I'm a sucker for themed anthologies and this is a good one. The stories, in chronological order, take place in and around Times Square from 1912 to the present day. Fun to see the area go upscale and down as time passes. I highly recommend "The Devil's Face," by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens, and "The Sailor in the Picture," by Eileen Dreyer.
But the favorite, for the second time in as many months, is by Reed Farrel Colman. The setting is the 1970s, the time of Serpico and the Knapp Commission, when the NYPD was full of dirty cops and the dirty cops were full of fear of the Knapp Commission. In this story two police detectives are being pushed into a n action that will move them from being bent to being totally rotten. And just as the point of no return approaches, well, police work intervenes. A wild and twisty climax ensues. Very satisfactory.
Times Square stories! And you say they're good. That's enough for me; I'll grab a copy. Those were the days.
ReplyDeleteJed Power--author "The Boss of Hampton Beach." http://www.darkjettypublishing.com