New Lots [Hardcover]

John Clarkson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

New Lots, Brooklyn: If there's a hell on Earth, it's here, with a 24-hour drug market and a terrifying warren of dark hallways and burnt apartments--all ruled by a gang of killers. It's into this Hades that NYPD Detective Lloyd Shaw goes with one thing in mind: put a stop to the runaway violence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The heavily symbolic, titular New Lots in John Clarkson's gripping crime novel is a public housing development in one of Brooklyn's worst neighborhoods, Brownsville--"most of which was nothing but long stretches of waste and rubble interrupted by structures that had collapsed under the weight of abuse and neglect and the final ravages of fire. The houses and apartments and commercial buildings still in use were so run down and decrepit that they seemed to be discarded versions of what the rest of the city used." New Lots is a scarred and profane territory of poverty, hopelessness, drugs, and whatever other depravity is the new lot in life for its unloved and unlucky inhabitants.

Two tribes are fighting for control of this ugly turf: the Blue-Tops, a gang of parasitical crack dealers who suck up the blood of the residents, and a Muslim outfit called MS-2, bonded in prison and bent on a show of power as a portent of things to come. A troubled veteran cop named Loyd Shaw, facing forced retirement without a pension if he refuses or fails, is brought in to settle the situation when it threatens a women's shelter run by Justine Burton, the daughter of the police commissioner. Shaw in turn assembles a squad of oddball specialists to take on two extremely smart, dedicated, and deadly gang leaders. Clarkson, a New York advertising executive, makes it all believable and fast-moving, as he did with such previous thrillers as And Justice for One, One Man's Law, and One Way Out. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

Good-guy cops, bad-guy dope dealers and wannabe-good-guy black Muslims fight over a Brooklyn housing project in Clarkson's snappy latest (after And Justice for One). Loyd Shaw, a trigger-happy cop on the outs with his superiors, is an inch from losing his pension. To redeem himself, he has to drive Archie Reynolds and his crack-dealing Blue Tops gang out of the New Lots projects. Shaw gets to handpick his own crew from among other rogue (or almost rogue) cops, each of whom seems tailor-made for yesterday's action movie: a Chinese-American computer hacker; a tough Italian-American bigot; a smart, sharpshooting Jewish homosexual; a quiet, by-the-books African American. Why New Lots? Maybe it's the violent retaliations from Rachman Abdul X and his security force. Or maybe it's Justine Burton, the police commissioner's daughter, whose women's shelter is a Blue Tops target. Despite the hackneyed premise and stereotyped characters, the charming love story between black Burton and white Shaw?and the violent battles for control of New Lots?will satisfy readers looking for a fast, if predictable, cop thriller with sympathetic leads.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312852428
• ISBN-13: 978-0312852429
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Action, September 9, 2002

By 

John Bowes (Oxford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New Lots (Hardcover)

The characters are tough, the bad guys are evil, and you will have fun. Got to get the rest of his books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A more mature, more exciting, and most enjoyable story, October 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: New Lots (Hardcover)

The forth of Mr. Clarkson's novel has been proved that he is a more mature, more exciting storyteller than the former three Devlin series. To detour from that over-extended series has also proved that Mr. Clarkson is indeed a multi-level thriller writer who is better than most of those male writers indulged in such genre. The flow of the writing cut and burrow the terrain so freely that has made the reading very exciting and enjoyable. I knew at once that Mr. Clarkson is a fantastic writer once I had read his debut "And Justice for One" which was so good that I could not but had to recommend it to be purchased and translated into another language. "New Lots" is definitely a more mature, more energetic story with cool dialogues and plot. It is a far better one than the cardboard-like "Apaches(?)" by the "Sleepers"' writer, which I had pointed out that was a modern "Fantastic 7" copy but fell short. But definitely not these guys shown in the "New Lots." Congrats, Mr. Clarkson, smoke less and keep it coming, OK? God bless.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book now!, November 2, 2001

By 

A. Beirne (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: New Lots (Hardcover)

It is "The Dirty Dozen" set in New York City with the NYPD. What more do you need to hear? Get it now.