鈥淪leepless City,鈥� by Reed Farrel Coleman (Blackstone)
Nick Ryan, the protagonist in a new series by veteran crime novelist Reed Farrel Coleman, begins his fictional life with a lot of baggage.
Nick鈥檚 fellow New York City cops don鈥檛 trust him because his father once testified against a cabal of corrupt officers. Nick鈥檚 brother, a fellow cop, is on an alcohol-fueled path of self-destruction. And an old girlfriend Nick had never gotten over suddenly pops up in his life again, married now but raising a toddler that looks a lot like Nick.
As if that weren鈥檛 enough, Nick鈥檚 mentor in the department is dead by his own hand, shooting himself after getting caught planting evidence on a pedophile who was about escape justice. Like his late mentor, Nick is willing to taking the law into his own hands when thinks the situation requires it. We learn this right off when he sets out to kill the pedophile.
Meanwhile, a crooked financier has looted the police union pension fund, and a string of police shootings in Black neighborhoods has provoked so much anger that the 鈥淪leepless City鈥� of the book鈥檚 title is on the precipice of racial violence. An explosion appears all but inevitable when a rookie cop badly misreads a situation and guns down two Black citizens in a city housing project.
That鈥檚 when a mysterious figure offers Nick unlimited resources and high-level protection in return for working as a fixer for the city鈥檚 power elite. Nick, something of a cross between Lee Child鈥檚 Jack Reacher, Showtime TV鈥檚 Ray Donovan and Denzel Washington鈥檚 鈥淭he Equalizer鈥� movie character, reluctantly agrees, wondering all the while what he鈥檒l do when his shadowy new bosses order him to do something that violates his unconventional code of ethics.
鈥淔or the power elite,鈥� Nick says, 鈥渋t always comes down to money. Blood was just an added expense.鈥�
Nick鈥檚 first two assignments: Whitewash the housing project shooting before word of what happened leaks out. Then track down the financier and force him, by any means necessary, to return the stolen pension money.
From this starting point, the author fashions a fast-paced, tension-laden plot featuring a vicious right-wing propagandist, an on-the-lamb terrorist from the Irish Troubles, a corrupt prison official, the fatal bombing of a bar where police hang out, and a generous helping of violence with Nick alternately dishing it out and victimized by it.
The result is a vivid, beautifully written portrait of an American city and a new hero willing and able to administer his own brand of justice regardless of personal cost. Coleman, a four-time Edgar Award finalist and winner of Shamus, Barry, Anthony and Macavity awards, has an impressive, 21-book oeuvre, but 鈥淪leepless City鈥� may well be his finest work.
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winner of the Mystery Writers of America鈥檚 Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including 鈥淭he Dread Line.鈥�
Bruce Desilva, The Associated Press
