Authorized Personnel Only [Hardcover]

Barbara D'Amato (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

For Chicago cop Suze Figueroa, home is a sanctuary, a quiet refuge from the crime, corruption, and tragedy she encounters everyday on the job. The creaky old Victorian house she shares with her little boy, her invalid sister, and her sister's family seems far removed from the threats and dangers of the mean city streets.. . . or so she believes.

The truth is far more terrifying, for, unknown to Suze, a stranger has moved into the house: an intruder who waits in the attic by day and prowls her home at night, spying on both the unsuspecting adults and the defenseless children. While Suze spends her work day tracking down an elusive serial killer, she has no idea that a much more personal danger lives under her own roof, eating her food, handling her gun, and watching her loved ones....

Strips of yellow tape may keep curious bystanders away from crimes scenes, but nothing so simple can protect Suze and her family from the menace that has invaded the privacy--and the safety--of their own home.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An outbreak of E. coli has thinned the detective ranks of the Chicago police department, so officer Suze Figueroa has been detached to temporary duty investigating a couple of bodies that turned up under the elevated train tracks. The location is a stone's throw from the precinct headquarters, and the killings are similar enough in modus operandi to make Suze wonder if there's a serial killer preying on the homeless. She's still working her regular caseload, which includes a pickpocket who's been targeting women shoppers at the luxury department stores on the Miracle Mile and a thief who robbed a currency exchange. And this is not to mention managing a few complications on the home front, including her sister Sheryl's agonizingly slow recovery from a serious accident and a dangerous pederast who's hiding in her attic. The plucky policewoman's personal and professional lives collide with violent and startling results in the penultimate pages of this somewhat unfocused crime thriller. Barbara D'Amato's pacing isn't as strong here as it's been in her previous outings (Good Cop, Bad Cop, Killer.app), and the murderer's identity is telegraphed well in advance of the denouement. What's more important, the reader never gets under Suze's skin enough to know what motivates her. But it's a good enough effort to keep D'Amato's hometown fans in Chicago happy until the next one comes along. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

HDon't read this book with your back to the cellar door! Although this third in the Suze Figueroa series starts out as a Chicago police procedural, the mood grows eerie as the pages fly by. Officer Figueroa and her partner, Norm Bennis, are handling their usual pickpockets and burglars when a sizable number of the force's detectives are incapacitated by a bout of food poisoning after a banquet. Temporarily promoted to detective, Suze and Norm must quickly track down a serial killer and a child molester before each has a chance to strike again. The murderer targets the homeless, getting them drunk and suffocating each by a different method. Undetected, the child molester secrets himself in Figueroa's large house to revenge her interruption of an earlier crime. He prefers preteen females, gleefully finding two of them, Figueroa's nieces, in the house. The policewoman's son, J.J., is just trying to survive preadolescence with a mother who must be gone more and more as the murders multiply. Police profiler Jody Huffington and a Northwestern University psychiatrist, Dr. Ho, help the temporary detectives to understand the minds of serial killers and child molesters. The denouement cuts close to the cops' lives and is written in such terrifying terms readers will find it easyDno, mandatoryDto stay up all night to finish the book. (Dec. 7) Forecast: Anthony and Agatha Award-winner D'Amato, Mystery Writers of America president for 1999-2000, handles a tired theme, the psychopathic killer, more tastefully than most. If booksellers emphasize this to prospective buyers, the title could attract readers who love suspense but not gore.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312865643
• ISBN-13: 978-0312865641
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,600,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Procedural fans will enjoy this book, November 29, 2000

By 

Kinsey Millhone (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Authorized Personnel Only (Hardcover)

Barbara D'Amato's HELP ME PLEASE and KILLER.APP were two utterly un-put-downable suspense thrillers. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY isn't nearly as exciting, but it's interesting as a "week in the life of a cop." Suze Figueroa and her partner Bennis are two patrol officers who are given the chance to become acting detectives when many of Chicago's finest are struck down by food poisoning following a banquet. They are faced with solving the murder of several homeless people, despite the fact that the department doesn't want to grant them resources due to the low status of the victims. At the same time, a child molester has moved into the attic of the home Suze shares with her sister's family, and is waiting for the right moment to attack Suze's young niece. Will Suze discover the intruder before it's too late?

I missed the heart-pounding suspense of D'Amato's previous Chicago cop books, but I did enjoy AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY as a police procedural. The author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research and I learned a lot. As a longtime fan, I must say that any D'Amato is worth reading -- she's a solid, reliably good crime writer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most thrilling police procedural novel ever!, November 30, 2000

By 

Eric Abrosian (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Authorized Personnel Only (Hardcover)

Don't read this book when you're home alone at night. It's scary. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY maintains suspense throughout, while being very realistic, in that the police officers are dealing with several cases as once, as real police do. The author skillfully moves between three different cases that come officer Suze Figueroa's way. The perpertator in one case has invaded Suze's own home, living in the attic of the big old wooden house, watching the family's every move from the back staircase and creeping out at night to steal food and torment Suze's paralyzed sister.

This book has every indication of becoming a smash motion picture. Remember, Eric told you so.

Meanwhile, why wait for the movie to come out? I loved the author's previous KILLER.APP. This new book is fabulous!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can a Police Procedural be cozy?, April 20, 2003

By 

Mickey Platko (Magnolia, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Authorized Personnel Only (Hardcover)

Chicago cop Suze Figueroa and her partner Norm Bennis exchange witty repartee in their squad car, but Figueroa longs to be a detective. Her chance arrives when the detective squad is felled by a bad dinner date. She and Bennis take on a serial killer while balancing their other cases and working within the confines of the city budget and their own time limitations.

Figueroa and Bennis are characters transported from a British cozy to the mean streets of Chicago, given some absolutely delightful dialogue and a fine-tuned sense of justice, and set loose to wreak havoc on the bad guys. She and Bennis come down to the wire in solving one crime, while another is taking place right in Figueroa's home.

D'Amato takes a solid plot, compelling characters, and an exciting location, and sprinkles in some terrifying antagonists to make "Authorized Personnel Only" a great read.