The Crit, Book One · An Undercover Prison Thriller
The whole city watched the prison burn. By morning, they'd given the night a name.
Walter "Boxcar" Sampson spent thirty months wearing a wire against the mob that runs the waterfront. He died on Pier Nine, eleven minutes before his police protection arrived, with a brass St. Christopher medal in his fist and two words left in him: "Give it."
To find who paid for the hit, Special Agent Ben Gordon goes into Ironwood Prison under a dead man's name — six weeks before the boss who ordered it walks free. Inside, he finds a crooked ledger, a letter that shouldn't exist, and Brother Heat: the lifer who has kept the peace for twenty-two years, and who sees exactly what Gordon is.
Then, on a Thursday night in October, every door in Ironwood opens at once.
A complete story. One sitting. ~90 minutes.
The Crit, Book Two · A Dirty Cop Blackout Thriller
At 9:12 on the hottest night of August, the Crit lost its lights. By sunrise, the 9th Precinct had lost a great deal more.
Sergeant Grace Okafor is three weeks into the dirtiest precinct in the city when the grid fails and the looting starts. Somewhere in the dark, a professional uses the blackout the way a workman uses a tarp — and the cover-up starts moving before the body is cold, straight toward the people who sent her.
One precinct. One night, dusk to dawn. By morning, the city will have a new name to say quietly.
A new night falls October 30.
THE CRIT — Six nights the city named.
In the Crit, the bad nights get names. A steel city on a cold river, going down slow — and when a night turns bad enough, the papers and the barstools christen it, the way other places name hurricanes. Six standalone crime novellas. Six colors. One city. Start anywhere. Finish wrecked.
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A steel city on a cold river — once the fourth-largest in America, now going down slow. When a night turns bad enough there, the papers and the barstools christen it, the way other places name hurricanes. The Red Night, when Ironwood Prison burned. The Black Night, when the lights went out and the city showed its teeth. Ask anybody from the Crit where they were. They'll tell you a story. Nobody tells the same one.
Six standalone novellas — six nights, six colors, one city. The same faces drift through every story: the all-night diner where nobody bleeds, the old boss they call the Weather, the fired saint the whole city wears anyway. Each book is a complete story with a beginning, an end, and a body count, built to be read in one sitting.
The nights don't come in order. Neither do the books. Start anywhere.
The slate:
CRIT RED — The prison book. Available now.
CRIT BLACK — The blackout book. Pre-order now. A new night falls October 30.
CRIT GOLD — The supper club book. Coming.
CRIT WHITE — The frozen waterfront book. Coming.
CRIT COPPER — The Burn Night book. Coming.
CRIT SILVER — The fight book. Coming.