Hopes and Dreams can propel you through the fire; or they can burn you to death.
 
1975, Chicago: Coleen Brennan and Bobby Vargas fall in love at age six. At thirteen their secret kills Coleen, breaks Bobby’s heart forever, and makes Coleen’s twin sister Arleen a runaway who’s never found.
 
Until today. Arleen Brennan reappears in Chicago to vie for the last-chance breakthrough role that has eluded her for two decades as an actress. Bobby never left; he’s a gang cop caught in a street war that could derail the city’s upcoming bid to host the Olympics.
 
When Bobby and Arleen collide, their reunion shocks them to their knees. Together they enter a twisted labyrinth of neighborhood secrets, gangland politics and murderous betrayal that threatens to consume everyone it touches.
 

“Can’t get enough of Chicago? The most dynamic character in Charlie Newton’s…terrific [START SHOOTING] is the Windy City--the down and dirty side of it, anyway…the voices reverberate in your ears, and the smell of gunfire lingers long after the last man is down.”--New York Times Book Review

“The vision of Chicago in this firecracker crime novel is one teeming with violence and venality, where 
Al Capone has been replaced by gangbangers and authorities are far from untouchable…his lit-fuse urgency hits you right in the gut.”--Entertainment Weekly

"Charlie Newton is the real goods, delivering bare-knuckles crime fiction with life-or-death action, visceral language, and characters whose flaws and humanity pull us into his cops-and-crime landscape. I was completely won over. Start Shooting is a superb balance between adrenaline and pathos."--Robert Crais, New York Times bestselling author of The Sentry

“[Charlie] Newton has given us a frenzied, frenetic, driving, punching, shouting, pinwheel of revelations about life in the wrong lane…I wanted to put the book down and shout, ‘Whoa, whoa! Slow it down just a little, please.’ But I couldn’t put the book down.”--Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

"[Charlie] Newton’s books, all set in Chicago, are full of startling things — shocking plot turns, indelible characters, brutal violence alternating with moments of strange beauty and desperate tenderness."--Chicago Sun-Times

“Doing for the Windy City what The Wire did for Baltimore and James Ellroy's novels did for Los Angeles, [Start Shooting] uncovers with sardonic intensity the deep and seemingly irreversible connections between crime, politics, business and tabloid journalism….[Charlie] Newton delivers [a] thrilling, densely packed novel that makes most Chicago crime thrillers seem tame.”--Kirkus (starred review)

"A vast cast of characters, many deeply evil; numerous subplots...; copious violence and car chases; a granular look at the city; and a writing style that might be called fever dream....Arleen and Bobby are wonderfully realized characters, and the beyond-frenzied action is certainly hypnotic. Newton has created the writerly equivalent of every great Chicago bluesman who ever lived playing together; all soloing simultaneously. It might be messy, but you wouldn't want to miss a single note."--Booklist (starred review)

"Charlie Newton bar none is the most talented new voice of noir. Start Shooting had me on the edge of my seat for hours: dark, chilling, gripping, clever...Raymond Chandler would be proud."--Andrew F. Gulli, The Strand Magazine

 "The dark underside of Chicago's gangland snarls and bites juxtaposed against the sheer beauty of Newton's writing." —Crimespree Magazine