Death Takes a Snow Day by Cindy Rosmus

I like writers who know their strengths and play to them. Cindy Rosmus is one of those writers.

Her short story collection, Death Takes a Snow Day, is all about that wonderfully fucked up state, New Jersey. Jersey hit men, Jersey bars, Jersey relationships. The setting becomes a full-fledged character, present on every page.

Rosmus maintains a focus on dysfunctional relationships between men and women throughout. Sometimes a wife is hiring out the murder of her husband. Sometimes a woman is in love with a man she knows is evil. Every scenario is doomed from the start. If noir characters fall from the curb to the gutter, then Rosmus is a noir writer.

Yet, unlike many noir writers, Rosmus crafts sympathetic narrators--people who are trying to do their best. But in Jersey, your best isn't enough.

Death Takes a Snow Day is genuine fiction you need to read.