“The Skinny” is a noir  novel about sheer evil in the Big Apple. Stan Kaminski, a down-on-his-luck Polish immigrant, tries to scratch out an existence in 1990s New York City while avoiding the colorful, nefarious characters he encounters at every turn.

When Stan is asked by one of Manhattan’s wealthiest landlords to find a lost woman, he refuses at first. But money lures him in. As Stan searches for the brilliant but troubled Charmaine, he becomes ensnared in a waking nightmare full of mystery, multiple murders and the valuable braquemard of a serial killer.

The Skinny, the first book in a planned trilogy, concerns the conflicts that come with change as one New York vanishes and another appears to take its place. It explores the constant struggle between the rich and the poor, how the addicted mind battles itself for answers, the way one mystery is solved only to open the door to another, and what hope actually means.