An Empty Hell

Dave White
An Empty Hell
(Open Road, April 2025)

Two former cops are dead and they have one thing in common: Jackson Donne, who helped take them down when he was on the force. The prevailing thought is that Donne has finally lost it and is murdering old colleagues. But New Jersey’s most wanted is now in rural Vermont with a new name and a new life.

Donne is scraping by doing odd jobs at a motel, thanks to the owner, Mario, who asks no questions as long as the work is done. But when Mario disappears, Donne uncovers connections between them that are more than coincidences. Both men ran from their pasts. Both men have blood on their hands. And now someone is using Mario to get to Donne.

If Donne has learned anything, it’s this: you can run from the dirty cops in New Jersey, but you can’t hide. And this time, they’re unleashing hell…

Praise for An Empty Hell

“[A] dark and extremely suspenseful thriller . . . turns Northern New Jersey into a setting worthy of any classic noir detective series.” —Connecticut Post

“An Empty Hell is a compulsive redemption story that speeds to a confrontation in a high school gym and takes the series to a place rich with possibilities.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Dynamite . . . the characters, the situations, the pacing, the structure, and the writing are so good.” —Publishers Weekly

“It is amazing how good an author [White] has become, breathing life into the PI genre like Dennis Lehane did years ago with Gone Baby Gone.” —Sons of Spade

Dave White is the Derringer Award–winning author of six novels including the Jackson Donne series. His short story “Closure” won the Derringer Award for Best Short Mystery Story. His standalone thriller Witness to Death was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He lives in New Jersey.