Bøker av Jim Winter

Fentanyl. The latest scourge of Monticello's street. A detective, a street-level dealer, and an ambitious police official, it will weave its way through their lives and change their fates. For Detective Jessica Branson, it makes the house she can't afford unlivable and unrentable. When her tenants overdose, one fatally, her career teeters toward a crash. For Marcus Lincoln, it's the latest product, his ticket to the top of the Game as he moves up in the gang that still rules the city's Holland Bay neighborhood. But one man stands in his way, and Linc holds a grudge. Between making his anger known and building his new empire, he finds himself on the bad side of the city's drug lord. For Derek Roberts, the drug becomes a major headache and a political football as he navigates between two ambitious candidates for mayor. But it's also an opportunity to reach one of his longtime goals: Getting rid of Jessica Branson. An imprisoned drug boss, a scheming council member, and a former Amish man running a junkyard complicate matters. But it all ties together when a maligned breed of dog kills a little girl in the neighborhood of Beaumont Heights. Praise for The Dogs of Beaumont Heights: "Sets up on page one and never lets up." -Colin Campbell, author of the Jim Grant Thrillers "Fast-paced and meticulously detailed, Jim Winter's spicy new crime novel crackles with intensity. He does a tremendous job of pulling together the tangled threads of his complex story in a thoroughly satisfying manner." -Patrick H. Moore, author of 27 Days "Winter knows how to mix and match, and the thrills come quickly. Definitely a novel for today that suits its readers who like their action a little uncivilized." -G. Miki Hayden, Writer's Digest University mystery and thriller writing instructor "The Dogs of Beaumont Heights will keep you turning pages into the wee morning hours, through your coffee, out the door, and on breaks at work. A great addition to the thriller lover's library shelf." -Susan Wingate, award-winning author of How the Deer Moon Hungers "Winter dishes up a compelling cast of characters on various sides of the law, a strong sense of place, and a gritty, twisty plot to weave an explosive tale of corruption and violence that burns hot from start to finish." -Andrew Welsh-Huggins, author of the Andy Hayes PI series "Winters' work smacks of McBain and Wambaugh, but there's a modern street-level tenor here-a wide aperture aimed squarely at the probing tendrils of unabated drugs and corruption." -Matt Phillips, author of Accidental Outlaws "A first-class crime story where local politics is rife with backroom deals, the police force is buried in corruption, and organized crime is on the rise. At the epicenter is Jessica Branson, a shrewd, attractive, no-nonsense detective who gets results." -Jonathan J. Brown, author of the Lou Crasher thrillers "With a fast-paced plot where the stakes increase with every turn of the page, Jim Winters has written a scorching Midwest crime epic where sociopathic drug dealers, opportunistic cops, and crooked politicians all feed from the rotting underbelly of a city in crisis." -Chuck Marten, author of Bad Guy Lawyer "Winter weaves a masterful tale of gritty, urban suspense. No one is clean; everyone has a secret.

Armand Cole kills a snitch. He is supposed to take him to Monticello''s infamous Pier 9, but a snowstorm forces him to leave the body on the freeway. A related murder at the pier is assigned to the MPD''s Special Investigations squad. For Jessica Branson, this means she gets to do something she hasn''t done in years: Real police work. But she must do so under the former Internal Affairs officer who sent her into exile. <br><br>Armand is soon the point man for the drug operation''s money man, a suave businessman named Rufus King. He is ordered to keep an eye on a stubborn dealer, an arrogant boy named Baggy, who has turned the city''s Holland Bay neighborhood into his own fiefdom. Branson finds her squad has been given a new mandate: Clean up Holland Bay. While Armand runs afoul of dealer Baggy, Branson is nearly killed in an explosion that also puts her erstwhile partner in the hospital. <br><br>Branson soon zeroes in on Ralph Smithers, the city''s drug lord. Armand tries to curry favor with Smithers, but soon becomes enmeshed in a tug of war for power between Smithers and King. In a sudden explosion of rage and betrayal, open conflict erupts over the course of an evening. Each man wants Armand to kill the other, while Branson leans hard on Smithers. <br><br>As Smithers''s grip frays, Branson, against orders, chases down leads, including a busted dealer, a drug lab operator ready to come in from the cold, and a woman brutalized by Smithers. Armand is soon in the middle of carnage the city has not seen since its Mafia days. As the night drags on, the fate of the city falls to Armand as he must decide which of his two overlords must die. <br><br>The two will end up at Pier 9 as rivalry comes to a head. <br><br>Praise for HOLLAND BAY: <br><br>"Jim Winter has written a novel that like a fine whiskey, just gets better and better with time." -Ken Bruen, bestselling author of the Jack Taylor series <br><br>"Drug dealers, cops, departmental politics in a beaten-down city. Fans of <i>The Wire</i> will love <i>Holland Bay</i>." -Dana King, two-time Shamus Award nominee and author of the Penns River crime series