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 protΓ©gΓ© ( 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.
Review
"Nostalgia, noir and narcotics are blended together in a runaway train journey that careens down the track at breakneck speed . . . Breaking new ground in crime fiction with his unusual protagonist, Gibson gets a gold star for deftness, great writing, lethal encounters, mayhem, murder, and bleak black humor." -- Seamus Scanlon, _*Library Journal (starred review)
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_" 'The Mailman didn't even stop to pee.' If you can resist a sentence and sensibility like that, you're taking yourself too seriously. Gregory Gibson's The Old Turk's Load is a hoot, a neo-noir that just zips along.'" -- *Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen *
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_"...character descriptions that shine like pistols in sentences that burst like bullets. . . .With its sparse dialogue and nonchalant treatment of sex and violence,The Old Turk's Load is probably the fastest neo-noir read on crime novel shelves. Exquisitely hard boiled, this crime novel is the perfect beach read for those nurtured on Tatantino and Spillane." -- Dominic Viti ,The New York Journal of Books (starred review)
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_"Gibson's elliptical, ever-evolving plot seems a marriage of Raymond Chandler complexity and Donald E. Westlake comic haplessness, but he imbues his characters with a kind of desperate humanity that is brilliantly played out . . . The sense of time and place is wonderfully evocative, and The Old Turk's Load will be a signal pleasure for crime-fiction aficionados." -- Thomas Gaughan,Booklist (starred review)
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_"The Old Turk's Load is a marvel of Chandleresque plotting, with a deeply felt and utterly real '60s setting and a heart as big as all outdoors." -- Luc Sante, author of Low Life and Kill All Your Darlings
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βThis well-handled caper novel recalls the late great Donald Westlake.β--Publishers Weekly
From the Inside Flap
"Acclaimed writer Gregory Gibson offers a tight, fast, and funny debut crime novel set amid the Newark riots of 1967. When a load of High-octane heroin goes missing in the melee, criminal, cops, do-gooders, and lowlifes scramble to possess it. But the heroin has ideas of its own, leading its frantic pursuers on an increasingly deadly chase."