"An exciting first novel that echoes the best writing of Pete Hamill and George Pelecanos, mixed with bit of"The Wire"and"True Detective.""
" The Miami Herald
"The electrifying first novel in a new crime series from a veteran Washington, D.C., reporter
Sarah Reese, the teenage daughter of a powerful Washington, D.C. judge, is dead, her body discovered in a slum in the shadow of the Capitol. Though the police promptly arrest three local black kids, newspaper reporter Sully Carter suspects there s more to the case. Reese s slaying might be related to a string of cold cases the police barely investigated, among them the recent disappearance of a gorgeous university student.
A journalist brought home from war-torn Bosnia and hobbled by loss, rage, and alcohol, Sully encounters a city rife with its own brand of treachery and intrigue. Weaving through D.C. s broad avenues and shady backstreets on his Ducati 916 motorcycle, Sully comes to know not just the city s pristine monuments of power but the blighted neighborhoods beyond the reach of the Metro. With the city clamoring for a conviction, Sully pursues the truth about the murders all against pressure from government officials, police brass, suspicious locals, and even his own bosses at the paper.
A wry, street-smart hero with a serious authority problem, Sully delves into a deeply layered mystery, revealing vivid portraits of the nation s capital from the highest corridors of power to D.C. s seedy underbelly, where violence and corruption reign supreme and where Sully must confront the back-breaking line between what you think and what you know, and what you know and what you can print. Inspired by the real-life 1990s Princeton Place murders and set in the last glory days of the American newspaper, "The Ways of the Dead" is a wickedly entertaining story of race, crime, the law, and the power of the media. Neely Tucker delivers a flawless rendering of a fast-paced, scoop-driven newsroom investigative journalism at its grittiest."