Nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Novella


Tommy Ruzzo is a disgraced NYPD cop who follows his coke fiend girlfriend back to her hometown in Florida. She leaves Ruzzo high and dry just before he's named Head of Security at Precious Acres, a beachfront retirement community populated by wisecracking New Yorkers. Ruzzo is stranded among the local losers until the day he discovers a murdered senior citizen on the Precious Acres bocce ball court.


The bodies pile up as Ruzzo uncovers a dangerous trail of clues that brings everybody in his new world under suspicion.


***Praise for CROSSWISE***


"The suspense starts on the first page and doesn't let up. A unique setting with unforgettable characters."


—Terrence McCauley, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL


"Briskly paced and precise as a Sunday crossword, this mystery hooks you fast, reels you in, and keeps you dangling in suspense till the very last page."


—Scott Adlerberg, author of Jungle Horses and Graveyard Love


"Crosswise stands as a glorious bastard child of Goodfellas and The Golden Girls. It's a taut mystery with a hell of a wicked streak that only further cements S.W. Lauden as one of the best new voices in mystery and crime."


—Angel Luis Colon, author of The Fury of Blacky Jaguar