When Mike McQueen gets partnered with Joe Rizzo, he is initially fooled by Rizzo's apparent lack of ambition and enthusiasm. However, McQueen quickly learns that Rizzo's instincts are spot on, and his connections within the city, the precinct and beyond can turn a great cop into an excellent cop. With Internal Affairs breathing down their necks, Rizzo and McQueen may not get to discover what the combination of veteran street-smarts and a college grad's ambition can get them.
A fast-paced action tale, RIZZO'S WAR makes readers ask the question of whether there is a right or wrong in any situation.
Rizzoβs War, Lou Manfredoβs stunningly
authenticΒ debut,Β partners a rookie detectiveΒ with a
seasoned veteran on his way to retirement in Bensonhurst,
Brooklyn.βThereβs no wrong, thereβs no right, there just
is.βΒ This is the refrain of Joe Rizzo, a decades-long
veteran of the NYPD, as he passes on the knowledge of his
years of experience to his ambitious new partner, Mike
McQueen, over a year of riding together as detectives in
the Sixty-second Precinct in Bensonhurst,
Brooklyn.Β McQueen is fresh from the beat in Manhattan, and
Bensonhurst might as well be China for how different it
is.Β They work on several cases, some big, some small, but
the lesson is always the same.Β Whether itβs a simple
robbery or an attempted assault,Β Rizzoβs saying always
seems to bear out.When the two detectives are given the
delicate task of finding and returning the runaway
daughter of a city councilman, who may or may not be more
interested in something his daughter has takenΒ with
herΒ than in her safety, the situation is much more
complex.Β By the end of Rizzo and McQueenβs year together,
however, McQueen is not surprised to discover that even in
those more complicated cases, Rizzo is still rightβthereβs
no wrong, thereβs no right, there just is.Rizzoβs War is
an introduction to a wonderful new voice in crime fiction
in the Big Apple, ringing with authenticity, full of
personality, and taut with the suspense of real, everyday
life in the big city.Β
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