After a fire, after a murder, after friends leaving, after threats, Detective Frank Nagler visits a place he finds soothing: The Old Iron Bog:

“The Old Iron Bog was as dark as a bad idea when Frank Nagler arrived; the swirling water sucked the color from the thick clouds that closed off the tops of the Ironton hills.

This place was made for conspiracies, he thought, watching a  smear of an early October dawn shimmer along, like a hint, a murmur of suspicion, around the dimensions of shaded rocks, past leaning trees, tops dipped in the murk until sucked underwater in a whirlpool. You follow it, all of it, he knew. Had no choice. Dark, corners of hidden depth, all the hints, the signals, all the lies, the pieces of stories washed ashore like oil traced to an old car wreck, the rumors of lovers in Room 316, kisses stolen, passion’s cries and tears; payments in dark alleys; winks across a crowded room, deals made with no more than the point of a finger; layers and layers, scratched clues on a door frame. It’s a marvel, he understood — all of this, all of them,  like two people in love who won’t admit it just to maintain the distance  because if they shared that glance with meaning in the company of others, everyone would know.”

Praise for THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY: Detective Frank Nagler can join Sam Spade, Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen and all the rest of the crime fiction honor roll as an entertaining and compelling character! I think the author, Michael Daigle, a journalist by trade, is having a lot of fun here. It will be evident to the reader that Daigle has a command of the crime beat, the political beat, and the overall gritty city beat! Daigle’s prose is robust and keeps the reader hooked. If you can win over the reader with your own level of passion, then you’ve won as a writer. And the reader gets to reap the rewards. I’m sure Daigle has paced himself and plotted a fun course for this series. I look forward to more.Amazon.com: Michael Stephen Daigle: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle