Fresh Kills by Bill Loehfelm

Bill Loehfelm’s first novel opens with his troubled hero, John Sanders Jr., telling us, “I don’t often answer my door with a gun in my hand.” But he does just that, because someone is banging on the door, he lives in a tough part of Staten Island, and he’s naked in bed with a girlfriend named Molly. The person at the door proves to be a policeman Sanders has known all his life, and he’s come to report that John Sanders Sr. has been murdered execution-style in broad daylight on a street near his home. The policeman and his partner, who’s also known the Sanders family for decades, vow to find the killer. Sanders himself, although he hates his father and first says he’d like to give the killer a medal, later decides that he, too, wants revenge.

Washington Post Book Reviews - FRESH KILLS - ArcaMax Publishing.