Rizzo's Fire
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
As twenty-year NYPD veteran Joe Rizzo edges closer to retirement, things only seem to get harder: a new partner, a promise to his wife to quit smoking, and the most baffling case of his career—a murder investigation.
The victim, Robert Lauria, was practically a hermit and was dead ten days before anyone found him. Fired from his job as a shoe salesman weeks ago, he rarely left his apartment and had no visitors except his cousin, who says she hardly knew him. So who strangled him late one night as he made tea in his kitchen? And could there be a connection to the headline-grabbing murder of a Broadway producer a day earlier?
Armed with more street smarts than the FBI agents assigned to the more glamorous case, Rizzo and his new partner, Priscilla Jackson, are tasked with navigating the twin labyrinths of the case and NYPD politics in order to find the killer and bring him to justice.
Full of the sounds and sights of walking the beat in Bensonhurst, Rizzo's Fire comes on the heels of Lou Manfredo's acclaimed debut, Rizzo's War, and brings the streets of Brooklyn to life in a way that no New York City crime novel has before.
Rizzo's Fire is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Mysteries title.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Manfredo's prosaic second novel featuring Brooklyn Det. Sgt. Joe Rizzo (after Rizzo's War) gets off to a slow start. Rizzo, a battle-hardened veteran nearing retirement with a zen approach to his work ("It's not right, it's not wrong. It just is"), has a new detective partner, Priscilla Jackson, a lesbian African-American. Many chapters of routine police work and soap opera (Jackson's estranged from her mother, who cut her off over her sexual preference, while one of Rizzo's daughters wants to join the force against his wishes) pass before the pair start investigating the strangling homicide of ex-shoe clerk Robert Lauria. Lauria's death may be connected with a similar killing of a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, though oddly the police don't run the NYPD computer to check for similar murders. A less than gripping whodunit plot doesn't help. Fans of contemporary New York City crime fiction will find Reggie Nadelson's Artie Cohen series (Blood Count, etc.) more realistic.
Customer Reviews
I'm addicted.
I can't express how good these books are. If you grew up anywhere near an Italian family that came from the city you will be able to relate to the characters in this book. The story flows very nicely and keeps you coming back for more. Definitely buy and read these books the author knows what he is talking about, everyone I know who is on the job says it gives a true depiction of what it's like to be a cop in the city. Hope you enjoy!!!