cover image Jersey Tomatoes

Jersey Tomatoes

J. W. Rider. Arbor House Publishing, $15.95 (273pp) ISBN 978-0-87795-793-5

Ryder's hardboiled love letter to Jersey City centers on tough PI and troubled ex-Catholic Malone, who is hired by a loathsome real estate developer named Jarrett to look into threats on his life, then by an attractive anti-religious activist called Charisma Kelly to prove that her Catholic mother did not commit suicide. At first the two cases seem unconnected; but the appearance of numerous murdered and mutilated bodies, as well as revelations from other sources, begins to link them, and Malone finds himself in a web of danger and deceit that brings him to a shootout on the beach. While the plot is confusing and overcomplicated, the choice of Jersey City is charmingly eccentric, and Ryder's first-person narrative is stylish, original and fun. (May 29)