Amazon.com
"This much is certain and always was. That on a Thursday afternoon in late September 1984, a housewife named Delores Dye... ran afoul of a thief as she loaded a shopping cart of groceries into her car out front of a New Orleans supermarket." So begins Jed Horne's brisk, crisply written Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans, which follows the convoluted tale of how a small-time drug dealer and product of the New Orleans housing projects named Curtis Kyles, who was convicted, sentenced to death row, and finally exonerated in Dye's grisly murder.
Rarely does any murder case appear as straightforward as the one against Curtis Kyles. The murder weapon, a .32-caliber pistol, was found in his apartment; the victim's purse was discovered in a trash bag in front of his building; and a bag of cat food purchased on the day of Dye's murder--the exact brand her husband said she always bought--was stashed under Kyles's sink. The truth, of course, was not so simple. As subsequent trials revealed, Kyles's conviction was the product of overzealous prosecution, an incompetent court-appointed lawyer, false eyewitness testimony, and, Horne argues, an attempted framing. In the end, after five trials and nearly 14 years, Kyles's death sentence was overturned, and he was released from New Orleans prison in 1998. Horne, the city editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, doesn't shy from colorful, sometimes lurid turns of phrase. But if Horne is a crime writer, he is also a journalist, and his detailed account of the unraveling of the case against Curtis Kyles makes a compelling case that a justice system that wrongly convicts men like Kyles and sentences them to death is broken and badly in need of repair. --Erica C. Barnett
Book Description
A searing anatomy of a New Orleans murder trial and a system of justice gone wrong.
In a New Orleans supermarket parking lot in the fall of 1984 ,two disparate lives become inextricably bound for the next fourteen years. The first, the life of Delores Dye, a white housewife and grandmother. The second, a young black man with a gun in hand. Moments following their maybe not so chance encounter, Mrs. Dye lay dead on the sunbaked macadam, and the killer had made off with her purse, her groceries, and her car. Four days later, following a tip, authorities arrested a known drug dealer and father of five named Curtis Kyles. Kyles would then be tried for Mrs. Dye's murder an unprecedented five times, though he maintained his innocence throughout each trial. Convicted and sentenced to death in his second trial, he would spend fourteen years on death row. After a fifth jury was unable to reach a verdict, New Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., finally conceded defeat and dropped the murder charge.
But the case slowly yielded a deeper drama: The crime turned out to have been the side effect of an intricately plotted act of revenge. That police and prosecutors may have been complicit in the vengeance that framed Kyles cuts to the heart of a system of justice for Southern blacks in the era since lynch mobs were shamed into obsolescence. A compellingly written legal drama that has at its heart passionate intrigue and justice gone awry.
Customer Reviews:
I was especially moved.......2005-09-07
I had read this book one week prior to Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the canals. Desire Street, covers the New Orleans judicial and police systems in regard to a murder of a white woman in a supermarket parking lot by a black who framed an innocent black for the murder. The journalist put forth a fairly objective story line which took the reader deep into the 9th ward and the lives of the people we saw portrayed on our TV screens this week. Though I read it because we have Sister Prejean coming to town next week and I wanted to expand my opinions. Having read it prior to Hurricane Katrina made what was portrayed by the newscasts even more poignant and heart wrenching. If you want to better understand the pulse of what once was, New Orleans you'd be wise to put this book in your cart.
Learn about life on death row and in the projects.......2005-04-28
The book's about Curtis Kyles, who was freed from Death Row in Angola after the Supreme Court reviewed his trial and decided that if all the evidence had been presented he wouldn't have been convicted. The police and the DA's office are supposed to give the defense lawyers all the evidence they uncover, but in this case they kept silent any info that didn't help prove the railroaded defendent was guilty. He was set up by a rival criminal in the neighborhood who was a police informant. The police actually gave him a regular paycheck in exchange for info on crimes. The book is interesting because it doesn't paint the exonerated man, Curtis Kyles, as an innocent man. It goes into all his criminal activity, selling drugs, selling stolen goods, and robbing people on the street. I think that he had planned to sell the gun and other items from the crime, the shooting death of an older lady out shopping at a discount grocery store in broad daylight. The police informant was found driving around in the dead lady's car, and soon pinned the killing on Curtis. After 4 trials with hung juries, the DA in New Orleans, Henry Connick, Jr's dad, conceded defeat and Curtis was allowed to go free. The book is written by a local newspaper reporter and does a good job describing the racism in the city. The book describes in detail life inside the Orleans Parish Prison, the local New Orleans jail full of violence and rapes, and on death row in Angola.
Latest additon to the "Freed from Death Row Genre".......2005-04-03
It is a sad comment on society that when you cruise through Amazon books there seems to be a growing list of books about the wrongly convicted/freed from death row.
Well this book is more than just the latest addition. It is a well reported and straightforwardly written story that should freighten us all. Jed Horme does a nice job of setting the stage in New Orleans by a well written background about the role of poverty and wealth in this racially diverse but also racially divided city.
The author's writing is not overly suspenseful, nor does it overwhelm the story that is being told. it is straight forward and to the point allowing the story to move itself along through the many unusual turns of the case.
Overall a good read and I also recommend "A promise of Justice" and "Bloodsworth" for those who enjoy this book.
true crime page turner.......2005-03-28
Jed Horne's DESIRE STREET is that book: the one we want to curl up with, the one that can take us away, the one that remains in our minds for a very long time. In rich nuanced prose, Horne tells the mind-boggling story of Curtis Kyles, a black man accused of murdering a white woman in racially charged New Orleans. Incredibly, Kyles goes to trial five times for this one murder because juries just can't seem to agree whether or not he is guilty. Horne puts us right into Kyles's New Orleans, mean streets filled with love and family as much as with crime and poverty. And by brilliantly weaving together details about the police investigations and trials of Curtis Kyles, Horne reveals that in the New Orleans criminal justice system that old saying is truer than ever: "In the halls of justice, the justice is in the halls." DESIRE STREET is true crime, real life, and a book that once read will not be forgotten.
A story about a dream of justice.......2005-03-15
Dolores Dye, a feisty, attractive, white, middle class grandmother, 60 years old and an ex-rodeo rider, lies dying in a supermarket parking lot, blood and brain fluid pooling beneath her, while her assailant, a young, dark-black man from one of the darkest city underbellies in America, a professional criminal by birth, brazenly maneuvers her red Ford into the line of cars exiting the lot before casually pulling out and vanishing into the thickening traffic: a murder in broad daylight, with eye-witnesses; a purse-snatching gone bad; a brutal, stupid, cowardly crime about to fan the racist flames in cops and prosecutors alike in a city already ablaze with white-flight and its attendant fear and loathing.
So begins Jed Horne's "Desire Street," subtitled "A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans," a 14-year saga of a dark crime brought slowly and painfully into light and focus. Not really a whodunit, but with the rolling thunder feel of one, its plot unfolding ever more surprisingly, and not a "private-eye" subterranean journey, but with more windows into worlds forbidden or otherwise inaccessible than that genre ever afforded, "Desire Street" draws us into the ghostly half-life of slum-warren junkies' somnolent predation, perverse symbiotic relationships of detectives and snitches, Death house despair, the layered world all the way up, finally, to the pristine and delicate machinations of Federal Supreme Court maneuverings.
We generally read non-fiction to learn stuff: how the world connects and works. But we tend to turn to fiction, with its comforting circles of clarity and closure, to story us through lives too often apparently just one damned thing after another. And if we're told non-fiction is the art of the age, we may darkly suspect that this may be related to the death of the American imagination, our curious confusion of fact with truth. How startling then to discover such a pure work of non-fiction, the reportage so thorough and seamless as to be nearly invisible, that also has the reverb and mythical splendor of a Faulkner tale.
I am tempted to call "Desire Street" hardboiled non-fiction, but it is too scrupulously written for that, too elegant, with almost a poet's sense of efficiency, rhythm and the mot juste: not a syllable sensationalized or self-indulgent; no conjecture or surmise; just facts and deeply understood characters marshaled with the almost invisible touch of a masterful storyteller possessed of a great journalist's eye and penchant for legwork. In this last regard, this is also clearly a work of great courage, at many levels. And it begets characters that get up and walk around in your head on your way to the drugstore or supermarket, haunting characters that "cast long shadows" as Faulkner liked to say.
It is a story that has found its perfect teller in a veteran journalist, long-time resident of the French Quarter, and City Editor of New Orleans' great old newspaper, The Times-Picayune, for whom truth has been a long-time, habitual pursuit. It is the story of twisted, old, cruel, beautiful New Orleans, a tale of bad men, bad cops, bad prosecutors; but then it is a story of good men, even those who have done bad things, good women, good, even brilliant lawyers and jurists, and of a Supreme Court ruling that truly brought greater justice to American courts. So finally it is a story of America, where justice, however fuzzy and far off, is still a dream for the few who still dare dream it.
Book Description
Chuck Zito comes by his reputation honestly as one of the toughest, most uncompromising men ever to sit astride a Harley. Now, with tales both hilarious and chilling, violent and truthful, Zito tells his life story in his own words. From growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn and the Bronx, to becoming president of the New York chapter of the Hell's Angels, to the wild and crazy life of protecting some of the world's biggest celebrities, one thing has defined Zito through it all: his unfailing sense of justice. Zito's perseverance is a testament to his courage, his ambi-tion, and his indomitable heart-a testament now recorded un-flinch-ingly in Street Justice.
Customer Reviews:
What did you expect?.......2007-05-14
Read the title, look at the cover, what do you expect but a fanciful bunch of stories told by a guy who would rather spend time with ning nongs than his own wife and offspring. Yet it is entertaining and worth a read if your interested. I suggest if you want to learn about the Hells Angels get something that is closer to the truth, Chuck states in this book that the "gang" wasnt selling drugs and that it was only certain indivuals, if you have any sort of passing interest in this gang you will likely know the truth regarding the Hells Angels and drug distribution from the 60's on, Chuck Zito must think we are all idiots.
Worth a Look.......2007-04-02
Chuck has managed to lead an interesting life for a guy whose only real claim to fame is that he efficiently beats up everyone who looks at him cross-eyed. He has made the most out of that. The way the facts are presented, along with the folksy writing style, really lends some believability to the story. So many stories like this are too filled with false bravado to be tolerable. I don't think that of this book.
Of course, it has cost him as well. He goes through great lengths talking about how jail/prison is not a great place to be, and is emphatic about the importance of not even getting arrested, for it sets you down a bad road.
Well, that does make a lot of sense to smart people, especially those with things to lose.
Yet in many places throughout the book, Chuck basically says in so many words that it would be wrong, if someone cuts you off in traffic, for example, to NOT chase him down, yank him out of the car, and pound his face into hamburger.
Well, that does present a dilemma, doesn't it? I am a little confused as to how Chuck really feels, especially given that his "solutions" are a little impractical, and he has to know it. In my neck of the woods, you'd get shot before you could take a swing. Times have changed a lot since we were kids, unfortunately.
He talks about a potential TV series where he goes around settling disputes a la a mobile Judge Judy but with an edge. Imagine the undereducated Zito riding around on his hog, flying the Winged Death's Head, handling complicated legal matters, sometimes by collapsing tracheas or popping eyeballs.
If this show comes off, I'll admit that I will be watching!! If it happens, make sure you read his book first so you'll know what it's all about.
Entertaining Enough I Suppose.......2007-03-21
Chuck Zito is a long time Hells Angel, bodyguard to celebrities and an actor who plays tough guy roles. The content in this is more or less Zito talking about his love of motorcycles, boxing, martial arts, life in the Hells Angels, his work as a bodyguard to various celebrities and his stint in prison, including a humorous recollection of being detained in a Japanese prison while awaiting extradition to face charges back in the states. Besides that LOTS of recollections of street and bar fights.
Zito is a bit annoying because on one hand he name drops all the high end celebrities he rubs elbows with and obviously has a huge ego but yet he constantly tries to drive home how he is such a humble, blue collar, down to earth guy. Overall not a great read or anything but it was entertaining enough I suppose.
Good.......2007-03-17
really enjoyed reading Chuck's views on the different things he has seen and delt with in his life. some spots kind of drag on, but over-all I felt the book was really good.
Lite Reading on a Heavy Subject........2006-05-20
Chuck Zito is a larger than life personality and unabashedly (and unapologetically) presents himself so in this, his autobiography. Co-Written by veteran Co-writer and journalist Joe Layden you should be able to plow through this tale in a couple of days. Layden co-authored "The Rock Says..." and this book reads in the same lite and breezy (ie, 8th grade level) manner. There's a bit too much time spent dropping Hollywood names just for name dropping sake and I'm sure Zito left out large chunks of his collective knowledge due to legal concerns or Biker's Code of Honor. But the book purports to be about him and not The Club, anyway, and so it is.If you have read any of the Hell's Angels books by Yves Lavigne, then you will find Zito's perspective on those same events most enlightening. All in all, an interesting tale of how a quiet kid from Brooklyn grew up to be Charming Chuck, East Coast Enforcer.
PS - Zito should have been cast as "Marv" in Sin City!
Average customer rating:
- Kate is great!
- Smart and witty
- An Original And Good Take On The 'Violent Vigilante Superhero' Style Of Book
- Manhunter, a new superheroine on the block
- Chipping in with another 5-star review
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Manhunter: Street Justice (Book 1)
Marc Andreyko
Manufacturer: DC Comics
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1401207286 |
Customer Reviews:
Kate is great!.......2007-04-20
Forget Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The real shining star at DC Comics is Manhunter, the coolest heroine since...well, EVER. What I love most about Kate is that she isn't the squeaky clean, self righteous, supermodel in spandex that we see so often in comic books. She makes mistakes that can get her killed. She can be quite ethically challenged. And while she's just as likely as Batman to follow a nasty villain into the sewers, she'd rather shoot him in the face than lock him up in Arkham Asylum.
Normally I don't go for DC Comics, because the characters usually feel so cardboardy. After reading the first few issues, you'll be amazed that DC didn't release this under the Vertigo imprint because it is much edgier than any other superhero book they have on the shelf. Marc Andreyko not only does a great job with Kate, but he's peppered the book with an excellent supporting cast, particularly Dylan Battles, the former henchman-for-hire who manages her weapons and technology. I love a book that puts characters ahead of mindless super-battles!
I've only been following this series for a few months, and I can't wait until the third trade paperback comes out this summer so I can catch up on the issues I haven't read yet.
Smart and witty.......2007-02-05
This is one of the better comic book stories featuring female characters. Why? Because most comic creators know that sex sells, and dress up their femme fatales in accordingly skimpy getups (one of the worst offenders is DC's Power Girl.) In this environment, MANHUNTER stands out as a comic that doesn't rely on the character's chest to drive sales. Instead, the Manhunter character draws us in by being human, and kicking butt without becoming a "girl power!" cliche.
Kate Spencer lives works as a DA in a city without "capes", or superheroes. As Superman patrols metropolis and Batman swings through Gotham, Los Angeles remains dirty, unclean, but still full of "metahumans" (super-villians, basically.) When one of these fiends wriggles out of the legal system, Kate decides enough is enough and dons a costume of her own.
What's remarkable about MANHUNTER is how it balances fight scenes and genuine drama--each chapter contains enough of both to keep the story going. MANHUNTER also gets a thumbs-up for explaining why most of the "real" cities in the DC Universe don't have superheroes protecting them.
An Original And Good Take On The 'Violent Vigilante Superhero' Style Of Book.......2006-06-28
Kate Spencer is a California prosecutor who, after losing another case against a killer metahuman, takes it upon herself to beginning meting out her own brand of lethal street justice. Arming and outfitting herself with various paraphenelia from the evidence store rooms (obtained from various villains) she takes on the identity of Manhunter (a popular moniker for DC characters, as someone in the book points out) and begins her vigilante career. That's "Manhunter" on the surface, sounding like an attempt to give the DC Universe its own Punisher-type character, or even like an attempt to amp up the aggressiveness-level of DC's own Green Arrow from his 80s/early 90s modus operandi. But rather than try to just copy the success of Punisher or Green Arrow, or other violent, on-the-edge, vigilante characters, there's some different factors at play here to give the "Manhunter" title its own identity.
There's considerable doubt about Kate's motivations. A hostile, cynical person to begin with, it's quite effective the way that, after her first kill, she's not only surprised by her total lack of remorse and by the strange satisfaction she feels, but the way she goes about things next. We see her going through the justice department (not to be confused with the Justice League) files looking for potential next targets, in an almost leisurely browse. One is left with the feeling that it's possible that she may not be entirely driven by a need for revenge and defending the innocent, but may be starting already to edge toward the path of using revenge and justice as her excuse, with killing itself being the real motivation.
Equally plausible is another scenario: Kate is socially dysfunctional, has a tenuous-at-best rellationship with her young son, an openly warring one with her ex-husband and is not the most personable or friendly towards much of anyone. There's a possibility that her whole career as a prosecutor has been an attempt to - what's the best way to phrase this? - to be a part of a society that she wants to be more integrated with, and to contribute, partly as a substitute for what she feels are lackings in her outward life. In this scenario, we have an outwardly hostile, mean-hearted character who's very different on the inside. And now that she has the mask and the identity, she's going much further than she ever has before. In this scenario, she's driven by noble motivations, but doesn't seem to realize how she's already dangerously close to losing control. She even seems to be developing a strange fixation on her first kill.
Those are two very different takes, but the opening issues of the "Manhunter" series are raising a lot of questions. There's the usual, subjective question of 'are her methods justified?' because it's clear from Issue 1 that Kate's not just setting out to take these characters down and sometimes being left with no choice but to kill - killing is the objective, and apparantly not just against certain extreme cases but as a general modus operandi in her new crimefighting career. We're left wondering just how far she's going to go in this, we're left wondering about her true motivation, we're left wondering if the path she's taken is going to take her a Lot further than she actually wants to go, we're left wondering a lot. And that's good. There are a lot of different ways they can go with this. Another aspect of the whole 'split possibilities' thing is that the new Manhunter finds herself - to her own surprise - dreaming about being accepted into the DCU's hero community, and at the same time increasingly afraid that they're going to be hunting her down because of her very bloody methods.
Kate Spencer isn't as immediately likable as DCU heroines as Zatanna or Wonder Woman, but she is interesting, and starts growing on one before too long. The thing is, whether she emerges as a champion or journeys all the way not just to, but crosses, the line between good and bad, it's going to be a very interesting ride, and leave us with a good addition to the DCU's cast of characters.
This collection reprints Numbers 1 - 5 of the Manhunter series, with No. 5 tying into DC's grand "Identity Crisis" crossover.
Manhunter, a new superheroine on the block.......2006-03-30
Kate Spencer(a.k.a Manhunter) is one of the newest superheroines that DC Comics has introduced. Collected here are the first six issues of her ongoing series, written by Marc Andreyko. Kate is a rare breed of female superhero, a woman who is a complex character,and who has a convincing 'voice'. Kate Spencer maybe be drawn by the artists as traditionally 'pretty', but she is no mere eyecandy, as she is a superheroine who can fight just as good as the guys.
Support this title by either buying the individual issues, or getting this trade.
Chipping in with another 5-star review.......2006-02-13
Responding to writer Marc Andreyko's campaign to save his DC Comics MANHUNTER series, I picked up the first trade paperback MANHUNTER: STREET JUSTICE with moderate hopes. I mean, how good can it be if the writer is pleading for new readers, right? Well, I'm glad that Andreyko put himself out there, as this is one series that should not be missed - another great new title from a DC Comics that is very concerned with character legacies and continuity. This trade collects the first 5 issues, telling the story of federal prosecutor Kate Spencer, who has had enough of mass-murdering metahumans taking advantage of loopholes in the legal system. Swiping some confiscated supervillain gear, she sets off to deal out some harsh justice, becoming yet another character in the DC Universe to take the name of Manhunter. Along the way, we learn about her troubled personal life, which is one of the more interesting parts of the book. Kate Spencer is not a likeable person, but it's possible that relieving the stress of her courtroom defeats by beating up criminals may be just what she needs to rekindle her relationship with her young son, and perhaps even her ex-husband.
Most of the stories are told in flashbacks, which is a good alternative to the standard linear story. I'm really impressed with Andreyko's writing style, and Jesus Saiz, one of DC's hot new artists, is the perfect choice for this series. Andreyko's introduction indicates that there are many more exciting developments in store for this character, including an analysis of the many Manhunters of ages past, as well Kate's connections to other heroes of the DCU. This Manhunter is far superior to the ill-conceived version that came out of DC's Zero Hour event. It's a book that should not be missed - CHECK OUT MANHUNTER!!!
Book Description
When environmental health problems arise in a community, policymakers must be able to reconcile the first-hand experience of local residents with recommendations by scientists. In this highly original look at environmental health policymaking, Jason Corburn shows the ways that local knowledge can be combined with professional techniques to achieve better solutions for environmental health problems. He traces the efforts of a low-income community in Brooklyn to deal with health problems in its midst and offers a framework for understanding "street science" -- decision making that draws on community knowledge and contributes to environmental justice.
Like many other low-income urban communities, the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn suffers more than its share of environmental problems, with a concentration of polluting facilities and elevated levels of localized air pollutants. Corburn looks at four instances of street science in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, where community members and professionals combined forces to address the risks from subsistence fishing from the polluted East River, the asthma epidemic in the Latino community, childhood lead poisoning, and local sources of air pollution. These episodes highlight both the successes and the limits of street science and demonstrate ways residents can establish their own credibility when working with scientists. Street science, Corburn argues, does not devalue science; it revalues other kinds of information and democratizes the inquiry and decision-making processes.
Book Description
Thomas Bolden grew up on the streets, his childhood a blur of fragmented memories. But now he’s managed to put his past behind him, find the woman he wants to share his life with, and carve out a successful career on Wall Street. Until, in the blink of an eye, his world is turned upside down. A bizarre kidnapping sends him fleeing for his life, his face everywhere on the TV news, and a violent, shadowy organization is framing him for crimes he did not commit.
Desperately trying to get back to where he was just a day before, Bolden must re-learn the survival skills of his hardscrabble boyhood. But as Bolden–with just eleven dollars in his pocket and hunters all around him–survives one violent, harrowing hour after another, he makes a series of startling discoveries: about a mysterious woman wanted for murder…about an astounding secret rooted in history, among the country’s Founding Fathers and families…about a conspiracy lurking in the darkest corners of corporate America–and a deadly plan that only he can stop. And in the process, maybe Bolden will also find out who he really is....
Furiously paced, filled with brilliantly drawn characters from politicians to patriots, from Wall Street players to
battle-hardened cops, The Patriots Club is vintage Reich: brilliant, breathtaking, and impossible to put down until the final unforgettable page is turned.
Download Description
Christopher Reich was born in Tokyo in 1961. A graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, he worked in Switzerland before returning to the United States to pursue a career as a novelist. The bestselling author of four other acclaimed novels, Numbered Account, The Runner, The First Billion, and The Devil’s Banker, he lives in California with his wife and children.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A good diversion........2007-01-06
I found this book enjoyable. The story was plotted and executed well. The main character was able to do a lot of implausible things like escape from professional soldiers, avoid gunshots and things like that, but that is the norm for a lot of these types of novels. There were a couple of characters that could have been developed further and interacted more, Guilfoyle and Franciscus, which would have made it more interesting. I guess the author's point was to make a statement that the industrial-military complex controls the world.
Preposterous Plot.......2006-12-16
I love good conspiracy books. I like a believable super hero. The plot of this novel is absurd. The hero, Thomas Bolden, was abandoned at age 6 by his mother. She was an extreme left wing radical who had been pursued by police for participating in a bombing. Bolden grew up in foster homes and after a tough childhood worked his way up enjoying a successful Wall Street career. He is also just about Mr. Perfect. All of a sudden he is targeted by a high powered right wing group called The Patriots Club. The Club has existed and evolved since the days of George Washington. According to the author this club, which has included all Presidents,has secretly and behind the scenes determined U.S. policy since the country's inception. A master computer selects Bolden as a threat and and a bizarre kidnapping of him and his girlfriend ensues. Bolden takes on everything and everyone in his path and ultimately saves the Republic from The Evil. It was tough to get thru all this nonsense.
Best Book of the Summer .......2006-09-12
I picked up The Patriots Club after learning it had won the inaugural "Thriller" Award for Best Novel of the year bestowed by the International Thriller Writers Association. I have read all of Reich's books and enjoyed them, so I am a fan to begin with. His first novel "Numbered Account" stands among my favorite thrillers of the past decade. There is no dobut he is a talent to be reckoned with!
I'm happy to say that "The Patriots Club" was every bit as exciting and interesting as "Numbered Account." Reich does write a different kind of thriller. Namely, his stories are smart and extremely well researched, a quality I've found in writers like Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy. What Reich does better is create three dimensional characters that stick with the reader.
Enough said...I'm happy to give the Patriots Club my highest award of five stars. A thoroughly entertaining, suspenseful, and thought provoking read. Highly recommended!
Below Average Predictable Characters and Very Unlikely Plot.......2006-09-05
I bought this book as a last minute effort to quickly read something from an author I don't know as I left for a trip on an airplane.
My overall thought was that this novel had promise, but the story was way too over the top. The hero is brought into the mess for an outlandish reason, and escapes situations in unbelievable ways. There are too many different conspiracies" that are all tied in together too neatly. The "twist" at the end was almost laughable. In fact, I found myself thinking, "you're kidding me, right?" I realize this is a work of fiction, but in the end the storyline should be somewhat believable. This one wasn't even close.
I have read other comments about this author that indicate his other novels are better. Sorry, but after spending too much time reading this one, I'm not willing to take the chance on any others. I'll stick to known commodities.
Ridiculous Plot and Cardboard Characters.......2006-08-03
This is the second Christopher Reich book I've read and although I liked it slightly better than THE FIRST BILLION, I still can't recommend it.
The plot of THE PATRIOTS CLUB is fairly ridiculous. The hero of the book, 32-year old investment banker Thomas Bolden, runs afoul of a right-wing "Patriots Club." Since the beginning of its history, the foreign policy of the US has been effectively controlled by this secret club, whose members include the President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the head of the FBI, and prominent members of the media. The club tries to kill Bolden (repeatedly), and he ends up fleeing for his life.
This books starts strongly, but eventually runs out of steam. There are way too many characters in this book, and Reich keeps on shifting the perspective of the book from one character to another. As a result, most of them end up underdeveloped and one-dimensional -- the dashing hero, his loyal girlfriend, the grizzled detective, etc.
Also, the complicated conspiracy plot has so many twists and turns that it was hard for me to keep track of what was going on. Reich is a good writer, and this book is certainly readable, but I wish he would streamline his plots better.
This book is also something of a political tract. Reich obviously dislikes the right-wing, because almost every villain in this book is Republican and conservative. I have no problems with thoughtful political criticism, but Reich doesn't do that here. Instead, he pretty much caricatures the Republicans in this novel, portraying them as racist, sexist, and anti-democracy. After awhile, the political soapboxing gets rather tiresome.
In short, avoid this book. If you want a good political thriller, read David Baldacci instead.
Book Description
His story was told in the bestseller and acclaimed film Prince of the City. He was a detective in the narcotics division of the New York City Police Department during the 1960s and 1970s -- its most explosive and dramatic decades. His name is Robert Leuci, and now he is telling his own story.
All the Centurions is Leuci's accurately and sometimes mercilessly remembered account of young manhood -- a tale filled with dreadful and daring adventures on the streets and in the courthouses of New York City. Leuci takes us into the world of the New York City Police Department at a time when the city was crumbling under its own weight, drugs were taking over the poorer neighborhoods, and crime was rampant on the streets and subways. But this is also a story of shattered illusions and personal loss, of endurance and healing, and, finally, of astonishing spiritual growth. Leuci describes his evolution from a naive rookie to a seasoned detective who believes that the only people he can trust are his fellow cops -- until he learns that even that might not be true.
Leuci remembers the incredibly heroic men and women who behaved more bravely than anyone thought possible -- police officers both celebrated and notorious, like Frank Serpico, Sonny Grosso, and Eddie Egan and Detective Frank King from the French Connection case; high-ranking lawyers like Alan Dershowitz, Rudy Giuliani, and Tom Puccio. Leuci also reveals the dark side of New York City's criminal justice system: the bitterness, poison, greed, untamed cruelty, and ambition that eventually overflowed into the alleyways, rooftops, precinct houses, and courtrooms of the city.
All the Centurions is an engrossing read filled with great chase scenes and intriguing dramas while being, at its core, the story of a man descending into a hell of his own making who ultimately finds the way out through truth and justice. This is a true story about the mean streets of New York that is as vivid and entertaining as the best crime novel.
Customer Reviews:
Twenty Years Serving The N.Y.P.D........2006-05-27
This excellent read chronicles the authors career in the NYPD between 1961 and 1981. He writes about his days from a naive rookie to his time on the Tactical Patrol Force and Narcotics enforcement, till he testifies before the Knapp Commission. He offers valuable insight to the culture of graft that permeated not only much of the N.Y. Police Department but the also much of the legal and political system at the time. Interesting as well are his observations on the young Rudy Giuliani.
At Long Last, the Truth about Bob Leuci...Perhaps.......2005-08-08
For the record: other reviewers have identified both this book and Robert Daley's "The Prince of the City" as novels, which neither are. Both--at least ostensibly--are nonfiction. This is an important distinction to myself or anyone that saw the 1981 film, were captivated by the story and wanted to know how much of what they saw was factual, as opposed to fictional affectations of artistic license.
My reading of Robert Daley's book sated most of my hunger in that regard, although effort was required. For whatever reason--though Daley had named the true names of all the players--pseudonyms were used in the film version. Reconciling who was who vis-à-vis characters in the book and their counterparts in the movie required concentration. And doubts remained: this was a book built foursquare upon interviews by Daley with a man who'd immersed himself in corruption, then sought redemption by exposing only a tiny fraction of his acts of misconduct, hoping his willingness to wear a wire, to ante his life onto the brutal 1970s poker game of heroin trafficking would make up the difference. Only when the walls of legal justice were closing upon him from all sides did he recant in full--which raised the possibility in my mind that he never truly did.
Whatever my suspicions, anyone who saw either the aforementioned movie or book MUST read this book. It brought closure to me, as I'm sure it did to Bob Leuci. Told in the gruff style to be expected from a man who was a New York City narcotics detective long before he became a writer--comma splices and use of the "F" word are ubiquitous--the truth of what a man who chose the life of a 1970s War on Drugs foot soldier had to undergo, the uncompensated sacrifices, the human filth they, by necessity, crawled into the gutter with, the forces larger than themselves that tweaked their perspective, their moral compass--become obvious.
There's troubling inconsistencies between "All the Centurions" and "The Prince of the City," both of which bill themselves as unvarnished fact: DeStephano--who along with a New York cop nearly ended Leuci's life before a mafia figure advised against it--was a bail bondsman in Daley's account. In Leuci's, he became a private investigator working for a bail bondsman.
In both the movie and Daley's book, Joe Nunziata, Leuci's NYPD mentor and role model, had vouched for Leuci's credibility to a nervous DeStephano, telling him that "...if Leuci's a rat, my mother's a rat." In Leuci's account, Nunziata made the declaration not to DeStephano, but before a barroom mob of detectives who'd come to doubt Leuci's loyalty and were screaming for his blood.
Daley had Leuci's cousin, a mid-level Mafiosi, doing a "Houdini"--disappearing, presumably murdered--a la Jimmy Hoffa (in the movie, his body was discovered beneath the lid of a trash can by a sanitation worker). Leuci makes no mention of the presumed event--an event, surely, of no small impact in his life.
Daley recounts Leuci parading a beautiful hooker--a trophy date--before his NYPD brethren in a bar. Leuci mentions the episode, but admits only that he recognized her attractiveness before sending her to jail.
If there are inconsistencies, then why does it bring closure? Good question. It allows me to make peace with incidents in my own life that, God help me, no one will ever know about. Robert Leuci is a far better man than I. If he's allowed an inner sanctum where he can be alone with insignificant--if embarrassing details of his life--then so can I.
I absolutely loved this book!.......2004-08-13
If you love stories about the mafia, police corruption and New York City's crime-ridden streets in the '60s and '70s -- and how could you not? -- you'll love this book as I did. Leuci's life story takes you into the heart of police and crime drama that most people are never exposed to, and he is very candid and real about his own flirtations with corruption over the course of his career as an elite NYC narcotics detective. I highly, highly recommend this book for the action, the insights and the look at a life story that is truly amazing. Reading Leuci's own words, it's easy to see why Robert Daly wrote a best-selling novel about him and Sidney Lumet made a critically acclaimed movie about him.
The Best True Crime Novel I've Ever Read.......2004-07-27
This novel was a page-turning, absolutely riveting account of Detective Robert Leuci's twenty years as a narcotics detective in New York City. And what an account...from inside stories about a young Rudy Guiliani to one-on-one conversations between Leuci and Mario Cuomo to descriptions of the Harlem Riots and undercover narcotics investigations that make you feel like you were there, this book has something for everyone. As if that were not enough, Leuci's life story takes the reader through his Hollywood experiences and even on stage with the Beatles. I highly recommend this book -- the best true crime novel I've ever read.
Powerful Revelations.......2004-07-25
The revelations in this book are not diluted by the distance of three decades. Rampant graft, dirty cops, obscene rationalizations and the grim necessity of fighting scum all play a part in this unflinching look at the reality of New York's war on drugs during the 60s and 70s. The author is painfully candid about his faults and his participation--he was corrupt and is not shy about saying so.
Now the author offers unique insight into how it happened, and in telling it, shows by example how we can prevent repetition of history. The author is at his strongest when blunt and forthcoming in his endearingly dry tone. He refrains from opining and offering simplistic answers or steps to prevent such events from continuing to happen in departments across the country--and in refraining, his statement is that much stronger.
A piece of American history told in brisk, compelling style. Excellent for crime libraries.
Book Description
How the history of police brutality affects understandings of police behavior in minority communities. 'Street Justice is a lively account of a depressing subject- police brutality (and the efforts to curb it) in New York City from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth. Informative, absorbing, and often highly perceptive, it should be rewarding reading not only for historians, but also for anyone interested in policing, police reform, and, not least of all, New York City.' -Robert M. Fogelson, author of Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950, and The Fragmented Metropolis This fascinating book traces controversies about police violence back to the very origins of the New York Police. The author wisely treats the entire issue as a perennial set of political problems, thus reflecting the changing ethnic, social and political dynamics in the city. Although the use of violence has in some ways diminished, administrators have never ceased to minimize it, from the first day to the present.' -Paul Chevigny, Professor of Law at NYU Law School, and author of Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas. In this study of police brutality in New York City, Marilynn Johnson explores the changing patterns of police use of force over the past 160 years, including streat beatings, organized violence against protestors, and the notorious third degree. She argues that the idea of police brutality-what exactly it is, who its victims are, and why it occurs-is historically constructed. In the late nineteenth century police brutality was understood as an outgrowth of the moral and political corruption of Tammany Hall; in the heavy immigration years of the early twentieth century it was redefined as a racial/ethnic issue; and during Prohibition police violence was connected to police corruption related to the underground liquor trade and the'war on crime' the federal government declared in response.
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Final Justice: Police and Death Squad Homicides of Adolescents in Brazil
Ben Penglase
Manufacturer: Human Rights Watch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1564321231 |
Book Description
Street criminals live in a dangerous world, but they cannot realistically rely on the criminal justice system to protect them from predation by fellow lawbreakers; they are on their own when it comes to dealing with crimes perpetrated against them and often use retaliation as a mechanism for deterring and responding to victimization. Although retaliation lies at the heart of much of the violence that plagues many inner-city neighborhoods across the United States, it has received scant attention from criminologists. As a result, the structure, process, and forms of retaliation in the real world setting of urban America remain poorly understood. Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal World explores the face of modern day retaliation from the perspective of currently active criminals who have experienced it first hand, as offenders, victims, or both.
Customer Reviews:
Stories.......2007-05-31
The material presented by Jacobs and Wright makes law-abiding, middle-class persons realize there is an entirely different world where disgruntled criminals take revenge in ways that only Quentin Tarantino could imagine. There are few ethnographic works that can match the fascinating stories of retaliatory violence contained within "Street Justice."
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