Fas­ten your seat­belt; Fresh Kills will take you on a sur­re­al and wild ride through the Russ­ian immi­grant enclaves in the bor­oughs of New York City. Along for the ride are NYPD detec­tive Artie Cohen (a Jew­ish Russ­ian immi­grant) and his four­teen-yearold nephew, Bil­ly. Bil­ly killed a man when he was only twelve and he’s now on a two week leave from a Flori­da juve­nile facil­i­ty. Artie’s been assured by Billy’s ther­a­pist that he’s a changed boy, but not every­one seems con­vinced. Billy’s par­ents are hid­ing out from him in Lon­don, Artie’s wife refus­es to let Bil­ly stay in their apart­ment and one of the mur­der victim’s rel­a­tives is leav­ing threat­en­ing voice mail messages. 

The sit­u­a­tion becomes increas­ing­ly com­pli­cat­ed as Artie’s boss tugs him into some of his cas­es, a vis­it­ing Russ­ian orphan dis­ap­pears, and a baby is found frozen in a diner’s freez­er. Adding to the tex­ture of the sto­ry is that all of this takes place in a still trau­ma­tized post 9/11 New York City. Reg­gie Nadel­son has cre­at­ed fas­ci­nat­ing and believ­able char­ac­ters and an unpre­dictable sto­ry. Fresh Kills is a great read!