NOWHERE MAN

"A humdinger of a suspense novel. Oster writes adroitly, with humor, irony wonderful plot twists... Rarely has a city been brought alive as the New York of Nowhere Man." - Publishers Weekly

NYPD Detective Jake Neuman is back in action in this hip, funny and exciting new suspense novel. The hero of Sweet Justice (called "stunning" by The New Yorker) returns to the force to solve two killings: one of punk-pop star Dimanche, murdered on the eve of her Broadway debut in a play about an actress who is murdered on the eve of her Broadway debut; the other of a solitary runner, gunned down on a deserted SoHo street without a scrap of identification on him-nothing but a ticket to a lottery whose jackpot is nearing $60 million.

Neuman, who retired after the discovery that his longtime partner was a serial killer, hits the streets with a new sidekick. Against the backdrop of a citywide lottery mania, they encounter a bizarre-and captivating -cast of characters. As the action moves at breakneck speed, becoming dizzyingly complex, the rough-cut, world-weary Neuman ("fourteen years married, thirty-three years a cop and a hundred years behind on the baseball scores") has to contend with a young woman making a documentary film about the police, with his wife's new ideas on marriage, and with the disparity between the "Miami Vice" version of police work and the realities of being a New York City cop. Nowhere Man is Jerry Oster at his best-a novel of sharply perceived contemporary situations, urbane dialogue, and high-powered suspense.

A former newspaper reporter and critic, Jerry Oster has written such critically acclaimed thrillers as Sweet Justice, Club Dead and Rancho Maria.

"A virtuoso piece of work, animated by very bright, sophisticated New York dialogue - Nowhere Man has so many brilliant sections together with an undercurrent of black humor that it leaves much of the competition behind:'- New York Times