The Lord of Sugar Hill — Jerome Charyn

When a friend's crime spree threatens his legal empire, a powerful New York attorney must race to stop it -- before at least one of them winds up dead

Edward Parkchester, or Parky, “the black eagle,” is the most successful criminal lawyer in town. He looms over Manhattan from his lair in Sugar Hill and has only one client, Byron Abando, a Mafia prince with a Phi Beta Kappa key. But the black eagle suddenly finds his empire in ruins. Freeman Faulks, a detective who helped steer Parky out of a troubled childhood at the Abraham Lincoln projects, has gone on a crime spree, sticking up a bunch of liquor stores. Parky has to find Freeman, but first he will have to match wits with his own boss, Byron Abando, and with Sandra Sutpen, the high priestess of federal prosecutors -- who likes to toss her underpants at enemies and the men she loves.

There's something sinister behind Faulks's crime spree, and if Parky doesn't move fast enough, he might not make it out of Manhattan alive.