In Ryan David Jahn's debut thriller Acts of Violence, Katrina Marino is about to become America's most infamous murder victim.
This is Katrina's story, and the story of her killer. It is also the story of Katrina's neighbors, those who witness her murder and do nothing: the terrified Vietnam draftee; the woman who thinks she's killed a child, and her husband who will risk everything for her; the former soldier planning suicide and the man who saves him. And others whose lives are touched by the crime: the elderly teacher whose past is catching up with him; the amateur blackmailer who's about to find out just what sort of people he's been threatening; the corrupt cop who believes he is God's "red right hand."
Shocking and compassionate, angry and gripping, Acts of Violence is a sprawling, cinematic tour-de-force, a terrifying crime novel unlike any other.
"Dark, compelling and powerful; this is a book of real substance. Jahn is a rare and fine talent." --R. J. Ellory
"The narrative is a kaleidoscope . . . the effect is of watching, unseen, through a dozen different windows . . . Powerful, compassionate and authentic, it works both as a mystery and as a snapshot of America in the early 1960s." --The Guardian
Ryan David Jahn lives in Los Angeles with his wife Mary. Acts of Violence is his first novel.
