Wildwood Exit

by

Joel E. Turner

Complex, compelling story I didn’t want to put down.

Wildwood Exit is a compelling new crime thriller by Joel E. Turner, featuring an out-of-work South Philly bartender who relocates to Wildwood on the Jersey Shore to manage a restaurant there for a friend whose messy personal life soon becomes his problem. As the plot unfolds, the story proves to be fascinatingly complex, with twists and turns at every corner. 

John McGinty, “Ginty” to his friends, has known Lou Scolletta, his wife, Concetta, and son, Davy, for a long time, and when the bar he’s been working at for years is sold, he accepts a position as the manager of a restaurant Lou owns in Wildwood, down the Jersey shore. While this isn’t his forte, he feels like he owes Lou’s family for help in his past and is willing to do his best for his friend. However, his new role soon expands when Lou asks Ginty to complete other tasks of a questionable nature, including spying on Concetta, whom Lou suspects of having an affair. To assist Ginty with these off-the-books assignments is Lou’s man, Pinto, a scrappy guy from the old neighborhood, who is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Lou, whom Ginty begins to realize is more “connected” than he knew, happy. Ginty has a soft spot for the now-grown Davy, who is estranged from his father. a drug addict and failed drug dealer, hiding from the drug dealers he owes money to. Told from Ginty’s first-person point of view, he narrates with an engaging, often humorous voice as he is dragged into Lou’s troubles with his wife, son, and the local Mexican drug cartel. 

Set sometime in the 1980s, the author recreates an earlier, but not necessarily simpler, time. Ginty’s love interest, Pauline, a French-Canadian paralegal vacationing in nearby Cape May, doesn’t have a phone in her rental, so keeping that relationship going has communication problems that are forgotten today with ever-present cellphones. The plot is complex and compelling as Ginty’s life becomes entangled with Lou’s disintegrating family and extracurricular business dealings. There are plenty of twists and clever misdirection that keep Ginty and the reader wondering about whom he can trust and where the story is headed. I didn’t want to put the book down.

 I recommend WILDWOOD EXIT to readers of mysteries, thrillers, and crime fiction, especially those with an affinity for the Jersey shore. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.