By D. J. Snyder

THE TURNPIKE SCROLLS®

An Italian American Adventure Series

Can an Italian American neighborhood in Jersey City take on the world?

Joey Binovi thinks so, and his instincts are rarely wrong.  The Turnpike Scrolls® Italian American adventure series is the story of Joey and his extended family – captivating tales of how their immigrant values and streetwise sensibilities save a way of life.  The Turnpike Scrolls® series currently contains three completed novels.  Each novel is distinguished by a simpatico voice and clear-eyed brand of magical realism.  The Turnpike Scrolls® are feel-good, escapist tales – a catena of daring quests.

Joey grew up an orphan in Jersey City, NJ, inspired by his immigrant ancestors to value honor and justice.  As an adult, Joey lives by one ideal – good people can still outwit corruption, providing they have the right friends.  Joey works on the Jersey waterfront south of Ellis Island.  His adventures take him to nearby Manhattan. There, Joey treads a city of greed and cold shoulders.  He finds humor in chaos while journeying through an illusive metropolis, searching for the lost promised land known as America.

When powerful lords of influence overreach, Joey confronts them at all costs.  He tangles with a rogue United Nations diplomat, stands up to a shadowy pharmaceutical consortium, and defies an imperial global magnate.  Joey is resourceful in the face of adversity, a skill he fostered years ago as a child.

Friends and relatives remain his devoted family.  His close-knit Italian neighborhood still rallies around him, actively engaging in Joey’s adventures.  They offer Joey assistance and guidance, often referring to a family history penned on scrolls of parchment paper, the pages carefully wrapped around rolling pins and tied with string.

The adventure series features Joey Binovi and his extended family, a spirited group of men and women, three generations of tenacious achievers, shrewd eccentrics, and heartwarming sages, their ethics rooted in the old world.

The Turnpike Scrolls® series is home to this indelible group of women and men – complex, evolving characters framed by a vivid sense of place, transporting readers to the Jersey waterfront and radiant jewel of Manhattan.  Along the way, Joey befriends a reluctant Russian mercenary, a Chinese man-child and an enchanting rabbi.

The Turnpike Scrolls® brand is thematically adaptable to conventional and electronic media, written and imagined for multi-format, content-rich platforms, a literary franchise buoyed by the serialized adventures of Joey’s extended family.  The upmarket adventures appeal to a proven fascination with Italian heritage.  The series currently contains three completed novels.  The Turnpike Scrolls: The First Scroll is where the adventure begins.

D. J. Snyder dedicates his time to writing, film and digital marketing. His conceptual design work is an online standard for news and retail sites. D. J. is a graduate of Duquesne University, and honed his fiction writing skills under the direction of the writers-in-residence at the College of William & Mary. He appeared in HBO’s John Adams, AMC’s TURN: Washington’s Spies and other film/television projects. He is a founding board member of Podium, a nonprofit organization established to bring creative writing education to Richmond Public Schools.
D. J. is a Jersey City native, a descendant of Italian immigrants and resides in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Turnpike Scrolls®

Access the adventures

Enjoy the Adventures