In debt to the mob, Sidel’s sidekick brings hell to One Police Plaza
For Detective Caroll Brent, special attention from Commissioner Sidel is not a good thing. Sidel’s last pet detective, Manfred Coen, was killed by a gang of smugglers, and none of Sidel’s favorites have had good luck since. But when Sidel taps Brent for an unusual assignment, the young cop can’t refuse.
As part of a feud with the head of the Board of Education, Sidel turns Brent into a one-man special task force to patrol the city’s schools. The lonely, miserable, dangerous work is not Brent’s only trouble. Ever since he made the mistake of marrying an heiress, he has been spending like mad to keep up with her lifestyle, borrowing money from the mob to keep himself in tuxedos on a detective’s salary. When his money runs out, it’s Sidel who will have to cover the debt.
From Publishers Weekly
Seasoned mystery writer Charyn ( The Good Policeman ) unleashes another Dantesque vision of the hell that is contemporary New York City. Police Commissioner Isaac Sidel plans to fight corruption in the city's public schools with the help of his new right-hand man, Carollsp ok Brent. But Brent, although married to "the second-richest woman in New York," is in debt to the mob and falls into the hands of Sidel's longtime nemesis, Sal Rubino. Brent's vigorish gets paid off, but Sidel is gunned down. While the "Commish" recovers with the help of lime jello, dreams of baseball and visits from his old friend Margaret Tolstoy, events in his department come to a boil. Brent's wife is drawn into the web of mob-connected Carlos Maria Montalban, flashy and venal superintendent of the Lower East Side school district. Soon the close links between the city's archdiocese, government, high society, police force and crime organizations are exposed, and a shootout between mob families at a Central Park baseball game leaves few survivors. Charyn's newest dark and frenetic tale sings with the lingo of the streets, his trademark rapid-fire dialogue and surprise relationships. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
In debt to the mob, Sidel’s sidekick brings hell to One Police Plaza
For Detective Caroll Brent, special attention from Commissioner Sidel is not a good thing. Sidel’s last pet detective, Manfred Coen, was killed by a gang of smugglers, and none of Sidel’s favorites have had good luck since. But when Sidel taps Brent for an unusual assignment, the young cop can’t refuse.
As part of a feud with the head of the Board of Education, Sidel turns Brent into a one-man special task force to patrol the city’s schools. The lonely, miserable, dangerous work is not Brent’s only trouble. Ever since he made the mistake of marrying an heiress, he has been spending like mad to keep up with her lifestyle, borrowing money from the mob to keep himself in tuxedos on a detective’s salary. When his money runs out, it’s Sidel who will have to cover the debt.
From Publishers Weekly
Seasoned mystery writer Charyn ( The Good Policeman ) unleashes another Dantesque vision of the hell that is contemporary New York City. Police Commissioner Isaac Sidel plans to fight corruption in the city's public schools with the help of his new right-hand man, Carollsp ok Brent. But Brent, although married to "the second-richest woman in New York," is in debt to the mob and falls into the hands of Sidel's longtime nemesis, Sal Rubino. Brent's vigorish gets paid off, but Sidel is gunned down. While the "Commish" recovers with the help of lime jello, dreams of baseball and visits from his old friend Margaret Tolstoy, events in his department come to a boil. Brent's wife is drawn into the web of mob-connected Carlos Maria Montalban, flashy and venal superintendent of the Lower East Side school district. Soon the close links between the city's archdiocese, government, high society, police force and crime organizations are exposed, and a shootout between mob families at a Central Park baseball game leaves few survivors. Charyn's newest dark and frenetic tale sings with the lingo of the streets, his trademark rapid-fire dialogue and surprise relationships.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The James Joyce of the police novel is at it again, this time with a manic, woolly tale of New York Police Commissioner Isaac Sidel's attempts to crack a ring of thieving school officials while protecting his flank from his sometime prot‚g‚ detective Caroll Brent, formerly of the Sherwood Forest precinct in Central Park. Brent's disaffection with marriage to the half-billion-dollar heiress Diana Cassidy, of Cardinal Jim O'Bannon's family--plus his indebtedness to Isaac's old enemy Sal Rubino--has made him vulnerable to tough-guy Maria Montalb n's urgings that he assassinate Isaac. And that's just for openers: Things get even murkier when Isaac tries to turn one of Maria's girls, Lolita-ish Delia St. John, against the Central Park North Pornographers' Association and runs up against his old love, Margaret Tolstoya, still again. Charyn, who writes like a rabbi on bad acid, kills off both Sal and Isaac, then brings them back from the dead. Maria isn't as lucky, nor are unwary readers who aren't already steeped in the mythology of the Pink Commish. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.