Synopsis
Events spiral out of control when Tito's friend Pepito shows up, frantic. Before Tito can help him, Pepito is brutally murdered. The cops don't seem to care and the projects are back to normal within hours. But Tito cares - too much for his own good.
Aided by his old pal Alonzo, an ex-con who carries a "nine" as a matter of course, Tito sets out to hunt down Pepito's killer. Along the way he is accused of murder, runs afoul of the drug gangs, and finds himself sinking into a swamp of police corruption, drug deals, deception and life-threatening peril.
Reviews
Hours after Tito Rico's buddy Pepito Espinoza asks him for $500 to pay to a Harlem numbers runner who's been pressing him, Pepito's dead, his throat cut, and the cops think Tito did it. Well, they don't really think so, but they say they do, and turn him loose with a few vague threats. Tito runs into his violent friend Alonzo Brown in a neighborhood bar, and in no time at all the cops are talking to Tito again about a second killing, a crackhead shot in the basement of Pepito's building with Tito's fingerprints on his mail. This time, they say as they let him go, they'll be keeping an eye on him--and if they are, they watch him meet with a connection who says he got Pepito into dealing; throw his weight around in front of the Tenants Association head who'd quarreled with Pepito the night before he was killed; and shoot one of New York's finest with the cop's own weapon. ``You can imagine what a hole you're in when even the police are against you,'' says Tito sagely; with nobody to rely on but Alonzo and his trusty 9-millimeter, he's destined for even hotter water before the improbably happy ending. Newcomer Bertematti seems to be aiming for Walter Mosley in the projects, but the earnest, pedestrian voice he chooses (``He put me in a headlock and gave me the hardest punch in the face I have ever received'') is so wildly wrong for his rough-and-tumble hero that the effect is unintentionally burlesque. A halting, sincere first novel that makes you appreciate just what an achievement the Easy Rawlins stories are. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The feisty Cuban American narrator of Bertematti's first published work lives in the diversely populated projects of New York City. Tito Rico works as a subway-train sweeper, but after someone murders his best friend, he vows vengeance. Street-wise and resourceful, Tito fends off drug dealers, gang leaders, and corrupt police as he investigates?with help from a few friends and a sympathetic lady or two. The streets of New York vibrate with life here, rough at times but seen through the eyes of a snappy survivor. Buy this and look out for the next.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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