Books
Nightswimming
Paterson, New Jersey (1979): Jamie Palmieri is a patrol officer, three years out of the academy and frustrated with his slow rise to detective. All that changes when a double homicide at a local bar leaves the owner and a young woman dead, and a short-staffed department pulling extra crew onto the case. In the wake of the Rubin “Hurricane” Carter proceedings and the city’s lingering distrust for the police, Jamie is told to expect a “no one saw a thing” investigation. But as Jamie traces a series of small leads, he’s sent on a path where the tables turn suddenly – with the still-unknown killer now stalking Jamie and the people he’s closest to.
A classic police procedural charged with the social turbulence of the 1970s.
The launch for Nightswimming is Saturday, April 26, 2025, at the KGB Bar in Manhattan. The official release date is June 26, 2025.
Advance Praise
“Anagnos smartly uses the structure of the police procedural to probe the ways in which the 1970s were both an incredibly progressive and sneakily regressive time for women—and the ways men struggled to keep up when things were changing at such a dizzying clip… Anagnos, a writer and editor, explores the shifting terrain of gender and power and brings Paterson, at this juncture, to vivid life. Nightswimming is the first of a trilogy, and I’m eager to see how the project will unfold.”
—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review
“Contemplative, pacy, and with a setting so vivid you can taste the industrial grit on your tongue. Paterson, New Jersey in the late 1970s is not a place I’ve ever yearned to visit; by the time I reached the propulsive climax of Anagnos’s story, I never wanted to leave.”
—Kat Rosenfield, author of the Edgar Award nominated thriller, No One Will Miss Her
“… debut novelist Anagnos sweats so many procedural details of Jamie’s painstaking investigation that you’ll sweat along with him. … The real star of this show is Paterson, which feels as menacing, vivid, and multilayered as Walter Mosley’s Watts.”
Nightswimming is my favorite kind of crime novel—rich, character-driven crime that drops me right into the action. Melanie Anagnos beautifully conjures a 1970s Paterson, New Jersey that feels so lived in, I practically teleported. This is just the best kind of noir—a crime as complex and relevant today as it ever was, a world where one good man can still make a difference. I cannot wait to dive back into the world of Jamie Palmieri!
—Halley Sutton, USA Today bestselling author of The Hurricane Blonde
“… all the intrigue, twists, turns, and danger one would hope for in a great crime novel. Anagnos has written a compassionate, emphatic, sweet and sexy protagonist who I not only like but love…. A page turner is an understatement. Nightswimming pulls you in and doesn’t let you go.”
—Patricia TM Dunn, author of the award-winning novel, Her Father’s Daughter.