BOOK DESCRIPTION

Baby. She knows how to play the streets of Southwest Detroit. But when her boyfriend entangles her in his life of criminal treachery, she’s forced to go underground to stay alive. Her pursuer? The mysterious Tall Black Man, a cold-blooded dope dealer who believes she’s ripped off his stash. Baby flees to presumed safety in the arms of Father Anthony Costa, a drunken, delusional priest, and Dallas Sharper, a Detroit cop gone off the deep end; she hopes to buy more time to figure a way out. Throw into the mix the Canadian Mafia, some killer cops, and an unyielding city, and you have just another week in the Murder Capitol of the World. IN NINE KINDS OF PAIN is a fast-paced, beat-of-the-street story of torment and redemption, of failure and salvation, that proffers crime fiction at its best.

PRAISE
WINNER, 2012 FIREBALL AWARD FOR BEST OPENING LINE
SPINETINGLER MAGAZINE (U.K.)
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"Leonard Fritz, a modern day Hubert Selby Jr./Jack Kerouac, has written a gem."
"Leonard Fritz is a name I suspect (and hope) readers will come to know well and soon. Fritz writes in a manic stream of consciousness that immediately reminded me of two authors, Hubert Selby Jr. and Jack Kerouac.  Fritz is right there with them.  Not bad company." (READ MORE)

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"Fritz is an exciting and fearless writer."
"Opening Leonard Fritz’s In Nine Kinds of Pain is like stepping into the Noir Asylum for the Mentally Insane. It’s cracked-out crime fiction at its finest and most fucked up. There’s power in Fritz’s words, and every page seems capable of catching you off-guard, holding you at gunpoint, stealing your wallet, busting your nose, and leaving you bleeding, black and blue, and blubbering—in a metaphorical sense, that is. In real life, I’d never volunteer for an ordeal like that, but in a book, that’s exactly the sort of stylish bravado I want to see, and it is doubly impressive coming from a debut novelist. In Nine Kinds of Pain is ambitious, but more importantly it is also successful—not to mention batshit crazy, and pretty damn funny." (READ MORE) 

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"...as a standalone multidisciplinary work of art, it's a beautiful surge of creativity."
"I have heard and read many things about the city of Detroit and its fall from grace over the years, but nothing as evocative as this. Leonard Fritz is an angry, angry man and yet he has love for the city of Detroit. The kind of love you have for a member of your family that keeps fucking up, every chance he gets to take control of his/her life." (READ MORE)

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"Detroit ... has a brand new association for me--Leonard Fritz."
"Whatever develops the rest of my life, childhood memories have made a permanent and unshakeable foundation of holiday associations that can only be added to and built upon – never re-placed. For me Thanksgiving will always mean passing out in a tryptophan haze in front of the television, Thanksgiving television will always mean football, and Thanksgiving football will always mean the Detroit Lions. Detroit however has a brand new association for me - Leonard Fritz." (READ MORE) 

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"...a new language of violence, regret, remorse, and redemption."
"Like an ice pick to the eye, Lenny Fritz has invented a new language of violence, regret, remorse, and redemption. Fritz has woven astonishing violence and elemental beauty into a ballet that has only a single act and end." (READ MORE) 

__________________________________________________________ "Vicious, demented, and darkly funny."
"Vicious, demented and darkly funny. In Nine Kinds of Pain takes the reader on a lightning paced, hallucinogenic odyssey through life on the ragged edge." (READ MORE)

__________________________________________________________ "Fritz is a powerful voice..."
"In Nine Kinds of Pain is a knockout of a book. Leonard Fritz takes a lot of chances with his narrative, including comic strips, authorial intrusions, and fragmented story-telling, but he manages to pull it off, giving us a nightmare vision of a hellish and decaying Detroit with plenty of bad people making plenty of bad decisions." (READ MORE)