Boca Knights [Hardcover]

Steven M. Forman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

In a debut novel sure to both excite passions and elicit laughter, a different kind of hero emerges in that most unlikely criminal hotbed: Boca Raton.

Eddie Perlmutter is capable of fighting with fearless frenzy, but only does so to defend the defenseless. Eddie’s career as a much-honored Boston cop has come to an end. At sixty, he’s still energetic and virile, but decades of harsh New England winters and collaring the pug-uglies of Boston’s underworld have taken their toll—especially on his knees. So what does a lonely, retired cop with arthritic knees do? Head to sunny Florida, of course.

Country-club politics and early-bird specials are a far cry from the street toughs, scuffles, and arrests of his former life. But some things never change. Instead of enjoying a relaxed, laid-back retirement, Eddie quickly discovers the darker side of Boca Raton’s endless sun and palm trees, where hate crimes, counterfeiting, and worse lurk beneath the deceptively calm surface of cushy retirement communities.

With his no-nonsense crime-fighting skills and roll-with-the punches attitude, Eddie hits Boca Raton like of a Nor’easter from Hell, fast, fresh, and unstoppable. A compulsively readable comic thriller with an egalitarian message that will inspire readers of all ages, Boca Knights will have readers in stitches and keep them on the edge of their seats.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Formans debut, an offbeat crime novel, introduces Eddie Perlmutter, a tough Jewish Boston cop, who has had conversations since age 11 with his penis (Hey, check me out. I can stand, I heard one night in bed). In his late 50s, retired from the Boston force and suffering from arthritis, Perlmutter begins a new life in Boca Raton, Fla., where he soon steps on the toes of the local Russian mafia, falls for a nurse who happens to resemble actress Halle Berry and looks into the murder of golfer Robert Goldenblatt. Found in his garage with a four-iron embedded in his forehead, Goldenblatt was apparently the victim of a dispute over country-club politics. While the books overall silliness and lack of credible characters, not to mention the absurd solution to Goldenblatts demise, will put off some readers, those with a cockeyed sense of humor will find much to like in this parody of a cop caper. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Ever wonder what would happen if you crossed Philp Roth with Elmore Leonard? This impressive crime debut may provide a hint. Long on backstory, the saga of cop Eddie Perlmutter begins in a nineteenth-century shtetl in Russia, where Eddie’s grandfather and the other villagers are prey to Cossaks and marauding bears. After demonstrating his courage by killing a bear with a sword, Grandpa heads off to Boston, where Eddie eventually becomes a cop, and though he doesn’t slay any bears, he demonstrates plenty of inherited courage. Retired to Boca Raton, the widowed, bunged-up Eddie busts a ring of Russian counterfeiters in a bare (albeit arthritic) knuckle encounter that earns the respect of the local police chief. With a wink and nod, the top cop urges Eddie to take on the city’s toughest criminals in near-vigilante fashion. What results is an entertaining mix of comedy and drama as Eddie squares off with an an anti-Semitic hate group. Fortunately, Forman steers his geriatric hero clear of the buffoonery and sentimentality that often comes with the territory in this subgenre. --Steve Glassman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076531987X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765319876
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Originally from Boston Steve Forman has been wintering in Boca Raton since 1992. After 45 successful years in international business he wrote his first novel, Boca Knights, published in 2009 by Tom Doherty Associates. The sequel, Boca Mournings, was released in 2010, his first e-book, Eddie the Kid, was published November 22, 2011 and Boca Daze will be published in January 2012.
Steve is a graduate of UMass, class of '63. He is married to Barbara Forman and is father of two children and five grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is a Seriously Good Book, June 26, 2009

By 

Glenn Cooper (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boca Knights (Hardcover)

This amazing debut introduces us to two great characters: the author, Steven Forman, and his alter ego, a sixty-something Boston cop, Eddie Perlmutter, who retires to Boca but brings Boston with him, in his bones. Perlmutter is destined to become a classic off-beat hero with one foot in the neighborhoods of Boston and the other in the golf courses and strip malls of Boca. Forman knows both worlds intimately and because he's such a good writer, they both crackle with authenticity. This is not only a terrific crime thriller, it's also a very funny book, with a pleasant mixture of wry observations and laugh-out-loud dialogue, the kind you'd expect from a polished Hollywood screenwriter. Hopefully, we'll see a lot more of Forman and Perlmutter, and if Harrison Ford is looking for an age-appropriate role he should look no further than Eddie.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent first novel, actually!, February 6, 2009

By 

A. Finch (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boca Knights (Hardcover)

I saw an advertisement for this on one of the Shelf Awareness newsletters, and since I thought it sounded good I decided to check it out. For a first novel, it's not so bad!

Miss Marple Eddie is not. If you were expecting a sweet old man solving mysteries while trying to deal with arthritis, think again. Eddie Perlmutter is a foul-mouthed hothead, and he doesn't take nothing from nobody. The first third of the book is spent setting up the background of Eddie's life, including the very interesting of his grandfather. Then it focuses on Eddie's move down to Boca Raton, the history behind the place and what sort of people live there. The mystery part doesn't show up until page 103, but even then it doesn't play a big role. Instead, the plot meanders from Eddie's settling down in Boca Raton to his love life, his encounters with drug dealers, Neo-Nazis, snobs, and various conversations with his penis (which has calls Mr. Johnson).

It's an interesting book, for sure. I liked Eddie, even though he talks to his penis like it's a separate being from himself, and I liked some of the other people living in Boca Raton. I especially liked the history of Eddie's family; his grandfather was so fascinating! I was a little sad he was gone from the story so quickly, but I understood why.

There is, of course, the problem of the huge difference between Eddie and myself that kept me from understanding him completely-- he's a 60-year-old retired Jewish cop from Boston, while I'm a 20-year-old college student living in New Mexico (and my genitals don't talk to me)-- but from what I did understand, I liked him.

The writing was pretty good; some parts of the dialogue seemed more realistic than others, but it conveyed the events clearly and it was good enough to keep me reading. There were a lot of infodumps, though, especially in the last half of the book. I learned more about Boca Raton, Haiti, Boston, the Aryan Nation, and busing than I learned in all my time in school. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or what.

Er, anyway. Like I said, Boca Knights is a good first novel, though not so much a mystery novel (nor a thriller, as the summary says, nor a crime caper, as another reviewer said). I do plan on reading the sequel Boca Mourning-- I want to see who Eddie settles down with!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeper than it may seem, June 11, 2009

By 

a reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boca Knights (Hardcover)

This wonderful book is deeper than it may seem to be. I am an economics professor and economics journal editor. I spend most of my time doing research, while reading and writing nonfiction. Because of the constraints on my time, I limit my reading of fiction to those novels from which I am told I can learn something important. I was told that about this book. It is true.

Yes, this book is a fun read. The book is hard to put down, once you start reading it. But if you take the time to think about what you are reading, you will find that you are acquiring remarkable insights into the history of Russia, Boston, Providence, Boca Raton, the Mafia, and Haiti. Much of that history dwells on the dark side, fits well within the book's gripping story, and is embellished skillfully by the story; but the ending breaks out of that mold and is very positive about the future. Once you have finished the book, you will likely find that you have learned more than you had anticipated about hate groups and intolerance and its manifestations over more than a century of history on two continents, as well as about human nature in general.

This book, by a brilliant new novelist and exceptionally perceptive observer, could not be more topical to the world today.