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About the Author
ALLISON LaMOTHE lived in New York for a long time, but now she lives in Miami with occasional stops back in the city to visit museums, take long walks, and feel angry.
She studied French and English with a concentration in Poetry Writing at the University of Virginia, during which time she studied in France, and after which time she lived in St. Petersburg, Russia for a year.
Her happy place, after any bookstore, is the dance studio.
She enjoys scuba diving, swimming, and generally, if there’s a body of water, she will get in it.
She enjoys making complicated meals and baked goods.
She also makes films.
Dirty Metal is her first novel.
“My name is Parker Snow. I’m a person of simple needs: black coffee, cigarettes, my cat Nellie, notebook, pen, and every inexplicably terrible thing that happens in New York City…”
New York City, 1992—A city in shambles and a reporter who’s only just keeping it together. Parker Snow is supposed to be covering the new crop of criminals who’ve arrived on Brighton Beach since the fall of the USSR. But that gets complicated when she finds herself standing in the aftermath of a young woman’s murder—especially when she begins to suspect that hers is not the only one. And then there’s that last story she wrote that didn’t turn out so well (disastrously, in fact) and the little pills that keep pulling her down her own dark path...
"Driven by a need for redemption, both for herself and the murdered women, Parker Snow proves she’s as gritty and relentless as the streets she covers—making Dirty Metal a razor-sharp debut."
— Lauren Nossett, ITW Thriller Award–winning author of The Professor and The Resemblance
“A rough and tumble debut that crackles with voice and style, Allison LaMothe’s Dirty Metal will ring in your head long after you’ve turned the last page. Boasting all the ingredients of a must-read thriller—a plucky and complicated protagonist, mesmerizing setting, and gripping mystery—Dirty Metal is a poised and poignant story that feels more like a tenth novel than a first.”
— Alex Segura, bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity and Alter Ego
“Dirty Metal is one of the boldest debut novels I've read in years. Allison LaMothe is a wildly talented writer with an exacting eye for detail and her tenacious tabloid reporter, Parker Snow, is gutsy, whip-smart, and the perfect tour guide through pre-Giuliani New York City. I absolutely loved this book."
— Julia Dahl, author of I Dreamed of Falling and Invisible City
Do you enjoy any of the following?
v Flawed female protagonists
v Non-detective sleuth protagonists
v “Girls getting murdered” stories
v The Russian mafia
v Sarcasm
v Noir
v Cats (the animal, not the musical)
v New York City
v The 90s
....then you may like Dirty Metal.
“Set in 1992 NYC, Dirty Metal rumbles and roars like a downtown express train. From the Lower East Side to Bensonhurst to Brighton Beach, Allison LaMothe's relentless reporter, Parker Snow, leaves no door un-knocked and can smell a liar a mile away. Her investigation pushes her to the limit in this debut that is vibrating with heart, grit, and an uncompromising moral clarity.”
— Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of The Note
Contact
Allison LaMothe’s literary agent is Elisabeth Weed, The Book Group.
Allison LaMothe’s film/TV agent is Ryan Wilson, Anonymous.
Allison LaMothe's publicity contact is Alexus Blanding, Flatiron, alexus.blanding@flatironbooks.com.
Allison LaMothe can be reached at allison@allisonlamothe.com.
