Dirty Sweet: A Mystery »

John McFetridge is the author of Below the Line and several screenplays. He attended his first murder trial at the age of 12, with his police officer brother. He lives in Toronto.

Nothing is what it seems and everyone knows more than they let on in this fast-paced crime story. On a busy street on a Monday morning, a man behind the wheel of an SUV is shot in the head, and his killer drives off before the light changes. But what appears to be road rage or a random act of violence is actually an opportunity for everyone—everyone, that is, but the victim. The getaway driver is a Russian mobster who needs to rent a space for his new strip club, which funds his other, even less savory enterprises. The eyewitness is a real estate agent with some new leverage, legal and otherwise, on that strip club lease. Her other tenant, a petty pornographer, sees a chance to expand his business—if the realtor plays along—and the homicide squad sees its own opportunities in the brazen murder. Events unfold with speed and surprise as the players eye the prize and race to the finish.