Crime writing is not easy, as Raymond Chandler noted some 60 years ago when reflecting on his early days writing pulp fiction: "[T]he demand was for constant action and if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand."
Phoef Sutton certainly knows the demands of the genre. A film and television writer ("Cheers," "Terriers") who has lately penned crime novels with Lee Goldberg and Janet Evanovich, Sutton goes it alone in "Crush," the first of what appears to be a series.
The title is the nickname of Caleb Rush, who is first observed by 18-year-old Amelia Trask from a safe distance: "Cold eyes and muscles, he was standing … like a piece of furniture.