For the first time in his life, journalist Jack Fiorello is out of work. The 65-year-old music critic is adrift; not even his wife, Molly, can lift him from his funk. Then a reader calls with a tip, and Jack is thrust into a story involving Katy Shayne, a long-dead singer-songwriter, and what very well might be her murder. Traveling across Greenwich Village and down to Nashville, Jack unravels long-forgotten facts that led to Katy's death. In doing so, he puts himself at mortal risk for the first time in his career. Is it worth the effort? All this for an unknown singer and her songs? Though beaten and battered, Jack answers with a resounding "yes."

In mid-1970s Jersey City, young Mickey Wright is thrust into a world controlled by a powerful Teamster local associated with the Genovese crime syndicate. The man who puts him in jeopardy is his father, a free-wheeling policeman well-known to Jersey City's politicians and drug dealers. When a Black trucker is murdered, Mickey is forced to choose between loyalty to family and the Teamsters or to values he shares with Debbie Olsen, the love of his young life who is the daughter of a solidly middle-class family. Memorable appearances by Mickey's sister, who is broken by her father's foul will, and memories of their late mother haunt the story. The question of whether Mickey can stand tall, break free and live a worthy life of his choosing isn't answered until a final, shocking confrontation.

CRIME PLUS MUSIC collects 20 darkly intense, music-related noir stories by world-renowned mystery authors Brendan DuBois, Alison Gaylin, Craig Johnson, David Liss, Val McDermid, Gary Phillips, Peter Robinson, and, from the music world, Galadrielle Allman, author of PLEASE BE WITH ME: A Song for My Father, Duane Allman and award-winning songwriter-novelist Willy Vlautin. Edited by novelist and Wall Street Journal rock and pop music critic Jim Fusilli, CRIME PLUS MUSIC exposes the nasty side of the world of popular music, revealing it to be the perfect setting for noir.

Following the brutal murder of his wife, a man finds himself swept into a world of violence and danger. Freed by an unexpected savior, he is still a haunted man who remains the target of his estranged daughter’s scorn. But as he succumbs to sordid temptation and is accused of murder, he must find the real killer to clear himself. He is unaware, though, that his nemesis, a Wall Street power broker, has unleashed a killer on his trail --- and the trail of his daughter.

For years the drifter haunted the background of American life, roaming the side streets and highways that crisscross this vast country. That all changes when he witnesses a brutal assault on a young woman. By the time he reaches her, the assailant is gone, leaving a trail that is all too easy to follow. But playing the good Samaritan may be more trouble than it’s worth, when his moment of conscience hurls him into a shadowy world of violence, intrigue and deception.

Jim Fusilli's new novel takes place in the dangerous immigrant neighborhood of Narrows Gate, overlooking the Hudson River. A young neighborhood boy named Sal Benno is pulled into the Mafia, and a complex web of secrets and crime gradually unfolds.