"With Little Boy Blue Dee moves to the top of the list of
ex-cop novelists." — New York Daily News
Little Boy Blue
At the center of Little Boy Blue is an airport heist gone bad. A young baggage handler has been gunned down. Detective Joe Gregory and
his partner, Anthony Ryan, sense something "hinky" about the killing of young Johnny Boy Counihan, who wore an old blue NYPD overcoat to his death. Determined to find
the killer, the two cops cast their lot with Johnny Boy's angry, heartbroken, street-smart grandfather, Vito
Martucci, who claims to know who did the killing and why.
Vito doesn't have all the answers. While the detectives interview
suspects, a hoods' hangout in Queens is firebombed and another body is found in a car
trunk at the airport, this one covered with artificial eyes. And a group of young Irish
immigrants, linked to Johnny Boy's life and death, tell Ryan and Gregory a story that
ranges from charmingly curious to darkly disturbing.
The real killers — and the real motive — remain hidden
somewhere in the city that pays Ryan's and Gregory's salary and confounds them, the city
of their fathers, their sins, their enemies. For the Great Gregory, years of hard living
have taken a steep emotional toll. For Ryan, being a cop first and a husband second is
giving way to a new sense of love for his wife and a marriage that has endured. And for
both, a partnership forged in the mad, unceasing poetry of the street — as well as the
politics of the force — is turning to something else: a deeper understanding and acceptance of each other's flawed humanity.
When Gregory and Ryan finally uncover the truth behind Johnny
Boy's killing, it is a truth laced with bitter irony, love, and innocence betrayed. Like
the character of Vito Martucci, a man of pride, resourcefulness, and enormous heart, like
the cop bars the partners visit, like the vista of Manhattan from the Triboro Bridge, like
an unforgettable Christmas party in Ryan's house, Little Boy Blue is a novel
that feels for its people, its place, and its time. For here are real bonds being forged
between real men and women, between lovers and families — and between partners doing a job that's in their blood.
Little Boy Blue is the work of a major American novelist coming into his own.
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Copyright 2000-2004 Edward Dee
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The Con Man's Daughter
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Little Boy Blue
Bronx Angel
14 Peck Slip
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