Colorado’s literary scene is having a moment, and not just the rugged, outdoorsy kind. Authors are using the state, and Denver in particular, as creative terrain for stories that are darker, funnier, and more psychologically complex. Bill Schweigart’s Dirty 20 and James Ellroy’s Red Sheet are bringing plenty of excitement to the bookshelf this summer.
Red Sheet | by James Ellroy
James Ellroy, the legendary crime novelist behind L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia, is back at it with his newest novel, Red Sheet. The story revisits 1962 Los Angeles through the eyes of Freddy Otash, a corrupt ex-cop turned private investigator navigating a city unraveling under political scandal, Cold War paranoia, and racial tension. James, a longtime Denverite, describes the novel as his own form of historical revisionism. “I give the reader the secret human infrastructure of large public events,” he says. The novel blends fictional narratives with real figures during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. “It’s the kick of going back in time and giving readers an alternative reality that they know damn well is fiction. But when they read it, they believe it happened this way.”
Dirty 20 | by Bill Schweigart
For Bill Schweigart, Denver offered the perfect setting for a crime story precisely because it’s unexpected. “Crime tales set in New York or Los Angeles are a dime a dozen,” he says. “I loved the idea of setting Dirty 20 in the last place one might expect a mafia story: Denver.” The novel follows Tommy, a college student desperate to avoid his father Big Al’s organized crime empire. When Big Al tasks him with laundering an illicit $20,000, Tommy’s attempt to quietly move the money through a fake roleplaying game spirals into absurdity. Readers will recognize local staples like Herb’s Hideout, the Hi-Dive, and South Broadway, and yes, there’s even a Blucifer appearance. “The city is creative and funky and outdoorsy, yet down to earth,” Bill says. “Every city has a dark side. Sadly for Tommy, his father is the very personification of Denver’s.”
Together, both books tap into the same idea: beneath every familiar city lies another story entirely. Dirty 20 and Red Sheet are available now at all major bookstores.
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