RIZZO'S WAR

Author: Lou Manfredo

Genre: Police Procedural, Series #1

Published: 2009

Personal Rating: 4/5 (very good)

Yearly Count: 107

Please Note: While being thankful for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC, I feel the need to post the blurb from its cover. However, in my opinion there is usually too much disclosed. Read at your own discretion.

From the ARC cover:

On the force, there's the good, the bad, and Rizzo . . .

He makes his own rules but plays the game carefully, and just when you think you've figured him out, think again. Veteran NYPD cop Joe Rizzo's not a good cop, he's a great cop, and after a year of riding together as detectives in the 62nd Precinct in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, his younger counterpart Mike McQueen knows it. They've worked on many cases, some big, some small, but the lesson is always the same according to Rizzo: "There's no wrong. There's no right. There just is."

Rizzo's War contains some of my favorite attributes: a gritty setting; smart, likable, good, but flawed (like the rest of us) cops; and most of all - a mentoring relationship.

Unfortunately, I did become overwhelmed with numbers. Yes, the setting is NY and the street names are numbers, but did every single turn or destination have to include the street name? Ugh. And, I was annoyed with a repetitive line. Rizzo smokes, so almost every time he was in the car with his partner McQueen, he would blow the smoke out the passenger window. I got it - he smokes. He smokes a lot and tries to spare his partner the secondhand smoke. Grrr.

Putting the above aside, I really liked Manfredo's style. He allowed us into the heads and hearts of both Rizzo and McQueen while moving the story line along, so I feel like I know these two cops, and I really like them both. They have different personalities, mainly due to their experience level, but they blend and compliment one another nicely. Also, shining light on the ambiguity of the job and working a variety of cases added a very realistic feel.

I prefer a strong sense of suspense and a little humor every now and then to make a book an "excellent" read, but I'm very pleased with Manfredo's debut and look forward to my next encounter with these two detectives.

My thanks go to LibraryThing Early Reviews program and Minotaur Books for sending me this ARC. It is scheduled to be released on September 29, 2009.