Wildwood Exit by Joel E. Turner
Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!
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Wildwood Exit
A deadly family vendetta at a Jersey Shore restaurant pulls
John McGinty (aka Ginty) into a dark world of embezzlement,
drug-dealing, a lying wife and a junkie son.
Ginty has just stepped in as the manager of a Wildwood restaurant owned by his friend, Lou Scolletta, after Lou fires the old manager for dipping in the till.
Ginty starts out ordering rolls of salami and bottles of Galliano, but quickly becomes Lou’s consigliere, picking up questionable packages from sketchy associates; tailing Lou’s wife Concetta on her furtive trips to Cape May; scouring the Jersey Shore for Lou’s son, Davy, a junkie on the lam; and wondering why a possibly bent State Trooper keeps showing up everywhere he goes.
Things in Ginty’s world don’t improve when a drug shipment goes wrong, a blackmail note appears…and a body is found floating in Delaware Bay.
Ginty is now the unwilling—yet trusted—confidante of all the Scollettas, and realizes that everyone in this twisted family circle is in danger—including himself.
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Interview with Wildwood Exit Author Joel E. Turner
Wildwood Exit is called “Jersey Shore Noir,” what can we expect from that description?
It’s summer at the New Jersey Shore in 1983 so there’s the beach (not that the characters get there much), restaurants, hot dog stands, boardwalks and lots of folks looking to evade the reality of their lives.
Our narrator, John McGinty, aka Ginty, is a recently unemployed bartender from a pretty tough part of Southwest Philly and falls into a job managing an old-school Italian restaurant in Wildwood for a guy who’s the nephew of the doctor that got him out of the draft back in the late 1960s.
Ginty doesn’t plan to be on the wrong side of things, but is a bit hapless and gets himself into some . . . situations. He is compelled to do a bit of sleuthing, because how else is he going to find out the truth behind the internecine squabbles among a rogues’ gallery of players, none of whom is very honest, including Ginty’s employer Lou Scolletta, his wife Concetta, his son Davy and the super-annuated corner boy, Pinto who becomes Ginty’s wingman?
Tell us about the locations in Wildwood Exit:
The action is mostly back and forth between Wildwood and Cape May, two resort towns at the New Jersey Shore, side-by-side geographically but about as far apart milieu-wise as they could be. Wildwood has a boardwalk; Cape May, a promenade. Wildwood has Doo-Wop architecture (picture the Jetsons crossed with a neon-emblazed diner); Cape May has Victorian Gingerbread.
Wildwood is like South Philly transplanted to the shore; Cape May has tourists from Quebec.
A bit of the action also travels a bit inland, to towns like Buena and rural areas, with a healthy dose of Hispanic folks.
Wildwood is a gritty, glitzy shore town, with a lively nightlife and tons of people from the rowhome communities in South and Northeast Philly. Think dance clubs, doo-wop architecture bustling restaurants, variances from legality along a wide spectrum and a general pursuit of family-style debauchery.
Speaking of Doo-Wop (the musical kind), Ginty goes to a dance club in Wildwood that is reminiscent of places like the Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City or Memories in Margate, both places where Jerry Blavatt, the legendary Philly DJ, held forth (he owned Memories). Blavatt was one of the people who practically invented Oldies Radio in the 1960s, when he began playing the 1950s records that he loved. He is one of reasons people say Philly is a place where Doo-Wop music never went out of style. Jerry was from South Philly and famously connected; and though not mentioned in the book by name, he is part of the backdrop of this era at the Shore, with its noirish vibe that reflects South Philly culture.
Wildwood Exit features a restaurant manager named John “Ginty” McGinty. What would you like readers to know about him?
The book is set in 1983 and Ginty is a thirty-six year old bartender, who never really launched out of his Southwest Philly, working-class Irish neighborhood. He dropped out of college in the late 1960s and evaded the Viet Name-era draft with a phony injury, which he still feels guilty about, with the help of a doctor who was the father of Lou Scolletta, a sort-of-wise-guy who now owns a car dealership in South Philly and has bought a restaurant in Wildwood as a vanity project.
Lou helped Ginty get his first bartending job and Ginty has bounced from one place to another, ending up managing a beer and shot place in his old neighborhood, which is now being turned into a fern bar where he does not fit in. Then Lou calls and asks him to take over his restaurant—he’s just fired the manager for dipping in the till. Ginty accepts the job and soon becomes enmeshed in the Scolletta family’s vendettas.
Tell us about your road to publication with your debut, Wildwood Exit:
I had written and published short fiction for many years, a lot of it dystopian-style stories, influenced by J. G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs. A magazine in London (Ambit, where Ballard was the fiction editor for a time) serialized a novella of this ilk, which I turned into a novel and pitched for a few years, before deciding it was not ready for publication. I then wrote a very long novel about rock&roll, fashion design and a secret Anglo-Saxon riddle, which I finally figured out was just too long for a debut.
Then I wrote Wildwood Exit and started pitching the novel to agents in early 2018. By the end of the year, I had a few nibbles but no serious interest. I then worked with an editor I knew pretty well and did a significant revision, raising the stakes and conflict. Then in mid-2019, I attended PitchFest and got much better interest, this time talking more to small publishers than agents. None of that panned out. I considered offers from a few very-fledgling publishers, but decided they were not ready to get the book out. I had originally pitched Level Best in 2019 and pinged them every six months or so, and they kept telling me I was still on their reading list. Then in early 2024, they finally responded with an offer and off we went.
What is the Liars Club of Philadelphia, and what led you to becoming part of that group?
The Liar’s Club of Philadelphia has been around for probably 15 years. They are a group of professional fiction writers who wanted to offer their wisdom in an informal way to aspiring writers. They run coffee shop meetings monthly, where anyone is welcome, and folks just talk informally about what they are working on and the travails of the writing business.
A non-writing friend had put me in touch with a writer he knew (Kelly Simmons) and she encouraged me to come to the meetings. I met a lot of folks through that. I had been working on my own with little contact with other writers and it was great to talk to folks at all stages of their careers and just kick ideas and issues around.
What are you working on now?
While I was trying to sell Wildwood Exit, I wrote another novel that is not in the crime genre at all. It’s titled Brenda’s Green Note, and is a coming-of-age tale about a girl who has synesthesia— she sees sounds as colors—who is also a talented musician. She harnesses these capabilities to become a key player in the vibrant music scene of the 1960s in Philadelphia. The novel deals with issues of identity and personal growth, and how one woman’s path must deal with the loss of a “specialness” that she had come to embrace as at the core of her identity. It is a bit of a mashup of The Queen’s Gambit and Almost Famous, though it has a more serious tone than the latter.
I recently contracted with Cynren Press to publish this book and it will come out in 2027.
Right now, I am working on a sequel to Wildwood Exit that finds Ginty helping out a group of Cambodian refugees and getting pulled into a mess of human trafficking, immigration issues and money laundering for a Vietnamese gang.
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers
I remember that William Burroughs’s advice for writers was to learn to type and live a long time. That is pretty solid.
Burroughs also said “Most people don’t notice what’s going on around them. That’s my principal message to writers: for god’s sake, keep your eyes open”.
I would add, try to get to the truth of whatever it is you are working on, rather than focusing on any craft-related advice.
Great Advice! We look forward to having you back with your next release!
Author Pet Corner!
Here’s Cosmo. He’s ten years old and was a rescue.
He’s friendly but if you are new, especially if you’re a large male, he wants to get to know you first.
He’s good at letting us know if anyone’s at the front door.
As a delivery guy in Michigan (always) says, “I see your doorbell’s still working!”
Wildwood Exit Author Joel E. Turner
Joel E. Turner’s first novel, WILDWOOD EXIT, a noir tale set at the Jersey Shore, was published by Level Best Books in 2025. Amy Rosenberg of the Philadelphia Inquirer called it “a quirky sand-in-your-shoes crime novel with a romantic heart”.
His second novel, BRENDA’S GREEN NOTE, forthcoming from Cynren Press in 2027, is an historical, adult coming-of-age story about a young woman with synesthesia who harnesses her ability to see sounds as colors to become a key player in the vibrant music scene of the 1960s in Philadelphia.
His fiction has appeared in many US and UK journals. His website joeleturnerauthor.com, has samples/links to his work and posts about books, film and music (especially R&B/Soul). Articles he has written about Soul music have been featured on the UK-based Soul Source website, a major platform for news and writing on the Northern Soul scene.
WILDWOOD EXIT draws on his extensive work experience at some of the finer dining establishments at the Jersey Shore. He knows how to operate a Frialator.
Mr. Turner splits his time between Philadelphia and White Cloud, Michigan.
To learn more about Joel, click any of the following links: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Goodreads, and BlueSky.
Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor
Cape May photo from Pixabay
Header image from Pixabay
