Having recently
reviewed The Last Collar by Lawrence Kelter and Frank Zafiro as well as The
Origins of Benjamin Hackett by Gerald M. O'Connor, John
is back today with another review.
Coney Island
Avenue by J.L. Abramo Down & Out
Books
An excellent
read, worthy of comparison to Ed McBain’s 87th
Precinct series.
“My sister’s
boy is popping the question.”
“What question
is that, why the eggplant is always greasy?”
“He bought a ring
for his girlfriend.”
“Jesus, Augie,
what kind of uncle are you. Couldn’t you talk him out of it?”
“You’re a
hopeless cynic, Tommy. I haven’t met her, but my sister says she seems
like a nice girl.”
“They all seem
like nice girls, and then they grow up and become their mothers.
Shamus Award
winning author J.L. Abramo’s new release, Coney Island Avenue (Down
& Out Books),
continues the story of the New York Police Department’s Detective Squad in the
61st Precinct, Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn,
N.Y., a squad first visited by Abramo in his acclaimed novel Gravesend. Set in the dog days of August,
the new novel opens with a multiple homicide, that of the young man and woman
referred to above. Their execution is perpetrated by two guys. The
first, dressed in a gray business suit, looked good enough that he could pass
for a banker. The second, is a big ape in a blue jogging suit, or as his
not a banker partner notes, a “goombah outfit,” the appropriate dress for a mob
enforcer known as Paulie Bonebreaker. As the Detectives of the 61st begin investigating, more bodies turn
up, the crime itself is not all that simple. While that investigation
evolves, additional crimes and cases are dropped on the squad. Abramo
keeps the story moving in real time, clever dialogue and small rapid fire
paragraphs jump us between the various plot lines. The squad is a mix of
veterans and squad newbies. Their personal stories, their families or the
lack thereof is woven into the narrative. A total of 58 characters appear
in the book, from bakers to mob bosses, from Russian criminals to corrupt
building contractors, the police and the detectives, through Abramo’s skill we
get a sense of each. The story and the members of the 61st Squad are life-like, compelling and
believable. As a police procedural, the investigation and procedures
followed are spot on, it compares favorably to the best of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series. Abramo is an
accomplished writer, his West Coast set series about PI Jake Diamond, revived
and also available from Down & Out Books is award winning. But Abramo
grew up in the Gravesend area of Brooklyn, NY. He knows the streets, the
neighborhoods and its people. And he knows police, as this bit from two
uniform officers talking while on stationary surveillance…
“I don’t know
about you, but I could eat a horse,” he said.
“Pinto or
Appaloosa?”
I hope J.L.
Abramo is working on other novels involving the 61st Precinct, Gravesend and Coney Island Avenue are both excellent reads. I cannot wait
for the next in this brilliant series.
I am grateful
to Down & Out Books and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read
Coney Island Avenue.
John Stickney ©2017
John Stickney is a writer formerly
from Cleveland, Ohio now residing in North Carolina. His fiction has
appeared in Thuglit, Demolition, Needle, among others.
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