Dirty Metal

An electrifying new voice in crime fiction: Allison LaMothe’s debut is a gritty, fast-paced mystery about a reporter running down two huge stories at once

“Allison LaMothe is a wildly talented writer with an exacting eye for detail and her tenacious tabloid reporter, Parker Snow, is gutsy, whip-smart, and the perfect tour guide through pre-Giuliani New York City.” —Julia Dahl, author of I Dreamed of Falling

New York City, 1992—Meet Parker Snow, the most tenacious reporter for a tabloid paper that thrives on juicy gossip over hard-hitting news, the New York Street. She also has a big black mark on her record from her last street crime story—and a habit of taking a few too many pills to erase the memory.

Since the fall of the USSR, a new crop of Russian criminals have been arriving in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. It’s now Parker’s job to cover them. But her old beat keeps calling to her, especially when she learns of a murdered woman whose case the cops want to ignore.

Trying to run down two stories at once—a simmering mafia turf war, and a homicide that leads to two more with no clear link between them—Parker must also fight the pull of her pills and the arrogant men who get in her way at every turn. Despite it all, she’s determined to find truth and redemption for herself, the victims, and a city in chaos—if her demons don’t get to her first.