“Kalteis does a brilliant job melding crime fiction with early punk rock history . . . and rocks the story off the page . . . This is punk noir, folks!” —David Swinson, author of Trigger
Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver’s early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Waves of Nausea, together. The trouble is she’s running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist.
When Frankie strikes up a relationship with Johnny Falco, the owner of one of the only Vancouver clubs willing to give punk a chance, she finds out he’s having his own money problems just keeping Falco’s Nest open. Desperate to keep his club, Johnny raids one of the pot fields Sayles has growing out past Surrey, along Zero Avenue on the US border. Now he has only one debt left to repay—to Sayles—and it may cost Johnny and Frankie their lives . . .
“From the get go, this book will light up readers feeling nostalgic for Vancouver’s punk scene of the 1970s . . . Fast, funny, profane and a pleasure to read.” —Toronto Star
“No wasted words, visceral and brutal like being in the pit, this one will leave your ears ringing and you asking for more from Dietrich Kalteis. It’s the punk rock crime novel I wish I’d written.” —Eric Beetner, author of The Devil Doesn’t Want Me
