No One Rides for Free [Hardcover]

Larry Beinhart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1986

"Arresting . . . The man really can write." The New York Times Book Review.
Winner of the Edgar Award.
With the soul of a street kid, reluctant ties to the mob, and the mind of an ivy-league sharpie, Tony Cassella is more than a private investigator. He's a man with a mission -- to stay true to himself, the people he loves, and a personal code he can't always live up to.
When an old-line lawyer threatens to spill his guts to the SEC about his firm's dirty deals, Tony is hired by the top-drawer Wall Street firm to bug the secret testimony. But when the high-priced canary is found dead in a parking lot, Tony goes hunting for bigger game. But can he find the fat cat who killed the canary before he becomes the next birdie on the menu himself?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When the general counsel for an avaricious conglomerate decides to spill all to an SEC investigator, private eye Tony Cassella is paid by a partner in a Wall Street law firm to get the transcript. The man is murdered in a mugging and Tony, no longer needed by the law firm, is hired by the victim's daughter to find who killed him. With a background that includes a stint as a corrections officer, a previous cocaine dependency and a year at Yale Law School, Casella is well equipped to follow the case from upper-crust Long Island to the Mafia fringe. What he can't do so well is stay faithful to his woman, or away from his old dealer. In this ambitious and convincing mystery, Cassella is a raw, believable hero-as-detective, an Everyman in whom love and sex, honor and revenge, desire and will play a piper's tune in counterpoint. Readers will root for Cassella to stay clean long enough to be hero of another tale. Foreign rights: Lantz Office. February 24
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

"Arresting . . . The man really can write." The New York Times Book Review.
Winner of the Edgar Award.
With the soul of a street kid, reluctant ties to the mob, and the mind of an ivy-league sharpie, Tony Cassella is more than a private investigator. He's a man with a mission -- to stay true to himself, the people he loves, and a personal code he can't always live up to.
When an old-line lawyer threatens to spill his guts to the SEC about his firm's dirty deals, Tony is hired by the top-drawer Wall Street firm to bug the secret testimony. But when the high-priced canary is found dead in a parking lot, Tony goes hunting for bigger game. But can he find the fat cat who killed the canary before he becomes the next birdie on the menu himself? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (February 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688060579
• ISBN-13: 978-0688060572
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,559,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is absolutely great. Read it, read it, read it., June 8, 1999

By 

Queenoid (Greenwood Village, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No One Rides for Free (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read all (three) of Mr. Beinhart's Tony Cassella books and they are each fabulous. I waited and waited for him to write something else, and then I interpolated (from American Hero) that he was unable to support himself by writing the Tony Cassella series. This is a crime in itself. I would really like Mr. Beinhart to write more of this series. If you are reading this, Mr. Beinhart, please know that I love reading what you write and recommended your books to LOTS of people. I kept pestering the Tattered Cover here in Denver to get with it and stock you. The real point of this review is to tell you how great I think your books are. Anyway, I did MY best to make you a national sensation. Sorry it didn't work better.

4.0 out of 5 stars An extremely original detective story, January 14, 2012

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: No One Rides for Free (Mass Market Paperback)

Tony Cassella is a New York private detective with a whole lot of history and an entire crew of monkeys on his back. He's offered a case by a fancy Wall Street law firm (and immediately triples his rates) with the task of finding out what one of their attorneys, Edgar Good, convicted of embezzlement, has been telling the SEC in an attempt to stay out of Attica. Then Good gets whacked outside a suburban restaurant and Tony knows it wasn't just a mugging. The law firm is relieved that the case has more or less settled itself, but the victim's daughter wants Tony to find out who actually killed her father. And Tony makes the mistake of promising to do it -- a mistake, because now he'll have to honor his promise, which could put him in a lot of danger personally, because that's just the way he is. He also has a habit of doing stupid things. For instance, he's living with Glenda and her young son, who provide a much-needed anchor of stability in his chaotic life, but then he risks it all for a fling with his client, with whom he falls in love. And then there's his Uncle Vince, who is a wiseguy of some description, and whom he has avoided ever since Vince and Tony's late father had a falling-out, but now he risks getting sucked into that dicey world (and all the money it can provide) in order to accomplish what he has decided he needs to do. Moreover, he doesn't hesitate to use carefully scripted violence and threats to obtain information. He's an amoral person, whose actions are frequently lubricated with cocaine. Frankly, there isn't anyone in the book the reader can admire, or even like very much -- but Beinhart does a terrific job of telling the story, and describing the action, and developing the characters. His dialogue is honed to a sharp edge and you won't be able to stop reading till you get to the unpleasantly vindictive end. This was Beinhart's first novel, the first of three in a series, and it won him an Edgar.