marriage. But when he witnesses the murder of his former best friend — shot at close range in a car — he becomes a suspect, and no number of snappy quips can save him.
'Blood all over you,' the detective points out. 'You were holding the gun when the patrol car drove by.'
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