Dooley's Back — Sam Reaves

Dooley is not back even a day, and already he's helped a gangland punk with a switchblade in his hand and rape on his mind to a deadly fall. And throughout this gritty, hard-boiled crime novel by a master of the new noir, fists work fast, the talk comes tough, and pages turn as swiftly as the rip of a hitman's bullet. Frank Dooley used to be a Chicago cop, but eight years ago a case of homicide prompted him to take the law into his own hands--the victim was his wife--and then head south, to Mexico. Dooley's return is met by everyone with surprise, and by a few with pleasure. Like his old partner Roy Ferguson. Roy has had some weighty problems of his own. His seven-year-old son has drowned, he's gone through a nasty divorce, and a serious gambling habit has buried him deep in debt. Dangerously deep; for an over-ambitious loan shark with the mob, John Spanos, is taking the juice on Roy's $15,000 score in favors. Dooley convinces Roy he should own up to what he's done, set up a sting on Spanos, and maybe get back his integrity as a cop. It's a good plan, but it goes very bad, and Dooley soon finds himself caught perilously between the police force he deserted on one side and the Outfit Roy betrayed on the other. This is a tough-edged urban novel of crime and suspense.