14 Peck Slip - Hardcover

Dee, Ed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446517704 ISBN 13: 9780446517706

Publisher: Grand Central Pub, 1994

Synopsis

Detectives Ryan and Gregory and are plunged into an investigation that just might get them killed, when they find a body in a barrel in the East River, in a simultaneously gritty, funny, heartbreaking, and terrifying story of the NYPD.

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Reviews

They arrive every season like clockwork, those cops-turned-novelists who are promoted as the "next Wambaugh." But Dee, a retired 20-year veteran of the NYPD, may be the real thing. While his first novel lacks Wambaugh's raucous humor, there's no doubt that it's told in an authentic and powerful voice. When Dee's narrator, NYPD detective Tony Ryan, describes the streets of the Fulton Fish Market as "cobblestones coated with grease from a century of fish" or visits a bar where "the air was warm and damp and smelled of cigars, pine needles, and wet wool from a dozen damp overcoats," the sense of place is almost palpable. In 1982, Ryan and his partner, Joe ("The Great") Gregory, come across the body of a crooked cop who, 10 years earlier, was due to testify before the Knapp Commission investigating police corruption before he disappeared. Their investigation keeps bringing them closer to the worst possible revelation: that detective John "Jinx" Mulgrew was murdered not by the mob, but by fellow cops. Though it will be obvious to some readers that a seemingly peripheral character is deeply involved in the mystery, this flaw is far outweighed by Dee's way with words. Here's Dee's take on the stresses that cops experience when working nights: "It happened to cops all the time: guys work all night, sleep all day. They lose track of wives, kids, days, months, lies they've told, bars they can't get back into, women they've screwed, stories about them that aren't true." Any writer who can sing NYPD blues like that is worth keeping an eye on.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a terrific debut for retired New York policeman Dee, two detectives investigating mob activities mistakenly fish the wrong cement-filled barrel out of the East River. This one contains the remains of a wayward cop who's been missing for 10 years. While tailing aging mobster Bobo Rizzo, detectives Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory observe Ugo Bongiovanni, reputed to be the new ``boss'' of the Fulton Fish Market, and two henchman dump a white barrel off the pier at 14 Peck Slip. Certain they've witnessed a mob hit, they're shocked when divers retrieve a rusted barrel filled with Jinx Mulgrew, a cop who'd vanished just before he was to testify about police corruption. The trail is not all that cold, however. Known as the ``King of the Bagmen,'' Mulgrew, according to Rizzo, tried to shake down Bongiovanni for 50 grand the day he turned up missing. But, says Rizzo, the mob didn't kill Mulgrew; cops did. ``You got to face that,'' he says. ``Happens in all families.'' Things get complicated when Gregory learns that his father, Liam, now retired from the force, was prepared to give his old pal Mulgrew $10,000 to help him get away. But Ryan and Gregory also discover that Liam had been seeing Mulgrew's widow for years, even before he disappeared. Then they find an old photograph of Mulgrew on a fishing trip with Rizzo and their own boss, the distinguished Inspector Neddy Flanagan. When the original barrel surfaces near Governors Island, the bullet they take from the victim matches the one taken from Zipper, a mildly retarded informant executed, apparently, for talking to them. However, when they raid the warehouse at 14 Peck Slip, the only gun they find is Mulgrew's .38 service revolver. Filled with plenty of interesting sidelights and enough cop angst to satisfy any stickler for realism. For a novice, Dee manipulates the entangled plots of this police procedural with a surprisingly sure hand. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory are a pair of New York City detectives. Gregory is a career supercop who thrives on every aspect of the job; Ryan is contemplating retirement and a second career in teaching. One night in 1983, they see two Mob types toss a large oil drum off a pier. Gregory is positive it's a body and orders a dredge, which produces a different, much older barrel containing the remains of Jinx Mulgrew, a corrupt cop missing since 1973. Gregory sees the case as a chance at a gold shield; Ryan, on the other hand, views it as a potential land mine of police politics and internal-affairs issues. As the investigation careens the pair between Jinx's Mob contacts and a very uncooperative police department, they watch their list of friends shrink. Meanwhile, they must come to terms with the idea of Jinx not just as a corrupt cop, but as a multidimensional manhusband, friend, lover, enemy. This solid police procedural possesses a decidedly melancholy air, helped along by the twice-removed perspective10 years back to the case and 20 back to Jinx's death. An impressive debut. Wes Lukowsky

In 1982, while on a stakeout, detectives Joe Gregory and Anthony Ryan see a group of neighborhood enforcers dump a white barrel into Manhattan's East River. The divers who are sent to retrieve it find the wrong barrel, which happens to contain the body of Jinx Mulgrew, a detective who disappeared during an investigation of police corruption ten years before. Gregory and Ryan set about piecing together the fragments of this elaborate puzzle. Dee, a first-time author and former New York City policeman, has captured and succinctly portrayed his former profession in this very tidy novel. Readers of the police procedural will welcome Dee to the ranks of such outstanding novelists as William J. Caunitz and Joseph Wambaugh. Highly recommended.
Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446517704
• ISBN 13: 9780446517706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 293