Good Neighbors

185 Pages·2011·0.77 MB·English

by  Ryan David Jahn

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50

Acknowledgements
PENGUIN BOOKS
GOOD NEIGHBORS
Ryan David Jahn grew up in Arizona, Texas, and California. He left school at
sixteen to work in a record store and subsequently joined the army. Since 2004
he has worked in television and film. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife,
Mary.
Acclaim from the UK for Good Neighbors
“A terrific debut . . . A wonderfully visual book—the effect is of watching,
unseen, through a dozen different windows as Jahn switches from one scenario
to the next. Powerful, compassionate and authentic, it works both as a mystery
and as a snapshot of America in the early 1960s.”
—The Guardian
“Gripping . . . Jahn takes the nub of the real Genovese case and weaves a superb
series of fictional stories around it. . . . He constructs a convincing edifice of
doubt, anger, jealousy, despair and a host of other emotions leading inexorably to
the same conclusion: do nothing.”
—The Times
“A striking first novel . . . It contains genuine insights into the way people act
under pressure.”
—The Sunday Times
“An astounding piece of fiction. It grips you like a vise from the beginning and
doesn’t let you go. . . . [Jahn is a] bright new star to crime fiction.”
—Crimesquad
“An audacious, inventive piece of literary thriller writing . . . Jahn’s novel is
subtle, delicately constructed and displays a fine ear for dialogue. It also
announces the arrival of a distinctive new talent.”
—Daily Mail
“Brutal and immediate . . . Cleverly written, accomplished and gripping . . . At
times I had to stop reading to catch my breath.”
—The Bookseller
“Dark, compelling and powerful . . . Jahn is a rare and fine talent.”
—R. J. Ellory, author of A Quiet Belief in Angels “Without a doubt, the most
outstanding novel I have read this year.”
—Rhian Davies, It’s a Crime!
“Jahn’s violent amorality tale has . . . drawn well-earned comparisons with Bret
Easton Ellis and James Ellroy. . . . Gripping, and layered with juicy, scathing
insights into the relationships and politics of the era, Jahn proves himself as a
promising noir talent.”
—The List
“Addictive and compelling.”—BookTime “A gripping and thoughtful
psychological thriller . . . Terse, telegraphic and present-tense, Jahn’s style
creates a voyeuristic distance between reader and characters that perfectly
matches his theme, the fearfulness and atomization of urban life that encourages
each man to be an island.”
—Financial Times
“A very accomplished debut, a gripping thriller based on a real event in ’60s
America. Moving quickly from perspective to perspective, it scoops the reader
up from page one and does not let go. This is not only a crime novel, but a
brilliant evocation of’60s New York in terms of its prejudices, its corruption and
its humanity.”
—Crime Writers Association Dagger Award judges’ citation
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York
10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R
0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books
Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division
of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, • Panchsheel
Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, •
New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24
Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in Great Britain under the title Acts of Violence by Macmillan New Writing, an imprint of
Pan Macmillan Ltd 2009
Published in Penguin Books 2011

Copyright © Ryan David Jahn 2009
All rights reserved

Excerpt from Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
Copyright 1939 by Dalton Trumbo. By permission of Kensington Books.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Jahn, Ryan David.
Good neighbors / Ryan David Jahn.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-101-52870-9
1. Murder—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 2. Crime prevention—Citizen participation—Fiction.
3. Queens (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3560.A356G66 2011
813’.54—dc22 2011007445

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