Matt Connell, a formerly successful literary agent who’s been in prison for four years for a crime of passion—homicide by strangulation after learning his wife slept with a friend—receives an early release from Sing Sing to join an FBI undercover investigation of multiple murders in Manhattan. Killings continue to mount as Matt does his best to calm his “Ferrari brain”—a condition in which his mind accelerates wildly into negative thoughts and worst-case scenarios—even as he falls in love with a suspect, then discovers disturbing truths about his past and hers. When he finds his own life in danger, can he stand up for the Bureau’s heralded principles of Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity? Not to mention genuine love?
Praise for Necessary Deeds
“What makes Necessary Deeds so irresistible and addictive is that it’s a devilishly inventive murder mystery presented in the finest of sentences and filtered through a mind wonderfully beset at every turn by the dark truths of human desire, ambition, envy, and jealousy—but most of all by love itself. If Mark Wish’s life imitates his art, his gift for storytelling might just get him murdered. But not before his next book deal, please. In any case, Necessary Deeds is a necessary read.”
—Tim Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of Descent and Distant Sons
“By turns tense and tender, Mark Wish’s Necessary Deeds delivers a high-stakes noir and a taut tale of jealousy, murder, and redemption.”
—Laura McHugh, internationally bestselling author of The Weight of Blood
“Necessary Deeds is a tight, tense thriller that explores some of the darkest, twistiest workings of the human mind. Mark Wish asks the question: Who can you trust if you can’t trust yourself?"
— Lou Berney, winner of Edgar, Hammet, Anthony, Dagger, and ALA Awards, author of November Road
“Mark Wish’s Necessary Deeds hits the sweet spot: sly, sharp, and satirical. Highly entertaining!”
—Alan Orloff, Anthony, Agatha, Derringer, and two-time Thriller Award winning author
“Smart and gripping, nuanced and wryly observed, Necessary Deeds is unputdownable, and Wish is clearly a writer at the top of his game. A phenomenal thriller that will leave you breathless.”
—Tish Cohen, author of The Summer We Lost Her
“Bursting at the seams with voice and tension, Mark Wish’s Necessary Deeds reads like the literary lovechild of Bellow, Chandler and Robert Bolaño. This is a literary page-turner, full of life and poetry. A novel to be devoured, then savored.”
—Daniel Torday, two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West
“In Necessary Deeds’ Matt Connell, Mark Wish has created a diabolically compelling anti-hero—a literary agent with both romance and murder in his heart. As soon as I read the first few lines of this novel, I was all the way in—Wish portrays the high-stakes New York City literary world and the conflicted soul of Connell with humor, pathos, and supreme suspense.”
—Grace Paley Prize winner Christine Sneed, author of Little Known Facts
“Smart, exceptionally told, and a pleasure to read, this mystery by Mark Wish is complemented by dialogue brimming with emotional insights, whether about the foreboding passion between a man and a woman, or the rage of a wounded husband. Necessary Deeds is the kind of book you read in a rush but remember long after.”
—E. A. Aymar, bestselling author of No Home for Killers
“I was hooked by the first sentence—one of the best I’ve read—and followed Mark Wish’s tale on and on. Wish knows how to tell a story, and in Necessary Deeds, he has given us a varied, surprising, and irresistibly engaging one.”
—Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page, author of Parallel Play
“Necessary Deeds is a captivating, spiraling story that doesn’t let up off the throttle. When it was over, I found myself wanting—no, needing—that speed again. Wish has created a stunning narrative with so much drive and power. Any reader would love this.”
—PEN Award winner Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez
“Necessary Deeds is a rarity: a murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end, and most important, is a lot of fun. Mark Wish has written a witty page-turner that’s necessary reading.”
—Leland Cheuk, author of No Good Very Bad Asian
“Mark Wish’s Necessary Deeds is a deliciously gleeful send-up of the New York literary world, a wildly satirical removal of the veil over High Art. Most notably, it’s a genuine whodunnit: Who is murdering the Talented Writers in the city (with their outsized advances)? Intertwined throughout is a noir love story and humor, but also a clear-eyed gaze at what has happened to notions of Integrity, Literature…and Fame. The twist at the end took me by surprise while making perfect wicked sense.”
—Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner Katherine Vaz, author of Fado and Other Stories
