What
I wanted to do in Grind Joint is to
write a story about how shortsightedness, and an unwillingness to consider
unintended consequences, can make a bad situation worse. Penns River,
Pennsylvania, has been economically depressed since the mills closed in the
early 70s. Improvements in Pittsburgh never seem to make it as far as Penns
River.
Twenty-First
Century America has an answer to local economic woes: build a casino. They’re
licenses to print money. They may be for the casino, and they may do well for
jurisdictions with the savvy to negotiate a good deal with the owners. Penns
River is in over its head, even more so when a Russian mobster with a
connection to a casino silent partner wants to take over the “ancillary”
businesses from the local crime operation: loan sharking, prostitution, drugs
as needed.
Penns
River isn’t equipped to handle this. The chief of police is good for the small
town this used to be; not for a possible mob war. Detective Ben “Doc” Dougherty
has been around more: nine years as an MP, with a tour early on in Iraq. Doc
turned down better offers elsewhere to return to Penns River for a simple
reason: it’s home. He has a proprietary interest in the town and a harder core
than the Russians expect. His cousin, Nick Forte, is a private investigator
from Chicago, who has returned to Penn River to visit his sick mother. Nick has
a harder core than Doc expects.
Grind Joint is a story of how thin the
line is between what we think of as normal, and what’s out of control. People
who live in small towns think the danger and corruption they read about and see
on the news is far from them, when, in fact, it’s one bad decision—one bad
break—away. What we see as Baltimore, South Central LA, or, going farther back,
Cabrini Green or Bed-Stuy can show up anywhere. Crime seeks loose money, and is
drawn to it like ants to a picnic.
As
H.L. Mencken said in the quote I used as the epigraph: There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat,
plausible, and wrong. That’s true on both sides of the law in Grind Joint.
Grind Joint, with an introduction by
Charlie Stella, was released November 16 by Stark House Press.
1 comment:
And both Dana and I owe our publishing asses to you, sir. So thank you ... very, very much. Greg and Rick at Stark House are wonderful people ... no bullshit ever from either of them. Absolute gentlemen and always considered to their authors.
On another note: Check out the Bernie Sanders Playboy interview, Ed ... you'll enjoy it, I think.
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