Small Crimes by Dave Zeltserman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I put this on my to-read list when I heard NPR considered this to be one of the five best crime and mystery novels of 2008.
The protagonist Joe Denton does not have the first-person voice I usually hear in the fiction I read. Joe is out on early release after serving seven years in County jail for a horrific assault and maiming of the district attorney. At the time of the assault he was a police officer, a police officer who was robbing, gambling, and he was addicted to both cocaine and alcohol. He says he is reformed and he blames so many people for getting him into trouble before and now after.
I recommend this book to readers of noir fiction for the author does an excellent job telling the story by a sociopath who can spin a story that normal people want to believe until he says one small thing that makes you understand this guy is nuts and you have to break all ties with him if you want to survive this story.

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