Tower

The author of Blitz and the author of the Jesse Stone novels collaborate on a "e;rough and profane read"e; about two childhood friends who become criminals (Daniel Woodrell). Nick's Irish-American father, a Brooklyn rent-a-cop working security in the World Trade Center's North Tower, named him after a Hemingway hero. The old man must have been expecting a different kind of kid. Because, like the R&B song says, Nick was born under a bad sign. As aimless as a stray bullet, his only constants are 'Nam movies, pulp novels, and an unquestioning devotion to his childhood friend, Todd, a Jewish New York con artist with connections to the Boston mob. When Todd inducts Nick into his world of petty crime, it starts with reckless fun scoring weed, low-level stings, and burglary. But the deeper they sink into the world of the syndicate, the more they realize how unknowable a friend can be, and how unprepared they are to rescue themselves, and their souls, from the gutter. Alternately telling this "e;brutally poetic"e; story from the perspectives of Nick and Todd, award-winning "e;noir masters"e; Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Colemen "e;shine, dropping in-jokes, experimenting and displaying all the literary chops that have made their novels such cult favorites among mystery fans"e; (Publishers Weekly).