Watch Me Go

In the prologue of this outstanding crime novel from Pushcart Prize%E2%80%93winner Wisniewski (Stand Up, Look Good), Douglas "Deesh" Sharp, an African-American who has been charged with multiple murders, receives an unexpected visitor in the Bronx jail where he's being held. Jan Price, an attractive white woman, is willing to help exonerate him of the murder of jockey Tom Corcoran, whom Jan knew personally, if Deesh can convince her that he's also innocent of killing two other people. Wisniewski deftly alternates perspectives and narrative threads, starting with Deesh's account of how he wound up incarcerated. Deesh agrees to join two friends on a job in upstate New York to haul away some junk that turns out to be a highly suspicious oil drum. Deesh is sure from the outset that the drum contains a corpse. The lure of money overcomes his fears, and reading what follows is like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Jan's parts of the story, about her experiences with the Corcoran family, are also downbeat, just what fans of literate and nuanced daylight noir will relish. Agent: Noah Ballard, Curtis Brown. (Jan.)