City on the Edge

1972, Beirut, Lebanon. Young American boy Matthew lives with his mother and father, a rising foreign service attache, in an exclusive community of ex-patriots. It is the summer Matthew becomes a teenager, falls in love, nearly dies, and watches his family, and the city, fall apart.

It is in this world of Western schemers and local merchants, of hoodlums and politicians, that Matthew begins to solve the mystery of who his father really is, and what role he is really playing in the upheaval that is shaking the city loose of its old, civilized and way and ushering in a new and frightening radicalism.

This is the story of a boy and a family, besieged. Intimate in scope and wrenching in its vision of lost innocence, CITY ON THE EDGE is a mystery and spy story from the past, and a coming of age story for our time.

“"With ripped-from-the-headlines intensity....Swinson sustains the velocity of the drama and ingeniously gets at the power dynamic of personal relationships with nuance and generosity toward broken people in his messy world of ambiguous boundaries."-- The National Book Review”

"Chock full of pace and purpose, Trigger lays out hard-hustle D.C. in all its gritty shades of gray without ever once sneering at them. It's a brave novel, one with no easy outs, and an ending that feels both raw and true."--Ryan Gattis, author of Safe
"Frank remains a fascinating, deeply flawed protagonist. . . . He remains a hard-boiled hero well worth our attention."--Booklist
"Frank Marr prowls Washington like a creature from a different age: hard-knuckled, hard-drinking, equal parts loyalty, craving, determination, and regret. But in Trigger, David Swinson's detailed, glittering, vicious DC is up-to-the-minute. Never one to bend a rule when he can smash it instead, Marr leads us straight back into the wreckage he left in The Second Girl and Crime Song. It's a thrill to watch him pick up the pieces."--Bill Beverly, Edgar Award-winning author of Dodgers
"Frankie Marr, the ex-cop turned PI with a skewed sense of justice, situational ethics and a drug habit he kicked by turning to alcohol, is back. The ex-cop turned author, David Swinson, takes us on another pulse-pounding, stripped-down excursion into the badlands of the nation's capital. An old friend and colleague teeters on the brink of catastrophe and Frankie answers the call; his street wits, reckless courage, and pit bull tenacity racing ahead of glorious and soulful collapse. I missed you, Frankie, and I'm very happy to see you again."--Joe Ide, author of IQ
"George Pelecanos fans will welcome Swinson's gritty third novel featuring PI Frank Marr. . . . Swinson, a former police officer, writes with authority and honesty, giving readers a timely, informed look at the mean streets from an insider's perspective."--Publishers Weekly
"Streetwise."--The New York Times Book Review
"Within the first couple of pages, David Swinson pulls off a masterly piece of characterization: he creates a damaged, damned protagonist who no sane person would want to get close to, and then he grabs you by the collar and hauls you into Frank Marr's mind so fast and so thoroughly that none of that matters. The writing throws sparks, and the ferocious plot peels back layer after layer of Frank's character as we--and he--find out how much of his humanity is still left."--Tana French, author of The Trespasser
PRAISE FOR DAVID SWINSON AND FRANK MARR:
"Swinson is one of the best dialogue hounds in the business."
"This stand-alone follow-up to Swinson's Frank Marr mysteries--most recently Trigger (2019)--unfolds with cool understatement and entertaining period details (prepare for an onslaught of Jethro Tull) and builds to a satisfying climax."
--Kirkus
"Swinson offers the reader a deeply felt coming-of-age novel set against a background of powerful authenticity. This is not to be missed."
--Publishers Weekly
"With ripped-from-the-headlines intensity....Swinson sustains the velocity of the drama and ingeniously gets at the power dynamic of personal relationships with nuance and generosity toward broken people in his messy world of ambiguous boundaries."--The National Book Review

David Swinson is a retired police detective, having served 16 years with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. He is the author of three previous novels featuring Frank Marr: The Second Girl, Crime Song, and Trigger. Swinson lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, daughter, bull mastiff, and bearded dragon.

1972, Beirut, Lebanon. Young American boy Matthew lives with his mother and father, a rising foreign service attache, in an exclusive community of ex-patriots. It is the summer Matthew becomes a teenager, falls in love, nearly dies, and watches his family, and the city, fall apart.It is in this world of Western schemers and local merchants, of hoodlums and politicians, that Matthew begins to solve the mystery of who his father really is, and what role he is really playing in the upheaval that is shaking the city loose of its old, civilized and way and ushering in a new and frightening radicalism.This is the story of a boy and a family, besieged. Intimate in scope and wrenching in its vision of lost innocence, CITY ON THE EDGE is a mystery and spy story from the past, and a coming of age story for our time.

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