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by Gregory Gibson
A sprawling, historical debut mystery from acclaimed non-fiction writer Gregory Gibson that will appeal to fans of classic noir. Angelo DiNoto is the most powerful crime lord in New Jersey, his empire bolstered by importing pure heroin courtesy of the poppies grown by an old Turkish farmer. Yet when a five million dollar shipment goes missing, DiNoto isn't the only one willing to turn over every rock (and bust some heads, arms, legs, etc.) to locate it.
Richard Mundi is a shady developer who sees the heroin as the key to replenishing his fading business with new capital. His daughter, Gloria, is literally in bed with a band of wannabe revolutionaries, and sees the heroin as her ticket out of her meek boyfriend's arms and away from her father's looming shadow. 'Mailman' is a longtime postal clerk who has seen it all - until throat cancer robs him of his voice and the will to live - and thinks finding the drugs is the perfect cap to a failed life. 'Walkaway' Kelly is a punch-drunk P.I. hired by Mundi to tail Gloria, but when he uncovers the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Mundi's wife, he'll do anything to uncover the truth.
Stir in Kelly's young protégé, brothers who work as DiNoto's ruthless enforcers, Mundi's conflicted collections agent, and you have an Elmore Leonard-esque cast of characters running rampant in a twisting crime novel in which each disparate thread leads directly to an unforgettable showdown over the Old Turk's Load.
"This well-handled caper novel recalls the late great Donald Westlake. Readers will want to see more crime, and more comedy, from Gibson." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Gibson's elliptical, ever-evolving plot seems a marriage of Raymond Chandler complexity and Donald E. Westlake comic haplessness... a signal pleasure for crime-fiction aficionados." - Booklist
"An overcaffeinated noir farce enlivened by many cartoon fatalities. Just the thing if you're really stoned and don't have to pass a quiz on the plot." - Kirkus
This information about The Old Turk's Load was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gregory Gibson has been an antiquarian book dealer since 1976. He has published three non-fiction books and writes an influential weekly blog on the book trade called "Bookman's Log." He has homes in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Cork City, Ireland, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but in his imagination he inhabits an undiscovered Raymond Chandler novel somehow set in Manhattan in the 1960s.
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