A romantic literary thriller that moves from Brooklyn mobsters to the lush beauty of Sicily, from murder to escape and a long shot at love and redemption.
Spanning three decades and two continents, soaked in passion, blood and the garish colors of the mean streets, LOWDOWN is a vivid, gripping romantic thriller that follows a twisting road strewn with sorrow and desire, deceit and ecstasy, shocking violence and intimate tenderness.
“Absorbing… almost non-stop reading because you care about the main characters. Yes, there’s violence, but there’s also a love story here. Lyrically evocative descriptions…. Schneider’s achievement is to exploit and somewhat romanticize our vicarious attraction to such perverse purveyors of the American dream.”
— National Public Radio
“Affecting… a worthy, character-driven crime novel… Schneider avoids pathos in this vivid tale of two star-crossed lovers.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A novel to fall in love with. A love story with a rugged sense of humor and a tender criminal at its heart. It’s also a story of forgiveness, and the novel’s final pages will leave you a little bit breathless, a little bit trying not to cry.”
— Hannah Pittard, author of Visible Empire
“Rapid-fire and richly imagined… a deliciously addictive urban crime thriller with a dark, deep heart and soul.”
— Debra Immergut, author of The Captives
“I loved this book! A great crime novel, balancing past and present, love and criminality, the desire for liberty and the exigencies of forgiveness. If you love crime/mafia stories like The Godfather, Dennis Lehane or Gillian Flynn, this is a book for you.”
— International Review of Books
“Draws the reader in with convincing dialog, haunting clarity, and enthralling hope. In the end this lowdown, for all its gritty reality, aims for the high notes and finds them.”
— Sheila’s Reviews
“A suspenseful novel… for anyone who appreciates a tale of second chances, true romance and—ultimately—life’s elemental pleasures.”
— Joanna Hershon, author of A Dual Inheritance
“A brass knuckle knockout of a gangster novel. If you like crime stories to ring true, with characters you can care about even if their moral compasses got shattered somewhere along the way, you’ll want to read Lowdown. And, also it’s a love story.”
— Ed Falco, author of The Family Corleone
Check out the Lowdown Reading Group Guide.