Dirty Water

by Marc E. Fitch

A dark, high-octane, rock 'n' roll crime novel in the vein of Duane Swierczynski.

The FBI has just taken down James Gigante; crime boss of the crumbling city of Dirty Water and now everyone is gunning to fill the power vacuum.

Nolan Coll is an ex-Marine who has just accepted a two hundred thousand dollar contract to take out Big Bernie, author of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history and is currently incarcerated. Jessica, Gigante’s estranged wife, is trying to escape Dirty Water with her life and her lover and Riley Higgins is a young cop who catches a bullet to the face and begins a wild transformation into underworld enforcer.

They all clash in Dirty Water, a city in the grips of moral and economic bankruptcy with a massive cross on a hill for a tombstone.

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 20, 2015

About the author

Marc E. Fitch is the author of the novels Dead Ends, Boy in the Box and Paradise Burns, among others, as well as the books Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs and Bigfoot and Shmexperts: How Power Politics and Ideology are Disguised as Science. His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year vol 10.

Marc received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Western Connecticut State University and has worked as a bartender, psychiatric technician for in-patient behavioral health hospitals, and most recently as an investigative reporter. He was the recipient of the 2014 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship and the Leslie Leeds Poetry Prize. He is the father of four children and lives and works in Connecticut.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a crime novel in the vein of the classic dark gangster novels of the thirties and forties. The setting and perhaps the main character is "Dirty City," described especially in the beginning in Allen Ginsburg prose as the dirtiest, most corrupt city ever with the headstone of a teenage crime victim the symbol of the whole rotting city which was "spread out like a diseased patchwork" and with off ramps leading to purgatory." It is a declining city that used to have industrial vitality but is now filled with decaying neighborhoods and drug-addled losers. "Houses were burned out and abandoned, their open skulls left charred and steaming in the rain."

Nolan opens the story, having returned from battle in Afghanistan, let go for war crimes, and he's now hiding out in the psych ward from Gigante's gunslingers. From there, the story is just a crazy explosion of violence and misery.

[Mav Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Burning Paradise earlier this year, I was looking forward to Dirty Water. Fitch doesn't disappoint. He stirs a perfect storm, a compelling to read from start to finish. The story is fast and dirty with characters you love to hate and hate to love. It doesn't get grittier than this, folks. Beware the sharks in Dirty Water.

Fitch writes dark and cheeky with a startling amount of heart. A crime writer to watch out for. Fans of The Wire will especially enjoy the dark satire.