Snitch World

Overview

Old-fashioned crime meets the 21st-century con

In the new novel from noir master Jim Nisbet, the Snitch World in question is actually made up of different worlds both old and new, populated with the old-time petty criminals, like Chainbang and Klinger, but also with the modern, including a nouveau femme fatale whose tools of the criminal trade are from the new economy. Snitch World takes place in a San Francisco of menacing technology, where the old cons come up short and the crimes of the night turn into crimes done in the light of modern day—all from the glow of a smartphone. Klinger hangs out at the Hawse Hole Bar and Grille, a pretty bad dive where all he really wants is enough to have a cup of coffee, buy some cigarettes, make it through the day, and find a warm, dry place to sleep; all things that can be accomplished by the next easy grift. Little does Klinger know that the rules of the game have changed, and the stakes are higher than he could ever guess or care about. The seemingly simple act of rolling a drunk begins a series of events that get stranger and more complicated by the moment. Jim Nisbet, with his characteristic humor and brilliant prose, creates a world where to trust is to possibly sacrifice all. Snitch World includes a recent interview with Jim Nisbet, in conversation with Patrick Marks, owner of the Green Arcade, talking about writing, publishing, and technology.

Reviews

"Missing any book by Nisbet should be considered a crime in all 50 states and maybe against humanity."  —Booklist

"Nisbet, who has a cult following, alludes insightfully to the dualities of America’s favorite city. Fortyish, homeless, alcoholic petty criminals colliding with well-educated, well-off, amoral, twentysomething grifters." —Thomas Gaughan, Booklist

"The plot is as much about displacement as it is tech spying... Klinger is a textbook noir protagonist faced with economic and personal doom."  —Publishers Weekly

"Jim Nisbet's work has been tapping directly into the pulse of America for decades. Like others who have done the same in the past, its only later that the rest of us catch up and realize just how right those trailblazers were all along. That time is now, for all of us to not only catch up to this unheralded master but to offer him the respect and regard that he deserves."  —Spinetingler

"...the real entertainment is in Nisbet's prose and vivid depiction of San Francisco. An enjoyable book, both funny and sad in a 'Those days are gone, but the people live on' kind of way." —10 Bad Habits

"Another example of absurdist noir from one its foremost practitioners."  —Woody Haut, woodyhaut.blogspot.com

"More accessible than some of his other work, Snitch World is a fun, twisted book, and if as widely read as it should be, will further solidify Nesbit’s reputation as a writer’s writer."  —Ben Terrall, CounterPunch

Author Biography

Jim Nisbet is the author of five volumes of poetry and nine novels, including The Damned Don’t Lie, Dark Companion, which was short-listed for the 2006 Hammett Prize, Lethal Injection, A Moment of Doubt, and Windward Passage. He lives in San Francisco.