Customer Reviews

Rizzo's War (Thorndike Mystery)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To begin with, this is not a thriller, it's a police procedural, what the French call a policier. It's a very good policier, but if you're waiting for the big scene, the one a young Schwarzenegger would star in, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

It focuses on two detectives, an older Italian cop (Joe) wise to the ways of the city, and a younger, idealistic Irish cop (Mike) just learning the ropes and wondering whether he should use his NYU degree elsewhere. Except for a few scenes with another cop, a pretty black lesbian policewoman, Joe and Mike are really the only characters we get to know, and following them around in their unmarked Impala pretty much makes up the action of the book.

There's lots of philosophizing by these two men in an action profession, but for a while that's OK. Manfredo seems to know how cops talk, and if you don't, you will by the time you finish this book. Unfortunately, Joe and Mike, especially Joe, talk too much. After a couple of hundred pages you really do wish they'd shut up and get on with it. Moreover, when another character comes along, especially another cop, he sounds awfully like Joe and Mike. Even the priests sound like cops. And they all do talk, and talk, and talk. There is very little action in this book.

But there is a good spirit hovering over it. Joe and Mike are decent men, two of the most decent you are likely to meet in a modern novel. Priscilla, the black policewoman, is decent too. Joe's wife is a wonderful wife and a perfect mother. The two priests are saintly, however rough their speech. There are bad people, to be sure. Corrupt cops, crooked politicians, nasty perps and an evil motorcycle gang. But, for all the cynical cop-talk, the author seems to believe in the essential goodness of mankind. The book leaves you with a nice aftertaste.

I do question one accusation against the Brooklyn political establishment. There is a scene where judgeships are bought for $50,000 each. That seems unrealistic to me. Many years ago, when I graduated from law school and lived in a different part of Brooklyn, I was told that $50,000 was the going price for a judgeship. Hasn't that figure been adjusted for inflation?

One of the most frustrating aspects of this book is that it could have been so much better.

The first 125 pages are not only irrelevant to the actual plot, they're badly done. The author takes us through the first few months of McQueen and Rizzo's partnership, showing us a lot of nitty gritty cop work, and telling us how close they've become. There are sentences like, "Over those few weeks he began to realize what a great cop Rizzo was." If the author had shown us the two cops learning to trust and respect each other, and told us about the cases they worked, it would have been a much better intro.

There are some irritations that continue through the entire book. I don't think their car was ever once referred to as 'the car'. It was always 'the grey Impala', 'the Chevrolet', 'the grey Chevrolet', and other similar permutations. Likewise, every time they start driving, the author felt it necessary to tell us how they slowly pull away from the curb. Detail is good, especially in a crime novel, but it goes a little too far.

The author is also seriously invested in making the reader utterly and completely convinced that the author knows Brooklyn. We're treated to, on occasion, turn-by-turn directions of where they're driving. It breaks the flow of the story, and is totally irrelevant. He also goes to great lengths to show how favors are earned and dispensed, far more than necessary to set up a few details later in the book.

And as much as the author goes out of his way to show us that he, a cop, knows the mechanics of police work, there are times where his characters say things to each other that i'm nearly sure would never pass the lips of an actual police detective talking to his partner. My favorite is, "We're going to see a friend of mine down at the State Supreme Court on Adams Street." (p51) I would bet a large sum of money that actual cops have some much simpler way of referring to the State Supreme Court on Adams Street. Once again, it breaks the narrative, but also breaks the characters a little.

Once you get to page 150 or so, the real plot is picking up steam, the characters are well established, and the pages fly by. But getting there is no minor feat. If not for the slog of the first 125 pages, i'd have given this book a solid 4 stars.

And lastly, i found the ending unsatisfying. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't what i wanted.

If this author writes another novel, i may well read it, because this one showed definite promise. I just wish the editor had been a little bolder.

Whenever one of my friends studying criminal justice comes over to my apartment and find Law and Order on my DVR, they cringe and give me the look of shame. "That is NOT how it is in real life!!" they would say and I would have to wrestle the remote out of their hands to prevent them from deleting my recordings of Law and Order and Desperate Housewives (I swear, what we record for our women). It is true that there is a gross amount of false preconceived notions about law enforcement due mostly in part to cop dramas and "bad science" passed around the mass media. This is commonly referred to as the "CSI effect."

In reality, however, the world of law enforcement is entirely different as it is filled more with bureaucracy, paperwork, interviews, and note taking than busting down doors. Rizzo's War focuses on this truer aspect more than anything else as the several discs of this set take place almost entirely during an investigation process... in the unmarked Chevrolet Impala to be precise.

Rizzo's War follows has the base formula of a standard cop-drama; two differing cops made partners. One is a veteran of the force (Rizzo) while the other is a rookie trying to find his place in the world (McQueen). They both wish to solve a crime but have two different ideas of how to do it. Unlike most cop-dramas, however, Rizzo's War takes the unique approach of presenting the story as a procedural piece rather than use action every now and again. What this means is that Rizzo's War is so precise on cop procedure that it lacks any real action or climax all the while showing procedure to the point of boredom.

Meanwhile, the story follows a very, VERY slow method of solving a sex crime. This version is the unabridged one and you know it as every single detail is spelled out in a way that would make Tom Clancy think his books are short and lack sufficient details. I fell asleep several times while trying to listen to the CDs. However, I think this was intentional as, again, this is a procedural account of law enforcement rather than a sensationalized cop-drama.

All in all, Rizzo's War had a lot of potential but, with a lacking amount of actual drama and a lot more car scenes with no actual climax... it just didn't quite do it in for me.

Given my recent retirement and my grudgingly accepting frugality as a way of life, I now wander through public libraries, noting in my browsing the demise of deodorants as a daily staple amongst the patrons, and I look for first time authors whose background is either ex-cop or ex-DA. Joseph Wambaugh perhaps is the best example of this, a ex-cop out of LA, and I find his writing "authentic", I feel I am in a patrol car listening to the language of cops when I read a Wambaugh novel.

So on an aroma packed day in the Peekskill Field Library, I find this book by Lou Manfredo who served in the Brooklyn criminal justice system for 25 years and given I have no skin in the game of buying the book, I take the book out and it is in my view, a solid read. How so? A Whitman sampler, the main character, tough, grizzled veteran cop (I guess all veteran cops are grizzled, please excuse the redundancy) Lou Rizzo takes what life gives, "it is what it is" and is in pursuit with his younger partner, Mike McQueen, of a bad boy by the name of Anthony Donzi. Rizzo asks for back up after they spot Donzi entering an apartment and so an emergency service unit responds to a scene in Brooklyn and the following conversation ensues with the emergency unit's leader, a guy named Jake.

"Jake, thanks for coming," RIzzo said to him.
"My pleasure, PIsan," Jake responded, his voice surprisingly delicate sounding coming from his broad face and imposing mass. "What you got for us this evenin'?"
"Arrest and search warrant. Guy named Donzi. It's a 140.25 Penal Law and a 353.A of the Agriculture and Markets Law."
Jake's eyes narrowed as he reached out for the arrest warrant offered by Rizzo. "A burglar? You got the cavalry out here for a burglar? What's the matter, your grandmother off tonight, couldn't help you out?"
Rizzo laughed. "Just a little insurance, that's all. You ladies will be back to the mah-jongg game by eleven o'clock."

I suspect after living in New York for the past 40 years I have become a big fan of sarcasm and this book does not disappoint. A good, solid read and at a price I can afford.

I think it would be very difficult to create two characters who are more stereotyped than the two main characters in this story. We have Joe Rizzo, tough Italian detective who has been on the force forever and is just waiting to be able to afford to live off his pension and we have Mike McQueen, new college-educated detective who just came over from patrolling the streets of Manhattan and wants to get promoted back to a big-time job in Manhattan. And let's not forget the African-American, lesbian patrol officer (who is revealed to have been a member of a motorcycle gang just when Rizzo and McQueen need one) to complete the triumvirate. Rizzo and McQueen don't do much other than wander through a few cases and reveal that all cops are crooked, even the honest ones. They accept free food from a restaurant in payment for following the owner when he takes the day's receipts to the bank. They claim a confession that never happened from a dead guy. It takes them two weeks to decide if promotions and bigger pensions in exchange for letting criminals get away with their crimes falls within the oath they took when they became cops. I have to admit that I didn't like either Rizzo or McQueen.

As far as the story goes, nothing really happens. The detectives have a few cases but none of them are interesting, even the big one that completes the story. And the ending of that case is so contrived as to be unbelievable. And does NYC really have motorcycle gangs running through the city selling drugs and being ignored by the police? In a crime novel, the most important thing is making you care about something and then putting that something in some kind of danger. The detectives who we are supposed to care about, I assume, are never in any danger. The only character who is in danger we know virtually nothing about so it is hard to care what happens to her.

The writing itself is only fair at best. The author tells us about left and right turns in the Impala and Rizzo taking out another pack of Chesterfields and the two detectives talking on their Motorola radio. I expected to go to commercial any minute. But it is fast and easy reading. You can probably blow through this book in a couple of days... and then move on to something better.

I thought this book was alright. I wasn't crazy about it but it wasn't bad either. I guess my main disappoint is that the book wasn't much of a thriller as it'd been described. There wasn't much mystery or suspense either. There was nothing keeping me from putting down the book. As I mentioned though the book wasn't bad. It was like tagging along with Rizzo & his partner McQueen for a few months while they did there job. The first half of the book was simply that. Just tagging along from case to case with some shady business along the way. Then comes the big secret case, which was the 2nd half of the book. I have to say that I wasn't really drawn to the case & didn't truly care what happened & I'm not sure that I followed along 100%.

If you're interested in following along with these detectives throughout several months of on their cases then ride along. If that doesn't sound too interesting then I'd probably just pass on this book. I do want to point out that I did like the author's style of writing & I'd probably read another one of his books.

Veteran cop Joe Rizzo and his recently promoted partner Mike McQueen are fighting a war on the streets of Bensonhurst, New York. This war consists of daily skirmishes with common street thugs, burglars, as well as dealing with the victims of the street scum. In addition, Rizzo's previous partner is currently being investigated by Internal Affairs and the IA boys are doing their best to intimidate Russo into divulging any information he may have on the guy, going so far as threatening to "bring him down" too.

Suddenly McQueen and Rizzo are called upon to perform a political favor and locate the runaway daughter of an influential city councilman. The girl is mentally unstable and may or may not be in possession of some evidence that incriminates her daddy in some pretty shady dealings. The powers that be have indicated that a successful resolution the councilman's problem could make Rizzo's IA problem go away and result in a promotion to The Plaza for McQueen. The question is, is dad truly concerned about his daughters safety and well being or is he just trying to cover his own back and preserve his political future?

RIZZO'S WAR provides the reader with insight into the inner workings of police work and the political games that must be played if a cop wants to move up in the ranks. Rizzo knows what it really takes to survive in this chosen career and is an ideal mentor who generously shares his years of wisdom with his young partner via pithy comments and keen observations. Rizzo's philosophy is "There is no wrong, there is no right, there just is". Perhaps Joe Rizzo, the man, could add another observation to his repertoire, this one borrowed from Popeye and used to describe Rizzo, the man. That line would be "I am what I am and that's all that I am".

Rizzo's War follows the titular character of Detective Rizzo and his fresh as summer grass green new partner. Sounds like the opening of a long, rather drawn out crime novel, but rather it turns more into a character look at the detectives, and their personal and professional lives, especially how the two are anything but sympatico, and how one quite easily poisons the other.

The plot itself weaves through several minor and major cases, touching on a variety of felonies, before turning into a rather awkward feeling cloak-and-dagger missing persons. While the story turns out alright, certain portions, especially after having already established the characters, seemed like somewhat unnecessary filler, as the message behind most of them, that there's more gray than black and white, is lathered on everywhere.

The characters are what makes and nearly breaks the book. While McQueen, the quintessential rookie, is rather innocent at the beginning of the book, he manages to come across as a eager new guy, rather than the token puppy-eyed baby with a badge. Similarly, Rizzo, who seemed doomed to be hammered into the hard-boiled, tough as coffin nails crime machine turns into a rather interesting reflection of a man who just wants to see the end of another day, and his accent and dialogue flow are so on target you can almost hear the italian slur to his speech. But the dialogue at many points becomes bogged down and barely readable. The characters all preface with the subjects first name, which is unusual, but pretty much necessary, since you'd get lost by the third sentence given how interchangeable the characters feel at certain points. And while Manfredo obviously knows his way around a detectives bullpen or a courthouse, I don't, much less do I live in New York, so much of local and police slang were annoying riddles that I had to try to puzzle out to understand where the conversation was heading, in addition to using terms I haven't heard or seen since the days of Dick Tracy.

Overall, the book is worthwhile for the character development and the plot of the book is readable and entertaining, but hopefully Manfredo's feedback will encourage him to find a better editor, since some flow and trimming would've made this a great new entry, rather than a tolerable one.

This could be a good book. In places it is very interesting, even exciting. However, much of it just plods along at a monotonous pace with nothing much happening to engage you.

The very first page tries so hard to "hook" the reader that I almost gave up on the spot. It gets better after that for a while then dips back down into endless boring material that does little to move the plot along.

In fact, the main plot does not even begin until around page 140 of a 280 page book! That's a heck of a lot of character development, scene-setting etc to ask a reader to slog through.

The characters are interesting: One, a younger man newly promoted to detective and the other a somewhat cynical older detective who has pretty much seen it all but who has a flair for finding the real root of a case or a situation. They are both likable and interesting, if only the author had actually done something with them for most of the book.

There's repetitive detail: I think I read over a hundred times how they got into the Chevrolet Impala they drive or how Rizzo (the main character) lit up a Chesterfield. There was so much of this I expected to see a "sponsored by" tag at the end of the book.

It's a first novel and there are glimmers of good writing underneath the ponderous weight of the text. Boil off about 75 pages, tighten the action up a lot and lose some subplots that seem to be totally useless and this would be a much better book.

In the end this book disappointed me greatly, I had to force myself to keep going at times.

That said, the main characters are interesting enough that I'd like to see more of them once the author gets his feet under him and more experience (or a better editor).

Rizzo's War is a character driven police procedural. The audio version is narrated by Bobby Canavale, who does an admirable job of sounding like most of us expect a grizzled chain smoking police veteran to sound.
Two main characters, Joe Rizzo and Mike McQueen are backed up by a supporting cast that include a black lesbian cop, a few superior officers, an IAD cop, and an odd assortment of baddies, victims, and joe citizens.
Rizzo, the veteran cop nearing retirement is partnered with McQueen, the rookie detective. While they are busy solving crimes, Rizzo mentors McQueen with the wisdom gained from years on the NYPD. The title erroneously led me to believe there would be plenty of action and high drama. Instead, the groundwork is laid for the solving of the disappearance of a young troubled girl. By the time we get to her, the book has settled into a nice, slow but steady pace. To solve this crime, our heroes must be tough, smart, and know how to play the game.
The characters are well written, if a bit too cliche. I like the good guys and dislike the bad. We get to know Rizzo and McQueen, but the supporting cast members are little more than additive cliches. In the beginning, the descriptions of Rizzo's cigarettes and McQueen's clean cut naiveté assist the reader during the get-to-know-the-characters period. It doesn't take long before this becomes tiresome.
The story is believable. The missing girl has many potential reasons for her disappearance. Rizzo and McQueen sift through them easily, as I would expect good detectives to do. They remain true to their own characters and go about solving the crime much as I would expect. Not boring at all, and convoluted enough to keep me interested.
In order to rate more stars from me, some editing is in order. The novel is packed with dialogue. It could stand to be made a little less cumbersome, and a little more believable. When real people spend all day with each other, they do not typically say each other's names over and over and over. We know Rizzo is a heavy smoker, but don't really care what brand. As for the narrator, his skill with accents only rates a C+. The banter between cops goes on too long, and loses its authenticity.
Aside from the removal of some annoyances, don't overlook this novel as great entertainment. As a debut, it is solid. There is some excellent prose, and if Manfredo sticks with it, he has a fine career ahead of him as a writer.