Book Description

WRONG MAN, WRONG CRIME, WRONG TIME Swifty King was convicted of a crime that he did not commit. In a strange twist it was the best thing that could happen to him. This compelling story traces his life from wide-eyed kid to savvy “fixer.” He struggles between love and hate for the father figure who caused him to go to jail while he gains more from “the man” than Artie Leonardo took from him. Artie Leonardo is a convicted felon, a decorated Veteran of WWII, a legitimate businessman and a father. He loves his son Jake and his daughter Toni Marie, but his son’s attitude and overbearing behavior vex him. Swifty King is the kind of young man he would like his son to be. As he struggles to guide Jake and make up for what he did to Swifty, he learns more about himself. Swifty’s beautiful but disapproving wife Kim also gains from the relationship and ultimately finds her life in the hands of “the man” and his influence. As she faces a life threatening disease it is Artie and his influence that hold out the only hope for her survival. She is ambitious and smart. She loves Swifty, so she is willing to compromise, first to keep her life with him and to build a business career, later in order to save her life. Always lurking in the shadows are the side characters who helped make Swifty and Kim who they become: K.K. Faust, Swifty’s, brilliant best friend who narrates, Nelson Leigh and Connor Grove, his jailhouse mentors, Norm Cellestine, Artie’s partner and Kim’s boss, who rises from nothing to riches, only to be struck down with Alzheimer’s, Gladdie Ames, Kim’s sister and Swifty’s former two-timing girlfriend and many others. Swifty is a complex story of innocence and guilt, love and jealousy, crime and political avarice, friendship and commitment.