All I Did Was Shoot My Man: A Leonid McGill Mystery (Leonid McGill series Book 4)

In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present. Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn't remember shooting Harry, but she didn't deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space. For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella's innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an exprostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias. A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man's attempt to stay connected to his family. From Booklist Starred Review Leonid McGill has spent a life in crime but has managed to avoid the long arm of the law. Now he works as a de facto investigator, valued because of his access to the criminal underworld and his familiarity with the police. Years ago, Zella Grisham found her lover, Harry Tangelo, in bed with another woman. Zella had no memory of shooting Harry, but all the evidence pointed to her. After seven years in prison, Zella is out and looking to clear her name. Who better to help than Leonid? He begins the investigation but is constantly distracted by his own dissolving family. By tacit agreement, his wife, Katrina, has taken many lovers, looking for a man to take her away from Leonid. No one has fit the bill, leaving her frustrated and depressed. Now she’s drinking far too much. One of McGill’s sons is moving in with an ex-prostitute, the other has a talent for crime, and McGill’s father, long thought dead, resurfaces under an alias. Mosley has long used the crime novel as a framework for poignant explorations of the human condition. McGill is a dogged, tough investigator, but those qualities aren’t necessarily going to hold his family together. Compassion, wisdom, and forgiveness are needed and prove as tough to find as Harry Tangelo’s real killer. Mosley is a master, and this is among his best. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Mosley always draws a crowd, but his last few novels have been less than his best. A return to form here, backed by strong marketing, should signal strong sales. --Wes Lukowsky Review Leonid McGill is defiantly old school. He uses his big heart and a lifetime of boxing skills to save a woman from the grasp of mobsters desperate to reclaim the money she stole from them. Thing is, she didn't. McGill framed her SUNDAY EXPRESS Like all Mosley's work 'All I Did...' is written with rhythm and an utterly compelling veracity, as PI McGill reopens an old case in which he was implicated in some less than legal activities. There is real depth to Mosley's characters and a clarity of thought that is refreshing in a sea of overwritten contemporaries -- Doug Johnstone THE BIG ISSUE This follows in the tradition of Chester Himes... If you like your crime snappy, hard-boiled and razor-edged, Walter Mosley is for you -- Victoria Clark THE LADY Everything about Walter Mosley's new book is a combination of exquisite elegance and street toughness, from the title - All I Did Was Shoot My Man - to the understated heartbreak of the last line -- Mat Coward MORNING STAR a decidedly unconventional private eye novel... Parallels can be drawn with John Banville's Freddie Montgomery or Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley... Elegant, laconic, complex and thought-provoking, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is one of the most intriguing crime fiction novels of the year so far IRISH INDEPENDENT Suspense "Eight years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn't remember shooting Harry, but she didn't deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity - until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space. For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella's innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an ex-prostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias."-- Publisher description. In this gritty, fast-paced crime novel, a resilient ex-con seeks redemption and uncovers a web of high-stakes secrets as Detective Leonid McGill tries to prove her innocence. Zella Grisham never denied shooting her boyfriend. That's not why she did eight years of hard time on a sixteen-year sentence. It's that the shooting inadvertently led to charges of grand theft. Talk about bad luck. Leonid McGill has reasons to believe she's innocent. But reopening the case is only serving to unsettle McGill's private life even further—and expose a family secret that's like a kick to the gut. As the case unfolds, as the truth of what happened eight years ago becomes more damning and more complex than anyone dreamed, McGill and Zella realize that everyone is guilty of something, and that sometimes the sins of the past can be too damaging to ever forget. Or ever forgive.

Zella Grisham never denied shooting her boyfriend. That’s not why she did eight years of hard time on a sixteen-year sentence. It’s that the shooting inadvertently led to charges of grand theft. Talk about bad luck.

Leonid McGill has reasons to believe she’s innocent. But reopening the case is only serving to unsettle McGill’s private life even further-and expose a family secret that’s like a kick to the gut.

As the case unfolds, as the truth of what happened eight years ago becomes more damning and more complex than anyone dreamed, McGill and Zella realize that everyone is guilty of something, and that sometimes the sins of the past can be too damaging to ever forget. Or ever forgive.

When Zella Grisham is accused of both shooting her boyfriend and stealing more than six million dollars from the Rutgers Assurance Corp., Leonid McGill investigates, while his own family life begins to unravel around him