Crooked Brooklyn by Michael Vecchione and Jerry Schmetterer is a harrowing, true tale of the chief of Brooklyn's Rackets Division who helped clean up the storied New York City borough (Available November 17, 2015). Read this exclusive excerpt of Crooked Brooklyn by Michael Vecchione and Jerry Schmetterer, and then make sure you're signed in and comment…
The last two episodes of Show Me a Hero were both invigorating and depressing, as the housing actually gets built and the lives of the families in the projects rise, and Nick’s (Oscar Issac) star begins to twinkle. His name has become political poison, and the Democratic Party isn’t behind him when he wants to…
Mr. Smith Goes to Prison is a memoir by Jeff Smith about how a senator from Missouri ended up behind bars for one year, and what it taught him about America's prison crisis (available September 1, 2015). In 2009, Smith lied to the Feds about seemingly minor campaign malfeasance and earned himself a year and…
The meaty middle of Show Me a Hero begins and ends in the thick of battle, as Nick learns the hard way that everyone loves a winner and nobody wants to hitch their wagon to a loser. The embattled young mayor (played by Oscar Isaac, of A Most Violent Year) is on the phone to…
“Show me a hero, and I’ll give you a tragedy.” The Wire changed television and remains one of the greatest stories about life in an American city ever created. So, no pressure, David Simon, as we follow you to another embattled burg: Yonkers in 1987. Instead of the effects of the Drug War, this time…
Brush Back by Sara Paretsky is the 18th novel featuring Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski, who'll reluctantly investigate the case of a hateful woman from the old neighborhood, convicted of killing her own daughter decades ago (available July 28, 2015). No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there…
Cold Frame by P.T. Deutermann is a political thriller set in Washington D.C. where a secret NSA-sanctioned assassination squad goes rogue (available July 14, 2015). A cold frame protects plants from adverse weather. Three years before a government official mysteriously dies at lunch, two men meet at Whitestone Hall, an estate in Great Falls, Virginia:…
Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis is the 3rd historical mystery in the Flavia Alba series set in Ancient Rome (available July 14, 2015). Deadly Election, Lindsey Davis’s latest novel of ancient Rome is a rewarding read, especially given how 2016’s potential candidates are already pontificating and bloviating. Television pundits (a dirty word—not unlike the term…
Elimination by Ed Gorman is the final political thriller in the Dev Conrad series where the investigator must figure out who tried to kill a Congress member running for re-election (available July 1, 2015). It seems possible that my lifelong interest in the American political process is what drew me to read Sleeping Dogs, the…
The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer is the third book in the Culper Ring Series about a 200-year-old secret society tasked with protecting the Presidency (available June 16, 2015). Read the prologue and first five chapters below! And then comment for a chance to win a copy of all three books in Brad Meltzer's Culper…
