In creating an entire precinct of working-stiff police officers to man these gritty novels, McBain also demystified the traditional detective hero and brought him down to earth.

Paul has just finished the first draft of a "serious," gritty contemporary novel when, during a blinding snowstorm, he smashes up his car and himself somewhere high in the Rocky Mountains.

It is to Green's credit that the addict's words, in the context of this gritty novel, make some sense.

Ten years in the army of North Vietnam transform the protagonist of this gritty novel as he and his nation are stripped of the ideals they have sacrificed so much for.

Vanderhaeghe's gritty, expansive novel is set in the late-19th-century wilds of northern Montana and Canada's Northwest Territories, and follows a ragged, ill-tempered crew across the Canadian border.

Ms. Hinton is well known to many parents who remember reading her gritty novels for adolescents, including "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish."

According to Kirkus Review, it is a "gritty, powerful second novel."

Whistler, a private eye in Los Angeles, investigates a police cover-up in this occasionally bizarre, often gritty novel by "one of the most stylish crime writers in the business."

Stephen King scholar Bev Vincent said "It's a dark, gritty, pessimistic novel in many ways and stands in stark contrast to the fundamental optimism of The Stand".

Instead, Waldman has poured her knowledge into a gritty novel that portrays the innocent people who are caught in the middle.