From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Derringer Award–winner White's engrossing, evocative debut novel will grab most readers from its opening sentences: I've killed three men in my life. One the police know about, two that I've kept to myself. New Jersey ex-cop Jackson Donne is about to use profits from his PI business to fund a bachelor's degree when his closest friend, Korean War vet Gerry Figuroa, is killed in a hit-and-run. Reluctantly investigating the accident, Donne finds evidence that Figuroa may have been supplementing his actor's income by manufacturing crystal meth, and soon suspicious ties appear to an apparently unrelated adultery and divorce case. White manages to make improbable plot twists seem plausible, and his choice to alternate Donne's slightly unhinged first-person narration with the third-person perspective of New Brunswick Police Det. Bill Martin, Donne's despicably corrupt former partner and nemesis, works surprisingly well. Fans of hard-hitting, uncompromising private investigators will hope that Donne ditches his college dreams and continues to pound the pavement.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“A terrific novel, a unique and artful blend of the PI and the Police Procedural in a plot as nicely tangled and sexually violent as a cat fight, a story as deceptively simple as your first love and as fatal as your last car wreck. It's a great read.”
-James Crumley, Dashiell Hammett Award-winning author of The Last Good Kiss and The Right Madness
"Everybody wins when a classic form, such as the private-eye novel, meets up with a class act, such as Dave White. In his remarkable debut novel, WHEN ONE MAN DIES, White manages the neat trick of respecting the genre's traditions while daring to nudge it toward something new and unexpected. And Jackson Donne is a wonderful character, someone with whom readers will happily share many beers in the Olde Towne Tavern for years to come. Lots of promise here -- in Donne and White. I'm rooting for both of them."
-Laura Lippman, Edgar Award-winning author of Every Secret Thing
"Every now and then you find a debut novel that carries the clear promise of big things to come. WHEN ONE MAN DIES is one of those. Fast and funny, with plenty of classic action but a setting and character that are entirely new, Dave White is creating a winner with Jackson Donne. Always good to get in on the ground floor."
-Michael Koryta, Edgar-nominated author of A WELCOME GRAVE
"Jackson Donne takes his place alongside the grim and battered P.I.s of yore -- your Archers, your Spades -- uncovering painful truths and doling out what passes in this tarnished world for justice. Bracing stuff."
-Charles Ardai, Edgar Award-winning writer and publisher of Hard Case Crime
“When I read my first Dave White story, I knew that he was going to be huge someday–like, Robert Parker huge.
When One Man Dies is the first bold step in fulfilling that promise. It’s the great American private eye novel reborn for the 21st century, with a fast-moving, spare style that punches you in the gut at the same time it squeezes your heart.”
-Duane Swierczynski, author of The Blonde and The Wheelman
"Every new crew of crime writers has one standout, and true to form here comes Dave White, an author who made his bones in short story form before most writers ever find their legs. WHEN ONE MAN DIES
steps him up as a made man in the genre …an awesome debut … forgetaboutit."
-Charlie Stella, author of Cheapskates and Charlie Opera
"WHEN ONE MAN DIES heralds the introduction of two astonishing new figures in the crime fiction world: New Jersey PI Jackson Donne, whose emotional journey will break your heart, and author Dave White, whose voice has the confidence and assurance many more established writers would kill for."
-Sarah Weinman, editor of "Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind"
