Modern day New York is safer and shinier than ever. But don't be fooled. Danger still lurks, even in the tightest communities.Aaron is newly single and aims to take advantage of everything the city has to offer by moving into one of its hottest up-and-coming neighborhoods, Hell's Kitchen. While making sure no corner of New York nightlife goes unexplored, Aaron gets tangled up with some new and colorful accomplices. There's Greg, a bartender hell-bent on providing asylum to prostitutes and their tricks; Linda, who can't squelch her habit of luring bad seeds back to her high rise for more than just the view; Perry, who only finds solace when dancing for tips; Nikki, a fiery flight attendant doing more on layovers than most do in a lifetime; and Layde Licious, a seasoned drag mother whose performances bind, and eventually rebuild, a community.Ripped from the headlines, Forty-Sixth Street Smash is a fictitious story inspired by the real events of a true crime committed in the heart of New York's renowned Hell's Kitchen. It offers a unique window into the lives of a certain cut of New Yorker-those struggling to keep their heads above water in an unrelenting city where temptation trumps temperance, lust wins out over love, and newcomers sacrifice who they once were for who they must become.Want more? Here's an excerpt from the book's preface.From the moment I walked into the studio on West Forty-Sixth Street, I knew it was home. I felt a warm vibe, and it looked in spectacular condition. I signed a lease and lived there for four years before moving to live with my soon-to-be partner. In the early days of my time there, I read many articles about the crime, the murder. There were nosy neighbors who stopped me to talk about it. And people at local bars and social gatherings brought it up without prompt, not knowing I lived there.Last fall a friend and I were talking about how that murder could have happened. What were the circumstances that brought one person to murder another? According to the news reports, the man living in the apartment had picked up a guy at the gym. That guy was down on his luck and wound up staying the night. A night turned into a week. A week into a month. Finally, the man-at the prompting of his friends-worked up the courage to kick the guy out. A fight ensued, and the former tenant was killed by his unwanted guest. The killer took the victim's credit card and headed north to Vermont. It didn't take long for the NYPD to catch him.Anyone can look up the facts of the true story. In consideration of those facts, coupled with my own life experiences and a healthy dose of imagination, I created the story you are about to read. While the murder and my curiosity about it were my catalysts for writing this book, the world it is set in and the characters around it became just as central. Who were these men that quarreled? Lovers? Enemies? But just as important, who were the closest people in their lives before that fatal moment? Were there warning signs? Could they see this coming, or were they so wrapped up in their own lives that they missed signs? And how could this happen? How could a scenario leading to murder plausibly manifest in this apartment, in this neighborhood, in this day and age?Within the context of fiction, Forty-Sixth Street Smash seeks to explore the "how" of a real-life murder-one that occurred in a place I happened to live.- Dennis Petrone
About the Author: Dennis Petrone currently lives in his hometown of New York City with his partner, Alex, and a small cat named Meep. He works in media as a manager and editor. He lived overseas in New Zealand for many years, where he eventually became a citizen. Before that, he studied literature and history at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He enjoys adventure travel, reading, writing, and, above all, the transformative power of story.