3 Quarters: A Novel - Softcover

Hamill, Denis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476797188 ISBN 13: 9781476797182

Publisher: Gallery Books, 2014

Synopsis

Explosive, street-savvy, and authentic, acclaimed columnist Denis Hamill's novels are drawn in the ink that can only flow from the pen of a native New Yorker...and a superbly talented writer. Now, blending sinuous prose with a "relentless energy" (Lawrence Block), Hamill etches a novel set in a mercenary New York -- where friends become enemies, cops are corrupted, and some must die, all for the sake of "3 Quarters" Bobby Emmet was a desperate man, an honest New York City cop, framed for the murder of his fiancee, and given one last chance to save himself -- by an unlikely benefactor. Bobby didn't murder his fiancee, Dorothea Dubrow, and then cremate the body -- but he has an idea who is responsible. His murder trial interrupted his investigation of a police medical pension scam -- and revealed how little he really knew about Dorothea. Now suddenly free, he is imprisoned in a web of corruption, lies, and the kind of secrets people kill for.

As the struggle to find the truth -- and Dorothea -- intensifies, Bobby begins to suspect that those around him are not as loyal as they appear. His liberty and very life depend on whether or not he can discover how high -- and how near -- the conspiracy goes before the trap closes on him.

At once lyrical and riveting, "Three Quarters" crackles in its electric setting, reverberating with Hamill's intimate knowledge of and intense passion for New York City.

About this title

Review:

Denis Hamill knows the streets of New York and Brooklyn as well as his older brother Pete, and 3 Quarters is as quirky, dangerous, and exciting as the city itself. The story begins with the discovery, in the clenched fist of a murdered call girl, of three 1991 quarters still in mint condition. The connection of the coins with Bobby Emmet--a former cop now in jail, framed for the killing of his lover--and with Emmet's investigation of a police-pension fraud that stretches into the political heights, is the meat of the story. The sauce is Hamill's deadly ear for the twisted cadences of local voices, especially Izzy Gleason, a flamboyant lawyer just back from a year-long suspension, who wants to get Emmet out of jail. "I need a second act," says Gleason when Bobby questions his motives. "See, I had a great first act. Been on TV in all the big trials, on the covers of magazines, did all the talk shows, made all the money. Spent all the money. Romanced tall women. Some of them, with my help, wound up good-looking. Then it all went in the dumper...."

About the Author:

Denis Hamill is the author of ten novels, including two previous novels featuring Bobby Emmet--3 Quarters and Throwing 7's, as well as Fork in the Road, Long Time Gone, Sins of Two Fathers, and his Brooklyn Christmas fable, Empty Stockings. He currently writes a column for the New York Daily News, and he has been a columnist for New York magazine, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and the Boston Herald American.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1476797188
• ISBN 13: 9781476797182
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400