The Old Turk's Load

A tight, fast, and funny crime novel set amid the Newark riots of 1967. When a load of high octane heroin goes missing in the melee, criminals, cops, do-gooders, and lowlifes scramble to possess it. But the heroin has ideas of its own, leading its pursuers on a very un-merry, increasingly deadly chase.

Angelo DiNoto, a ruthless New Jersey crime boss, supplements his ill-gotten gains by importing blindingly pure artisinal smack produced by an old Turkish farmer. A five million dollar shipment disappears, and DiNoto can think of nothing better to do than go on a murderous rampage.

Richard Mundi, in whose lap the drugs have landed, is a burned out Manhattan real estate developer who plans to use the unexpected windfall as capital to revive his crumbling business empire. His gorgeous daughter Gloria, in bed - literally - with a band of wannabe revolutionaries, sees the heroin as a way to escape her father's looming presence and impress the woman she truly loves. "The Mailman" is a longtime postal clerk who has survived the worst that life has to offer --until throat cancer robs him of his voice and the will to live. To him, the drugs are a ticket to a better place. Topping off the cast is Walkaway Kelly, a private eye and Hell's Kitchen barfly who teeters continually on the brink of redemption.

Stir in Kelly's lovelorn sidekick, a pair of closeted gay hoodlums who work as DiNoto's enforcers, Mundi's conflicted protégé ( a slab of muscle with a moral conscience, who also serves as Gloria's nanny), and you have an Elmore Leonard-esque cast of characters running rampant in a convincingly wrought historical setting. Gregory Gibson weaves a thrilling, twisty plot in which disparate threads converge in an unforgettable showdown over the Old Turk's Load.