Chicago Police Superintendent Nick Bertolucci is a tough top cop with a jealous and resentful brother, Aldo, also a cop. When events transpire that allow Aldo to try and ruin his brother's career, the scheme threatens to collapse the Chicago Police Department, and his own family, from the inside out National publicity, print ads. .
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The good and bad cops of Barbara D'Amato's tough, tension-filled thriller are two brothers: Chicago police superintendent Nick Bertolucci and his disturbed brother Aldo, a jealous and vengeful patrolman. Using a real case--the 1969 police raid that killed Black Panther Fred Hampton--D'Amato has constructed a complicated, credible story about family rivalries and public cover-ups. The Bertoluccis' father was a top policeman involved in the Hampton case, and after his death Aldo uncovers evidence that could destroy his brother's career. As she did in her excellent Killer.app, D'Amato manages to surround her police characters with a richly detailed everyday life that stays with you long after you close the book's covers.
From Kirkus Reviews
A generation after his bullying cop father forced him to blaze away at the Black Panthers, Supt. Nick Bertolucci has to come to terms with what went on in the Panthers' house. What went on, as all the world knows, was a massacre of the its inhabitants, massaged by the police and the press to look like a gun battle--a real-life 1969 scandal that provides D'Amato with her novel's point of departure. Bertolucci's tyrannical father, superintendent of Chicago's police, forced his son to take part in the pre-dawn raid, and kept secret evidence that Nick unknowingly shot and killed 18-year-old Shana Boyd. Now that his hated old man is dead and Nick's long since followed in his footsteps as superintendent, he should be sitting pretty. But his brother Aldo, who reacted to his father's taunts and abuse by becoming the worst cop in Chicago, has gotten hold of the evidence and, figuring he has nothing to lose himself, plans to use it to ruin Nick. Instead of confronting Nick directly, Aldo puts pressure on Nick's top deputy, Gus Gimball, to pull the plug on his boss, knowing that Gus won't risk the kind of publicity that might swing the upcoming mayoral election the wrong way and deprive the department of badly needed funding. D'Amato lays out this plot with impressive economy, but doesn't provide any counterpoint--there's nothing else going on except expertly sketched backgrounds (Chicago cops eating undercover Japanese, telling offensive jokes, responding to domestic violence calls, playing schoolboy pranks), and Suze Figueroa, the detective who's held over from Killer.App (1996), doesn't have much to do--leaving it pretty obvious how the rivalry between Nick and Aldo will play out. Readers seeking an equally trenchant portrait of Chicago lawmen coupled with a denser, meatier plot need look no further than D'Amato's last Cat Marsala mystery (Hard Bargain, 1997), which has everything this novel does and more. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
POSSIBLE AND PLAUSIBLE,
By
This review is from: Good Cop, Bad Cop (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is my first experience with Barbara D'Amato and I want to read more of her novels. GOOD COP, BAD COP certainly brings back memories of Chicago (I live near) in the turbulent 60's. I remember well the Democratic Convention of 1968 and the Fred Hampton raid in 1969. The novel's characterization of the Bertolucci brothers is true-to-life, and the entire scenario is too plausible to be ignored. Is this historical fiction? Probably not in the strictest sense of the word, but it gives the reader a feel for the ways things were done then and how people can still suffer in the aftermath, even after 30 years. A good, fast read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
thank you for this wide-open window into a world we know of...,
This review is from: Good Cop, Bad Cop (Hardcover)
...mostly through the media, not those who are actually fighting the battle. i read one chapter per night to honor how long it must have taken to write the book. i loved it...fascinating. you did the very best job of capturing the scope of a wide-stretching battle. looking forward to knowing more about this literary joruney!!! please write more books on this timely topic. xo k
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Good and the Bad of Good Cop, Bad Cop,
By David (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Good Cop, Bad Cop (Hardcover)
This book is basically a 90's version of biblical story of Cain and Abel. This story is about a Chicago beat cop, Aldo Bertolucci and his relationship with his brother Nick, the current superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Ever since childhood, Aldo has always had this deep-seated jealousy towards his brother's success. One day he gets his big chance when he uncovers a registration for a .38 colt gun that was the same gun used to kill a black woman in an illegal Black Panther raid in 1969. He tries to use this information to black mail his brother and ruin his career as a successful Chicago cop. However, Nick decided to do something because he didn't just want to give up without a fight. He uses evidence from a crime scene to try and frame Aldo for murder. When his brother hears of this he makes a deal with Nick in which they would swap for each other's information for the other. During the process of their exchange they get into a fight in the middle of a street. During their struggle a bus approaches them and accidentally hits Aldo killing him. At the end, Nick full of guilt because of his brother's death, decides to resign as the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.There were a few aspects of this book that I found disappointing. One, was the title. The title is misleading because it does not depict the characters of the book. There wasn't one good cop or bad cop. Both of the brothers deceived the other. Also, I don't think the author made it clear who the bad cop was. The story started out with Nick killing a woman in an illegal raid then later Aldo trying to black mail him then towards the end the table turns yet again with Nick trying to frame Aldo for murder. Another disappointing aspect was the lack of suspense and drama that the title implies. This story is nothing more than "Cop A fights with Cop B, Cop B dies " type thing. Although, one thing I did like about this book were the 3 dimensional characters. The characters emotions changed much like a real person in real life would. All together I fell that the author was going in the right direction with the plot but just needs to add more suspense and drama that the title insinuates.
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