''An Occasional Hell'' is a

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

by the American writer

Randall Silvis Randall Silvis is an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and teacher. Life Born in Madison Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, he was educated at Clarion University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Silvis was awa ...

. Set in 1990s in the lower Monongahela River Valley below

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, it tells the story of Ernest DeWalt, a former Chicago private investigator and successful novelist who is now a college professor. DeWalt's new life is interrupted when a philandering colleague, Alex Catanzaro, is killed in a farmland trysting place and his widow asks the former PI for help. It was made into a film starring Tom Berenger in 1996.

References

1993 American novels American crime novels Novels set in Pennsylvania Permanent Press (publisher) books {{1990s-crime-novel-stub