About the Book
"Dynamite... the characters, the situations, the pacing, the structure, and the writing are so good."
--Publishers Weekly After a devastating event shattered his life, Jackson Donne has gone into hiding in the forest of Vermont. Under the guise of Joe Tennant, Donne has been recovering -- and even enjoying his life up north. Until one of the few friends he's made goes missing. Meanwhile, back in New Jersey, someone is killing ex-cops -- the ones who Donne used to work with.
Terrified Donne is committing the murders, a former colleague hires private investigator Matt Herrick to track down New Jersey's most famous fugitive. Herrick agrees and almost immediately, there's a bounty on his head. The closer Herrick gets to tracking Donne down, the more dangerous the case becomes. And once Donne and Herrick cross paths, the two cases tie together, and Donne realizes he must go back to the life he left behind. Because the past has come calling, and if Donne does face up to it, he and Herrick could lose everything, including their lives.
About the Author :
Dave White is the Derringer Award-winning author of four novels: When One Man Dies, The Evil That Men Do, and Not Even Past in his Jackson Donne series, and the acclaimed thriller Witness to Death. His short story "Closure," won the Derringer Award for Best Short Mystery Story. Publishers Weekly gave the first two novels in his Jackson Donne series starred reviews, calling When One Man Dies an "engrossing, evocative debut novel" and writing that The Evil That Men Do "fulfills the promise of his debut." He received praise from crime fiction luminaries such as bestselling, Edgar Award-winning Laura Lippman and the legendary James Crumley. His standalone thriller, Witness to Death, was an ebook bestseller upon release and named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He lives in Nutley, NJ.
Review :
Praise for AN EMPTY HELL "Dynamite... the characters, the situations, the pacing, the structure, and the writing are so good."
--Publishers Weekly
"AN EMPTY HELL is a compulsive redemption story that speeds to a confrontation in a high school gym and takes the series to a place rich with possibilities."
--Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"(A) dark and extremely suspenseful thriller...turns Northern New Jersey into a setting worthy of any classic noir detective series...White never allows the darkness of his backdrop to get in the way of a carefully constructed plot that keeps us racing toward new twists that are not revealed until the last few pages."
--Connecticut Post
"It is amazing how good an author Dave White has become, breathing life into the PI genre like Dennis Lehane did years ago with Gone Baby Gone."
--Sons of Spade
Praise for Dave White
"White is one of a group of younger writers reimagining the P.I. novel by giving Donne solid connections to his culture (he's not alienated from his world) and a moral self-awareness I think is more interesting than the traditional P.I. code of behavior. This book flies."
--Carole Barrowman, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on NOT EVEN PAST
"Dave White brings the goods. Skillfully crafting a tale that thriller fans will devour at lightning speed, yet meaty enough that mystery fans will delight in fitting the pieces together."
--CrimeSpree Magazine
"Dave White is everything you hope for in a crime novelist, delivering both white-knuckle suspense and nuanced characters, propulsive action and an emotional wallop. These are books that both invigorate the genre and are also, truly, built to last."
--Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me
"White has written a PI novel that is both traditional and fresh, one of the few new talents to join this much-plowed field with something interesting and original to say. Fans of detective novels will, we hope, be enjoying his work for years to come."
--Chicago Sun-Times on WHEN ONE MAN DIES
"Everybody wins when a classic form, such as the private-eye novel, meets up with a class act, such as Dave White. In his remarkable debut novel, WHEN ONE MAN DIES, White manages the neat trick of respecting the genre's traditions while daring to nudge it toward something new and unexpected. And Jackson Donne is a wonderful character, someone with whom readers will happily share many beers in the Olde Towne Tavern for years to come. Lots of promise here -- in Donne and White. I'm rooting for both of them." --Laura Lippman
"Will grab most readers from its opening sentences. Fans of hard-hitting, uncompromising private investigators will hope that Donne ditches his college dreams and continues to pound the pavement."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on WHEN ONE MAN DIES
"A terrific novel, a unique and artful blend of the PI and the Police Procedural in a plot as nicely tangled and sexually violent as a cat fight, a story as deceptively simple as your first love and as fatal as your last car wreck. It's a great read."
--James Crumley, Dashiell Hammett Award-winning author of The Last Good Kiss on WHEN ONE MAN DIES
"Stunning...fulfills the promise of his debut...the author does such a fine job of depicting the inner conflicts of his fallible but ultimately heroic protagonist."
--Publishers Weekly on THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
"Intricate plotting and nonstop action make this a nail-biting read from start to finish. White, winner of the Derringer Award for When One Man Dies, is a writer to watch." --Library Journal
"White makes good use of the urban and suburban geography, accurately depicting the terrain. But that's not what makes his sophomore effort so readable and engaging. Rather, it's White's realistic depiction of family dynamics--readers will be struck by the sheer humanity on display in this novel, from Donne's strained relationship with his sister and brother-in-law, to the tragedy of the PI's mother's valiant but futile struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and finally, to the sacrifices that are sometimes required to keep one's family intact and safe." --Mystery Scene
"Dave White's second novel, The Evil That Men Do, absolutely confirms and fulfills the promise of his highly regarded debut Jackson Donne novel, When One Man Dies; so, simply stated, readers looking for top-notch hard-boiled noir fiction featuring an intriguing protagonist and complex characterizations need look no further than Dave White's deftly plotted novels." --Bookloons
"White handles his characters with a balance of emotional tension and action that drives this novel from the critical incident to a conflagration that leaves the survivors stunned."
--CurledUp.com
