Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2009
272 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
"'If we took it all personally,' Brooklyn South homicide detective Jack Leightner tells his rookie NYPD partner, 'there’s no way we could do the job.'
Very soon, though, that notion gets shot to hell, as the deeply principled cop hears about the murder of an old Russian friend on Neptune Avenue - and then is disturbed to find himself increasingly drawn to the man's stunning widow, Eugenia. She informs Jack of her husband’s troubles with Semyon Balakutis, a local nightclub operator and extortionist. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger in central Brooklyn is killing young women and posing them as suicides.
From the Russian emigré community of Brighton Beach to the racially charged neighborhood of Crown Heights, from the crimes of World War II to the harshness of his own father, Jack's latest cases plunge him deep into the roots of why men act in anger - and into the eternal mystery of love.
Gabriel Cohen stuns in this riveting third addition to the Brooklyn-set series.
"Starred Review. An impeccable procedural plus a poignant love story, intelligent, understated and refreshing." - Kirkus Reviews
"Some awkward prose ... and a contrived ending don't help." - Publishers Weekly
This information about Neptune Avenue was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gabriel Cohen's first novel, Red Hook, was a finalist for the Edgar award for Best First Novel. He is also the author of the novels The Graving Dock and Boombox, as well as the nonfiction book Storms Can't Hurt the Sky. He has written for The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The New York Post magazine, and other publications, and is now at work on a fourth Jack Leightner novel. He lives in Brooklyn.
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