Nightswimming by Melanie Anagnos
Paterson, New Jersey, 1979: Jamie Palmieri is an up-and-coming patrol officer, three years out of the academy and frustrated with his slow rise to detective. That all changes one frigid night in January, when a double homicide at a local bar leaves the owner and a young woman dead. In the wake of the Rubin "Hurricane" Carter proceedings and the city's lingering distrust for the police, Jamie is told to expect a "no one saw a thing" investigation. But as Jamie traces a series of small leads, he's sent on a path where the tables turn suddenly - with the still-unknown killer now stalking Jamie and the people he's closest to.
A classic police procedural charged with the social turbulence of the 1970s.
Author
Melanie Anagnos is a crime novelist who was born in Paterson NJ, the backdrop of her police procedurals. Melanie has been a waitress, an attorney, and a stay-at-home mom to her two now adult children. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she was awarded the Gurfein Writing Fellowship and currently publishes a Substack, Cherchez La Femme, drawing on media and pop culture from the 1970s.
Praise
“Contemplative, pacy, and with a setting so vivid you can taste the industrial grit on your tongue. Paterson, New Jersey in the late 1970s is not a place I’ve ever yearned to visit; by the time I reached the propulsive climax of Anagnos’s story, I never wanted to leave.” —Kat Rosenfield, author of the Edgar-nominated thriller, No One Will Miss Her
“ . . the best kind of noir—a crime as complex and relevant today as it ever was, a world where one good man can still make a difference.” —Halley Sutton, USA Today bestselling author of The Hurricane Blonde
“. . . . all the intrigue, twists, turns, and danger one would hope for in a great crime novel. Anagnos has written a compassionate, emphatic, sweet and sexy protagonist who I not only like but love. . . . A page turner is an understatement. Nightswimming pulls you in and doesn’t let you go.” —Patricia T.M. Dunn, author of the award-winning novel, Her Father’s Daughter
