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Fast-paced but ultimately unconvincing, this third novel by the author of The Narrowback and Bad Connection begins with the dramatic (but none too credible) downfall of New York City policeman John Coglin. The straight-arrow cop-about to be promoted, about to be married, about to become a father-finds himself facing a murder rap when he shoots a bad guy in the line of duty. While the jury deliberates, he gets a call from his ex-con, ex-IRA uncle, Aidan, a father figure to John when he was a teenager, asking him to come to Pennsylvania for a few final words. Figuring he has nothing to lose-he is convinced he will be found guilty-Coglin agrees to participate in a diamond heist with Aidan and an attractive young single mom. The heist goes spectacularly wrong-the wife of the vice-president of the United States is killed in what appears to be crossfire, bringing all manner of law enforcement down on the heads of the would-be robbers. The prose is competent and the action hot, but the convoluted, conspiracy-laden plot tests the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. Ledwidge usually doesn't provide his characters' backstories until after the action cools down, in a seemingly belated attempt to justify implausible decisions. His gritty thriller moves fast, but not quite fast enough for readers to ignore the reckless plotting.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
In the full-throttle, noir-soaked tradition of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, the acclaimed young author of Bad Connection unleashes an ambitious and edgy new thriller pulsating with raw, urban energy.
Decorated NYPD Officer John Coglin always thought his picture on the front page of the newspaper would be one for the scrapbook.
That was before he had the bad luck to be forced into a witness-free, kill-or-be-killed confrontation with a drug-dealing thug. It's of no help to him that the incident took place during the run-up to a bitter mayoral election campaign, and that his adversary was sixteen years old and black.
Now, instead of another commendation, Coglin is staring down the barrel of a media- and politics-stoked murder rap.
But on the eve of his sure conviction arrives a fateful telephone call.
It's not the governor, but his long-lost uncle, Aidan O'Connell.
A veteran of the IRA and a recently released guest of San Quentin Penitentiary for armed-to-the-teeth robbery, Aidan offers his nephew a pardon that has nothing to do with lawyers.
Coglin is about to find out that the type of amnesty Uncle Aidan is proposing is the kind that involves a beautiful but dangerous Mafia widow, a car trunk full of M-16s, and thirty million dollars in jewels smack dab in the middle of Rockefeller Center.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a highly entertaining, deliciously gritty, super-fast thriller that takes us on a cutthroat ride into an urban realm where criminal intent collides head-on with the vagaries of fate and the inscrutabilities of the human heart.
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