This book was offered to me by the publisher in hopes I might write a review. It’s apparently a reissue of a book originally published in 1982. Kudos to Open Media for resurrecting some of these titles. I gave it a couple of pages and was hooked. It was excellent. It could be described as part meditation on friendship, part noir novel a la Jim Thomson or James Cain, part police procedural, but all about obsession.
Alexander McCarthy (“Mac”) grew up in an orphanage so when his patrol stumbled across a shell-shocked kid who had been witness to, and perhaps participated in, the massacre at Tan Pret, “Johnny”, it became difficult to abandon the kid who now obviously had latched onto and needed Mac’s company.
Now out of the army, Johnny can’t survive on his own and is very protective of Mac who has a terrible gambling problem and finds himself owing thousands to the mob. Johnny kills two of the them after they beat up Mac.
But the boss knows who did it and Johnny are forced to become hitmen for the mob. One of the men killed happens to be an undercover cop.
In part two, Simon, the dead cop’s partner, vows to find the killer of his friend. (Simon’s euology for his dead friend is amazing.) He becomes obsessed with it to the point where it starts to destroy his marriage and his life. Everything takes a backseat to his obsession at finding the killer.
The third part brings them all together. But it’s not what you think. One thing to remember: “There are no good guys.”
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