The Yards

by A. F. Carter

Overview

In this twisty crime novel, a hotel hook up gone wrong finds a single mother suspected of murder

Git O’Rourke is from the wrong side of the tracks—even if, in the depressed Rust Belt town of Baxter, it’s not always clear where that designation begins. A single mother, she works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while, to go to a local bar, drink martinis and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix.

When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, a bullet through its forehead, officer Delia Mariola is one of the first on the scene. She recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime—a domestic violence call—but that does little to explain how he ended up in the situation in which they find him. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.

A twisted tale set in a tough town, The Yards is a multiple-voiced mystery with two unforgettable women at its core; its suspenseful, thrilling, and unpredictable plot will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613162354
Publisher:	Penzler Publishers
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Series:	A Delia Mariola Novel
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

A. F. Carter lives and works in New York City and is the author of All of Us and the Delia Mariola series.

Editorial Reviews

07/26/2021

Overworked single-mother Bridget “Git” O’Rourke, one of the narrators of this well-paced crime novel from the pseudonymous Carter (All of Us), dreams of leaving the “trashy side of the tracks” of the generic Rust Belt town where she grew up. Her efforts landing a better-paying nursing job out of town and giving her eight-year-old daughter a better life have proven out of reach. On a rare night to herself, Git heads to a bar, where she leaves with a stranger, Bradley Grieg, who unbeknownst to her has a heroin habit and organized crime connections. For Grieg, their brief tryst at the motel where he’s booked a room is a distraction until morning when he plans on handing over $18,000 to the underboss of a drug and money lending racket. When Grieg is later found shot dead at the motel, police lieutenant Delia Mariola, the book’s other distinctive female character, recognizes him and suspects he may have been the victim of a pickup gone wrong. The suspense builds as the trail points in Git’s direction and the plot takes some unexpected turns. This is another impressive effort from Carter. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2021-06-16
A woman struggling to rise above her troubled roots is challenged by temptation and hounded by murder.

Working two jobs that keep her away from her beloved 8-year-old daughter, Charlotte, for more than 70 hours a week doesn’t leave nurse Bridget "Git" O’Rourke much time to enjoy herself. So once a month or so she likes to cut loose, don her designer lingerie, have her alcoholic ex-beautician mother do her makeup, and head off to a local bar in search of an evening’s pleasure. The night she spots Bradley Grieg at the aptly named Randy’s Tavern starts out like many another of her flings but ends with her hookup shot dead and robbed of $18,000. Lt. Delia Mariola, head of detectives for the Baxter police force, quickly determines that Grieg spent part of the evening with an unidentified female companion but can’t figure out who it was or whether she was the perp. But the fog of doubt is no deterrent for local crime lord Carl Schmidt, whose drug money Grieg had been carrying. Preferring as usual to remain in the shadows himself, he commands his son, Grieg’s buddy Connor Schmidt, to find out who the woman was and retrieve the cash with extreme prejudice. Now it’s only a question of who’ll catch up with Git first: the police, armed with a warrant for her arrest, or Connor Schmidt, armed with sadistic enforcer Augie Barboza.

A breathless suspenser that’s also a painfully acute evocation of the wrong side of the tracks.

Kirkus Reviews

"Another twisted tale from the author of All of Us, one guaranteed to satisfy."

Booklist

"The Yards is told from alternating viewpoints — Delia Mariola, Git O’Rourke, Connor Schmidt — very different people with very different goals. It’s the intersection of their lives that makes A. F. Carter’s novel so explosive."

Bookreporter