Reviews of Ed Dee's Novels
The Con Man's Daughter - click to order
"NYPD vet Dee is known for the authenticity of his New York City police procedurals (14 Peck Slip; Bronx Angel; etc.),
and his new stand-alone thriller is no exception.
"Abandoning past NYPD heroes Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory, Dee introduces ex-cop,
ex-prize-fighter Eddie "God help me... I love a brawl" Dunn. After being kicked out of the NYPD along with partner Paulie "the Priest"
Caruso, Eddie spends the next decade as a courier for Russian gangster Anatoly Lukin. Though retired now, Eddie still knows the secrets
of the Russian mob, so when his 35-year-old daughter, Kate, is kidnapped, he figures the Brighton Beach boys are behind the snatch.
'The word hardened didn't do these guys justice. Decades of frigid weather, deprivation, and sanctioned cruelty had forced them to
develop a level of toughness and cunning beyond anyone's ability to understand.'
"All signs point to crime lord Yuri Borodenko, so
Eddie responds by firebombing Yuri's Rolls Royce (with one of the mobster's minions in the front seat). Borodenko retaliates by
bouncing Paulie Caruso's severed head off Eddie's front door. Then things get really ugly.
"Along with gritty realism, Dee gives the
reader plenty of useful criminal information: how to set up a pump-and-dump Wall Street scheme, hijack a car, hire a Hasidic Jew
to smuggle Ecstasy, rip off Medicare, launder money and spot a two-way mirror, for starters. Eddie eventually bulls his way through
the mob and rescues his daughter, but not before surviving a number of horrendous beatings and a couple of grenade attacks. Down
and dirty crime fiction doesn't get any better than this. — Publishers Weekly
Nightbird - click to order
"Written in the best tradition of big-city stories, Edward Dee makes Nightbird sing with
action and glitter with pearls of dialogue. Tough, savvy, and extraordinary are
understatements for this always interesting, unpredictable and exciting book."
— Dennis Smith, author of Report From Engine 82 and A Song for Mary
"One of the few [police procedural] standouts on this side of the ocean... Dee has a genuine
feel for the lives of New York's denizens, making his writing lively and believable... His
blending of the personal and professional lives of his characters is seamless and
extremely satisfying." — Library Journal
"Nightbird will mesmerize you. Close your eyes and hang on tight, this is the real thing — a police
novel so alive it hits you with the power of a psycho swinging a baseball bat. Dee writes
with the rhythm of the streets in his blood." — Paul Bishop, author of Tequila Mockingbird
Little Boy Blue - click to order
"A very sensitive, feeling writer... an excellent teller of tales... an intricately plotted tale." — Chattanooga Free Press
"Crackles with authenticity... gripping... the first-person narration turns Ryan into a poet of his
personal New York, a town painted by Dee as if he were Hopper, painting it for Police Gazette." — Publishers Weekly
"Stunning... superb... meshes a first-rate detective story with gallows humor and an insightful,
compelling examination of its characters... High marks and high recommendation." — Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Ed Dee continues to carve taut stories... Little Boy Blue is his third mystery novel,
and each one has turned heads." — Wilmington News Journal
"Full of authenticity and quiet compassion." — Arizona Republic
"A must read... action and suspense... Dee is a natural writer." — Orlando Sentinel
"His protagonists are always wonderfully interesting... his New York is painted with unusually
authentic detail... Most everything he puts in adds insight, which is a rare and welcome
thing in a thriller that doesn't give short shrift to the action and adventure." — Washington Times
Bronx Angel - click to order
"Fast-paced, gritty, funny... an especially satisfying and savvy cop tale." — Publisher's Weekly
"A subtly affecting novel. Ryan sees everything with a good cop's stony-eyed compassion and
an Irishman's gift for quiet poetry. It's a potent combination that makes for a powerfully haunting book." — Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Dee takes us on a grand tour of the city the way it looks through Ryan's eyes: dirty,
dangerous, and so sad you wish you could look away. But you can't because you might miss
something beautiful, or funny, or just plain nuts." — New York Times Book Review
"Dee, telling the story through Ryan, gets everything into the air with impressive economy and
keeps things spinning with no apparent effort. He is flat-out wonderful on the city where
Ryan and Gregory ply their sad trade... Dee is very good indeed." — Boston Globe
"Vivid memorable characters... The supporting cast are a uniformly fresh and delightful
population decorating the barren Bronx landscape and bringing a great sense of reality... Bronx
Angel is only the second in what hopefully will be a long line of authentic,
intelligent cop thrillers." — South Bend Tribune
"A talent to be watched... Dee has managed to produce a kaleidoscope of vivid images that
show both the bad guys and the police as part of separate brotherhoods bound together by
bad hours, bad food, bad marriages, and dangerous jobs." — Orlando Sentinel
14 Peck Slip - click to order
"The real thing... an authentic and powerful voice." — Publisher's Weekly
"DROP-DEAD STYLE AND AUTHENTICITY... Mr. Dee has been off the job for a decade, but he still has the eyes, ears, and especially the nose of a cop.
You can see one character's fear in his jumpy movements, hear another's anger in his dirty talk. But you can smell the moral decay
of the whole city in those 'empty hours' between bar closings and dawn, when the funky streets belong to 'the psychotic, the depressed,
the guilty' and the cops who are supposed to clean to it up." — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
"Dee takes no prisoners. His writing is lean, fragrant and brutally authoritative." — Kirkus Reviews
"Fast-paced, taut and very human... this has an authenticity that's impossible not to believe." — West Coast Review of Books
"Mr. Dee makes a strong impression with his initial fiction, and his voice — understated, authentic, even quietly
lyrical — is entirely his own." — Wall Street Journal
"An outstanding debut performance... Remarkably timely." — Houston Public News
"This debut sneaks up on you like a pickpocket and steals away with your admiration." — Charlotte Observer
"Honest, authentic, touching, extremely intelligent, tense... altogether a wonderful read." — Robert Daley, author of Prince of the City
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Copyright 2000-2008 Edward Dee
To order books from Amazon.com, please click on these links:
The Con Man's Daughter
Nightbird
Little Boy Blue
Bronx Angel
14 Peck Slip
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