Painted Gun

"[In] this tricky and delightfully surprising crime novel...Spinelli deftly segues from one genre to another--from hard-boiled noir to paranoid thriller, puzzle mystery (with each and every riddle logically explained), spy caper, and ultimately to something evocative of Bogart and Bacall. Spinelli is definitely a talent to watch." --Publishers Weekly "An unofficial San Francisco shamus whose tale is set in 1997 but whose heart is stuck in 1947 hunts for the world's most elusive missing person...'I keep meeting people who wind up dead,’ aptly observes the narrator/hero...If you'd like more where that came from, Spinelli is your man." --Kirkus Reviews "The Painted Gun is hardboiled like they don't make anymore. Whiplash twists, razor-sharp prose, an addictive narrative--I couldn't read it fast enough." --Rob Hart, author ofSouth Village "With a plot that winds up like a Swiss watch and then explodes like an RPG, Bradley Spinelli'sThe Painted Gun pays off in every way a reader of noir fiction wants it to, and provides a lovely bonus--some of the most sure-footed tough guy prose I've seen since Hammett and Chandler walked those mean streets. Spinelli's novel pays homage to the conventions of detective fiction while also spinning an original and terrifying web of violence, menace, and intrigue. A bravura performance by a writer of marvelous gifts." --Sterling Watson, author ofSuitcase City "The Painted Gun is a fun and wonderfully reckless remix. Bradley Spinelli spins the conventions of noir and whips up a tasty postmodern dish. It's an homage to yesterday, and also an examination of what's thrumming outside our walls right now." --Joshua Mohr, author ofAll This Life "Spinelli gives us noir voices and atmosphere, a thrilling international plot, and--in the lovely, half-mad painter Ashley Fenn--a figure who embodies the seductive dangers of fine art. What more could you ask?" --Richard Vine, author ofSoHo Sins Praise forKilling Williamsburg by Bradley Spinelli: "Spinelli offers sharp and stylish prose...Benson's nihilistic views may resonate with readers in their twenties facing an uncertain economic future." --Publishers Weekly "Spinelli has written the first visionary neo-Romantic novel of the twenty-first century." --The Awl It's 1997 at the dawn of the digital age in San Francisco. Ex-journalist and struggling alcoholic David "Itchy" Crane's fledgling "information consultancy" business is getting slowly buried by bad luck, bad decisions, and the growing presence of the Internet. Before Itchy can completely self-destruct, a crooked private investigator offers him fifty grand to find a missing girl named Ashley. Crane takes the job because the money's right and because the only clue to her disappearance is a dead-on oil portrait of Crane himself painted by the mysterious missing girl--whom he has never met. As Crane's search for Ashley rapidly becomes an obsession, he stumbles upon a series of murders, gets slapped around by thugs and intimidated by cops, and begins to suspect he's being framed for the murders by a psychotic Guatemalan hit man. Left with no avenue but survival, Crane goes on the offensive, fighting to clear his name, solve the murders, and find the beguiling portrait artist Ashley, who may have a few surprises of her own.