Last Chance for Glory
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A broke PI attempts to prove the innocence of a wrongly convicted homeless man
Late at night by posh Gramercy Park, a woman peers into the backseat of a parked car. She's never seen a dead body before, but there's enough blood that she has no doubt what she's looking at. She remembers seeing a strange man nearby, and the police use her fuzzy identification and a few other bits of tenuous evidence to finger Billy Sowell, an alcoholic bum with limited intelligence and a patchy memory, as the killer. Who cares if he's guilty? Billy's an easy conviction, and his case is forgotten until years later, when it falls in the lap of PI Marty Blake.
Blake will take anything as he tries to rebuild his practice after a year's suspension for illegal surveillance, and he attempts to clear Billy's name using his expertise at computerized investigation. But when it comes to proving the New York Police Department wrong, virtual sleuthing will not be enough. For this computer expert, it's time to play tough.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Solomita's second book not to feature his NYPD series hero, Stanley Moodrow, follows last year's A Good Day to Die and is more successful than its predecessor--but not by much. Here, the PI is computer whiz Marty Blake, who on his first case at his own New York City agency, kicks over a bucket of worms. As in previous Solomita novels, colorful figures dominate. Of particular note are Maxwell Steinberg, the eminent lawyer with the lousy wig who hires Marty to assist his efforts to free Billy Sowell, a retarded black man wrongly accused of murder years before, and retired rummy cop Bela Kosinski, who redeems his earlier involvement in Billy's case by teaming up with the PI. Marty himself is a bland hero, easily overshadowed by his more seasoned and charismatic sidekicks. But most missed is Solomita's strongest series element, the mean streets of New York, which he has previously mapped with grit and savvy. The story line, tracing the original cover-up, which was spun by bad cops, a spineless judge and a murderous politico, delivers some jolts, but without New York's commanding urban presence, this tale fails to deliver Solomita's usual high caliber of down-and-dirty action.
