Fresh Kills: An Artie Cohen Mystery (Artie Cohen Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Ms. Reggie Nadelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007 | Series: Artie Cohen Mysteries

One of the best mysteries ever set in New York City, the last in an "archipelago trilogy" following 9/11, by the acclaimed author of Disturbed Earth. 
 
With his wife Maxine out of town, Artie Cohen is alone in Manhattan when his nephew Billy Farone is released from the young offenders' institution where he has been since he stabbed Heshey Shank to death. Artie is the one Billy wants to come home to--he's family and he's the only person Billy cares about; Artie wants desperately to believe that Billy is OK. As a plane crashes on Coney Island, bombs go off in London, and New York is shaken out of the sense that the bad times have passed, Artie begins to wonder. Over four days in Manhattan and on Staten Island there are signs that Shank's family wants Billy locked up for good, and that Billy's mother doesn't want him coming home either. The bodies begin to appear and Artie, up against a brick wall of his own hope and despair, doesn't know what or whom to believe.
 
Reggie Nadelson has created in Artie Cohen one of mystery fiction's most interesting and complex characters: tough, unusually sensitive, deeply flawed and human.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This gripping psychological whodunit, the concluding volume of Nadelson's post-9/11 trilogy (after 2006's Red Hook), presents a convincing portrait of New York City in the aftermath of the destruction of the Twin Towers. NYPD detective and Russian émigré Artie Cohen is adjusting to married life when he again becomes responsible for his troubled adolescent nephew, Billy Farone, recently released from juvie. As Billy's parents are abroad, Artie is left to watch over him and help monitor his adjustment to the outside world. When Cohen's boss, Sonny Lippert, gets a new lead in a very old child murder case, he attempts to drag Cohen away from Billy, with mixed success. Despite indications that Billy's criminal tendencies may not have abated, Cohen labors to defend him to others. The power of the ending will especially resonate for readers of the earlier volumes, but even newcomers will be impressed by the author's uncompromising vision of human frailty and the conflict between personal and professional duty. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Artie Cohen, the New York City police detective, is trying to relax on the beach and reconnect with his nephew, Billy, who's just been released after serving time in a juvenile prison for stabbing a man to death. But when a plane crashes on the beach, an old murder case resurfaces, and Artie discovers that the family of the man Billy stabbed has plans for the boy, things get very busy, very quickly. This is the seventh Cohen mystery, and as usual, it's a combination of traditional mystery elements and character study. The novel also continues the author's insightful examination of post-9/11 New York. Pitt, David

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 1st edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802715990
• ISBN-13: 978-0802715999
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,737,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Need to Read this Series, February 21, 2008

By 

D. Crowe "Dale" (Wellesley, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fresh Kills: An Artie Cohen Mystery (Artie Cohen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Fresh Kills is far and away the best of the Artie Cohen series. I would suggest to those who are not familier with Reggie Nadelson's books to start at the beginning and work their way through. Others have given plot descriptions, so I won't. I will tell you, with absolute certainty, that this series is as good (probably better) that 98% of all the best sellers out there Her next book is due out in July, and I for one can't wait!!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent New York City "archipelago" police procedural, November 6, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh Kills: An Artie Cohen Mystery (Artie Cohen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

NYPD detective Russian immigrant Artie Cohen is enjoying his recent marriage to Maxine although she is currently out of town when he is informed that his troubled teenage nephew Billy Farone has been released from juvenile detention. Reluctantly, Artie takes Billy into his Brooklyn home as the lad has no other place to go since his mom refuses to have anything to do with him since he stabbed to death Heshey Shank and besides his parents are in London. Meanwhile the Shank family is outraged that this cold blooded killer is free and making public their disgust with a system that allows a killer to go on with his life while their offspring is dead.

Artie's superior Sonny Lippert comes to Brighton Beach to assign him to follow up on a new lead involving a cold case child homicide. The detective tries to balance adjusting to marriage although his wife seems very tolerant, keeping Billy out of trouble although there is evidence that he is failing at this task, and working the murder investigation that begins to look as if a killer may be caught, but not before others will die.

The latest Cohen New York City "archipelago" police procedural (see RED HOOK) is a terrific tale that focuses on the difficult balancing of family needs vs. professional requirements. Artie is fabulous as he wants to do what is best for Billy, but is not sure what that is as he knows the kid needs help and support, but he also has a difficult case to work. Readers will enjoy his investigation that leads from Brooklyn to Manhattan and Staten Island, but it is the ending that will stun the audience as Reggie Nadelson provides a deep thriller.

Harriet Klausner

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ethnically embellished crime drama, December 15, 2007

By 

Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh Kills: An Artie Cohen Mystery (Artie Cohen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Reggie Nadelson's "Fresh Kills" is an apparently continuing saga starring Russian emigre and now Americanized Russian speaking NYPD police officer Artie Cohen. Cohen recently married to a 9/11 widow Maxine has been left behind as she and her two daughters are vacationing in California. Artie has agreed to chaperone and take responsibility for his nephew Billy Farone who had been released on a two week furlough from a juvenile detention facility in Florida. Billy had been charged in the stabbing murder of a semi retarded soul named Heshey Shank at the tender age of 12. Artie's half sister Genia, Billy's mother wanted no part of her son having split for London with her husband restauranteer Johnny.

Artie was convinced of his nephew's rehabilitation trying to find opportunity to entertain him while carrying out his duties for his boss Sonny Lippert, a NYPD bigwig. Lippert was an expert of child related crimes and was currently immersed in a cold case that he was obsessing over. At his direction, Lippert ordered Artie on assignment which found him traipsing through the ethnic Russian neighborhoods of both Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Artie and Billy spent their time together meeting a host of colorful characters who were part of Artie's life. He recruited his ex girlfriend Lily, who he still has a thing for and his buddy Russian gangster and ex-rocker Tolya to babysit Billy as he conducted his duties. We learn that many people in the Brooklyn communities don't want Billy back in town. His victim's brother Stanley Shank an ex-cop and now knife wielding thug has threatened Cohen about his nephew's well being. As time passes a confluence of child related cases seems to be related and Cohen begins to think that Billy may somehow be connected.

Artie begins to have doubts about Billy as a case involving a baby found dead in an industrial freezer near Artie's loft starts niggling at his consciousness.

Author Nadelson composes an incredibly authentic setting for her plot which effectively relates the conflict experienced by her main character, Artie Cohen as he tries to balance the duties of his job with his personal resposibilities.