As he has proved in such previous dark and detail-rich police thrillers as Exit Wounds, High Crimes, The Honor Farm, and Sweet Deal, John Westermann didn't waste a minute stopping for donuts during the 20 years he spent as a cop in Freeport, Long Island: he was too busy taking notes. His latest book is dedicated "to the men and women of the Freeport Police Department below the rank of captain"--even though his hero is Nassau County Police Commissioner Frank Murphy, one of the few good guys in an administration rank with corruption and self-interest. Murphy keeps himself honest by pouring out his doubts and anger to his severely brain-damaged younger brother, Wally, on their nightly outings in search of fast food and childhood memories. One of the other good people in the administration--Elizabeth Lucido, the sharp and attractive deputy to the odious County Executive Martin Daly--disappears from her home at the book's outset, the second (but not the last) top Republican woman to vanish under suspicious circumstances. When it comes to light that Lucido was secretly sleeping with--and giving inside information to--Daly's straight-shooting Democrat-opponent, all kinds of things hit Murphy's fan. Trying to help him solve the cases and keep his job are ace detective Maude Fleming and her partner Rocky Blair, a muscular type not anywhere near as dumb as his fellow officers like to think. --Dick Adler
From Publishers Weekly
Lustful, greedy, ambitious and none too bright, the politicos of Nassau County, N.Y., trip over themselves in this irreverent send-up of machine politics and good but Machiavellian cops. When his deputy disappears during election month (along with the chair of the Republican Women's Caucus), bumbling Nassau County Executive Martin Daly is behind in the polls, out of favor with his machine boss and battling press coverage of his tippler wife and pot-smoking no-show employee son, Junior. Police Commissioner Frank Murphy puts the unflappable homicide duo Maude Fleming (a lesbian with an attitude) and Rocky Blair (a bodybuilder with an attitude) on the case and lets the chips fall where they may. The team digs up enough real estate scams and musical beds to have nervous pols covering their butts and slinging back dirt of their own, but the detectives grind on toward a perfect ending in which Westermann's (The Honor Farm) trademark black humor, sharp ear and eye for setting are all on display. If the portraits of political power brokers border on caricature, the cops and ethnic characters are rock solid and totally engaging. Indeed, Westermann gives readers so much cynical fun that they may almost forget there's a body or two to account for. (Aug.) FYI: Westermann spent almost 20 years as a Long Island policeman.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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