First published 2019
Carley Dane made his living as a novelist, but his one great success drove him to drink and cruelty. He spent his days at the Madhouse, a Greenwich Village bar, tormenting the regulars who gathered there. The eccentric crowd included Manley Ferguson, an artist who never quite made it, Major Trevor, a rigid military man, Helen Landers, a model who stripped when drunk, and John Cossack, an ex-Russian bomb maker turned philosopher who minded the place. The bar owner despised them all, especially Carley, but tolerated their presence because tourists paid good money to gawk at the spectacle. When someone kills Carley, his death creates chaos among this strange family of misfits. Inspector Gold arrives to investigate the murder and discovers that untangling the web of relationships at the Madhouse means confronting questions of right and wrong that go far beyond simple guilt or innocence.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, found-family
Setting: Washington Square, Greenwich Village
Period: 20th-century
190 pages · Paperback · Wildside Press
Content warnings: violence