Fresh Kill, Jimmy McSwain Files #6, by Adam Carpenter

[Ulysses]

Fresh Kill (Jimmy McSwain #6)
By Adam Carpenter
MLR Press, 2019
Four stars

“He wanted to send a message to the world. Two men could be happy, and no one had the right to challenge that…”

Jimmy McSwain has finally solved his greatest case, the murder that has haunted him all his adult life.

So, everything’s going to be smooth sailing, right?

No.

This book, like the latest in Marshall Thornton’s Nick Nowak series, has a surprise sucker-punch as a finale. Damn.

Jimmy McSwain, the millennial Sam Spade, or maybe a gay Joe Friday (shudder), has taken some months off, to sit by his older sister’s side as she recovers from a gunshot to the head; and to spend time with his younger sister’s baby boy Joey, named for his murdered father. He has stopped looking for truth for a while in order to celebrate life, the future, his feisty Irish Hell’s Kitchen family. He’s also working on his relationship with semi-closeted police captain Frank Frisano, and it seems to be going well.

Then Jimmy learns that a client he turned down over the phone has been found dead in a park on Staten Island, and he is hired by the client’s widow to prove that it wasn’t suicide, but murder. At the same time, Frank Frisano is shaken by a gay-bashing turned murder in Chelsea, the heart of the gay community where he lives and works.

Jimmy finds himself caught between two geographic poles – the upstate rehab center where his sister is recuperating, and the alien southern tip of Staten Island, where his new case is unfolding in increasingly bizarre and disconcerting ways.

On the surface, McSwain is so different form Thornton’s Nick Nowak – different generation, different place in history, different city. But the parallels are there. Jimmy thinks he’s healed, but gradually begins to understand that his wounds run deep. Neither his case nor his psyche are going to be simple fixes, and as Jimmy begins to see old enemies in unfamiliar places, he also notices Frisano acting differently, fretting over the gay-bashing with a depth of emotion so unlike the ambitious young policeman Jimmy has come to know and love.

As always, Adam Carpenter is true to his characters. He knows the city, its rhythms and neighborhoods, and that gives a constant ring of authenticity to his narrative. Jimmy McSwain is a fascinating guy, both old-style and completely contemporary. He actually represents a New York City that is slowing fading away, and the author treats him with endless affection and respect.

But, as we are reminded, this is really the beginning of a new series, and Carpenter isn’t going to let any of us – reader or fictional actor in his drama – off easy. I’m in too deep to stop, but it’s going to hurt.

[Note: I must point out rather a lot of sloppy editing mistakes. The author needs to get his manuscript vetted more thoroughly.]