Customer Reviews

On Cabrini Green

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If the name Cabrini Green has a familiar ring, it should. It's one of Chicago's infamous housing projects where gangbangers and dope peddlers rule--and even cops don't want to make housecalls there. That's why Chicago PD created a special Task Force assigned only to the projects. Cabrini is foreign turf--no place for fools or innocents.

That's also why author Charlie Shafer is able to tell a good tale about Cabrini Green. Before he retired, he wore the TF shoulder patch as a Chicago cop.

On Cabrini Green features Sgt. Paul Kostovic, a member of the TF Force. However, he makes a dumb mistake. He loses his gun stopping a carjack/robbery in progress. The driver of the car, a diamond salesman, is robbed. Gunshots are exchanged between Kostovic and the bad guys. A bystander is shot and killed. He turns out to be a Columbian diplomat, which is not good news for him or for Kostovic. Fortunately, the bullet that killed the man wasn't fired from Kostovic's weapon. Unfortunately, his gun is now in the hands of either Dittybop Caldwell or Shoestring Tolliver, "dedicated street thieves." Kostovic knows them because they live in Cabrini. He also knows they are not smart enough or skilled enough to have planned this carjack and heist alone. Someone put them up to it.

The cop talk in this book is authentic but surprisingly, has little hard core swearing. The cop humor--often of the gallows variety--is ladeled out in chuckles, sometimes in belly laughs. Kostovic is not a burned-out cynic, though he is asking the question: why stay on the force? What good is he doing? He's saddled on the case with an inept homicide detective, a baby-faced rookie cop for a partner, and a legal aid volunteer, a public defender in the making. She's very antagonistic toward Kostovic and also very attractive. By way of family backgrounds, it turns out she's Serbian, and he's Croatian--a volatile mix. All of which, does lead to an interesting if not challenging romantic angle.

On Cabrini Green provides a fascinating and intriguing slice of cop life. Based on this first book of Shafer's--and his cop column that runs in Blue Murder, a mystery ezine--readers can expect more good stories to follow.

Just reading about the "wagon" men is enough to warrant getting this book. The dialogue alone is worth the price of admission. On Cabrini Green shows the lighter side of a cop's life. Sure, there's murder and some darkness as there is in life, but what happens around these events is a stitch. Murphy was working overtime for these cops--if it could go wrong--it did. This book was a fun read.

If you're looking for Officer Friendly, don't bother to read Shafer's book. Like a cop car's flashing lights in your rear-view mirror, On Cabrini Green grabs you by the throat and won't let go.

The story is cheesey. The cops in the book are like the keystone cops. Any copper who worked Task Force would be embarassed such dumb cops made it to their "elite" unit.