If a couple of Albanian gangsters show up outside your door to kidnap you, what do you do? “Charles Salzberg’s Canary in the Coal Mine is everything a reader wants in a great crime novel, and then some. The rat-a-tat cadence of the noir masters, seamlessly blended with the contemporary sensibilities of an author thoroughly in control of his craft. I liked this book so much I read it twice. No kidding. It’s that good.” —Baron R. Birtcher, multi-award winning and Los Angeles Times bestselling author Meet P.I. Pete Fortunato who spent a mysteriously short, forgettable stint as acop in a small upstate New York town. Living paycheck to paycheck, he works out of a friend’s downtown real estate office. So, when a beautiful woman wants to hire him to find her husband, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. Within a day, Fortunato finds the husband dead in the apartment of his client’s young, stud lover. Fortunato thinks the case is closed until his client’s check bounces and he is kidnapped by a couple of Albanian gangsters, hoping he’ll lead them to a large sum of money the dead husband stole. Fortunato soon realizes he may have been set up to take the fall for the murder and theft of money. What to do? Fortunato embarks on a wild ride that takes him to Texas—searching for the client’s lover who he suspects has the money and holds the key to solving the murder that’s been blamed on him. If you like Elmore Leonard, Michael Mann, and Phillip Marlowe, then you’ll love Charles Salzberg’s Canary in the Coal Mine . “Salzberg has hit it out of the park. Love the writing style, and the story really draws you in. As with Salzberg’s prior works, he has a knack for making his heroes real, which makes their jeopardy real, too. So, say hello to Pete Fortunato, a modern PI who thinks on his feet and has moves that read like the noir version of Midnight Run.” —Tom Straw, author of the Richard Castle series (from the ABC show) and Buzz Killer When a murder and a major theft have been pinned on you, how would you get out of that jam? Read Canary in the Coal Mine today to find out!
Author
Charles Salzberg's latest novel, Swann's Lake of Despair, is the third in the Henry Swann Detective Series. When rare photos, a scandalous diary, and a beautiful woman all go missing at once, the stage is set for three challenging cases for this skip tracer and his slovenly, disbarred lawyer friend, Goldblatt. Devil in the Hole, his last novel, is a work of literary crime fiction based on the notorious John List murders, which is on shelves now, was just chosen by Suspense Magazine as one of the Best True Crime Novels of the Year. It is also now available as an e-book on Kindle. He is also the author of the Henry Swann detective series: Swann’s Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel; Swann Dives In; and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair. Salzberg has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he was a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City. His freelance articles has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He is also the author of From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA; On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball’s 10 Worst Teams of the Century; and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales, Catch Them Being Good; and The Mad Fisherman.
