Your name is Drew Danner and you wake in a hospital. How you got there is a mystery … until a police officer shows you some brutal photos of a killing. The victim: your ex-girlfriend. The culprit: All fingers point to you.

That’s the opening to THE CRIME WRITER, the newest thriller from Gregg Hurwitz. Danner is a crime author who’s had some moderate success, with one of his books turned to a bad film. (Wonder if Hurwitz was going through that himself?) We then fast-forward to Danner being released from jail and having flashbacks to his trial and showing how he was freed: by virtue of some sort of brain tumor that causes the victim to do rash things without his knowledge.

But Danner can’t let sleeping dogs lie. He needs to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he did not kill his ex. However, every one of his former friends on the force who would help in his writing has turned his back on him. At least Danner has his close friends: his editor and a pal who stood by him through and through and will help him out, no matter what.

As Danner tried to dig a bit further, another body turns up with the same exact wounds his ex had, making him suspect no. 1, even though he has proof he was nowhere near the murder. Now it’s his job to figure out who is the real culprit and why they are framing him.

In his investigation, he befriends a local graffiti artist who finds it hysterical that Danner needs his help, a social worker who has her own troubled past, and an ex-con Danner is sure the real culprit. And he will stop at nothing to prove he’s right, pissing off the police force the whole time.

Even as we come closer to the truth, the reader might feel a little letdown – not with the writing, but with the resolutions we are given. It just seems a little far-fetched when we find out the culprits. Hurwitz adds some humor to all this; throughout the book, we get a peek at Danner’s writing and his editors’ handwritten notes, which are priceless. For those familiar with Hurwitz’s other books, which are series-based, this is a total standalone with a new set of characters with which he can play. –Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• LAST SHOT by Gregg Hurwitz