From Publishers Weekly
Ex-cop Reardon (The Sweet Life of Jimmy Riley has almost written a strong cautionary tale about a crooked New York cop. Tommy Sloane, son of a bent, philandering NYPD detective, hates his father, but after Tommy's discharge from the Navy in the 1950s he joins the force. After a few lean years in uniform, Tommy (with some help from his "connected" best friend) becomes a plainclothesman in "Manhattan West," a notorious hotbed of cops on the take. Tommy enjoys 10 years of graft and high livingduring which he himself becomes a serious philanderer. But he runs smack into the ambitious Sinclair commission investigating police corruption and is turned into a stoolie and an outcast. Reardon's New York color is good, and he provides interesting inside-the-force background, but the writing and events are too often flat and repetitious, and the narrative seems padded. Tommy's venality is matter-of-fact, and only at the end, when he's forced to trap others "on the job," is there much heat. Then Reardon vents his spleen on "finks." The nuts and bolts are here but, unfortunately, no real people. The possible portrait of a "good guy" ruined by the "everybody's-doing-it" rationale just slips away.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Reardon ( The Sweet Life of Jimmy Riley ) has attempted a saga of the rise and demise of a conceited, corrupt, and greedy big city cop. The setting is New York from 1946 through the 1950s. The very unlikable central character is Tommy Sloane, a cardboard stereotyped Irish cop who wants a life in the fast lane as quickly as possible and is willing to try almost anything to get it. Reardon's style is repetitive, cliched, and dull. His characters are shallow, seedy, disreputable, and unbelievable. There is no emotional insight, no cynicism, no humor (black or otherwise) even in the anecdotes told to inspire humor. Police routines and procedures are incomplete or absent. Conversation between characters is unreal, stilted. Too much telling; not enough showing. Stick to Wambaugh or McBain. Jean B. Palmer, Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
