The Violet Hour — Daniel Judson

In Daniel Judson's powerful new thriller, Bridgehampton auto mechanic Caleb Rakowski gets paid under the table at his friend Eric Carver's auto repair shop and lives in an apartment above. He's good at his job, he's a hard worker, and he's making a decent living.

But right now he's sheltering a pregnant friend who'll do anything to keep her abusive husband away from herself and her baby. Cal has sworn to protect her; that's the kind of guy he is, a true friend. Little does he know, though, the trouble destined to come down on them over the course of three days---Mischief Night, Halloween, and the Day of the Dead---when he learns the truth about Eric Carver and what he's been hiding all these years. And little does Cal know how those lies will force him to risk everything to save the people closest to him.

Daniel Judson is a craftsman of modern noir, an incredibly talented writer in the vein of Ellroy or Chandler but with the Hamptons in all their glitz and stark shadows as his canvas. Like his two previous Hamptons novels, The Water's Edge and The Darkest Place, The Violet Hour is tightly drawn, hauntingly atmospheric, and completely searing.