Stone Cribs: A Smokey Dalton Novel

 "Kris Nelscott can lay claim to the strongest series of detective novels now being written by an American author. " Salon

Smokey Dalton takes on the dangerous world of back-street abortionists in pre-Roe Chicago.

After attending a charity fundraiser, private investigator Smokey Dalton and his powerful girlfriend discover a critically injured woman in his neighbor's apartment, and his neighbor missing. Smokey gets the woman to a nearby hospital which proves to be a mistake: the doctor won't treat the dying woman until she tells him what happened to her. Smokey works to save the woman and find his neighbor, but everything he does makes the situation worse. 

Smokey has entered a secret part of America—the arcane rules of a hospital trying to follow the law as well as save lives. None of it makes sense, and all of it threatens everything Smokey believes in.

 "Without the slightest hint of preaching, Nelscott brilliantly illuminates the ugliness of that era-which defines Smokey's world but does not destroy him. Because of Nelscott's strong hand, it also does not overwhelm the drama of this remarkable story. "

—Publishers Weekly starred review

Read the whole gripping series:

A Dangerous Road, Book 1

Smoke-Filled Rooms, Book 2

Thin Walls, Book 3

Stone Cribs, Book 4

War at Home, Book 5

Days of Rage, Book 6

Street Justice, Book 7

"Like the best of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer stories, Kris Nelscott's Smokey Dalton novels are infused with an understanding of the social, political, and moral complexities of the community in which they're set. Her characters not only struggle with the contradictions that rule them but are in perpetual conflict with their surroundings. Thus, brutality is no surprise, but then neither is an act of kindness. The most dilapidated building may house a gentle soul or a rabid criminal, and so too may a luxurious home. This type of subtlety treats readers with a level of respect that makes for a rich, rewarding experience, and so it is with Stone Cribs, Nelscott's exceptional new novel." —The Boston Globe

Kris Nelscott is an open pen name used by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was short-listed for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award finalist; and the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune's best mysteries of the year. Kirkus chose Days of Rage as one of the top ten mysteries of the year and it was also nominated for a Shamus award for The Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year. 

Entertainment Weekly says her equals are Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler. Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books  "a high-class crime series."