Alphaville: New York, 1988: Welcome to Heroin City - Softcover

Michael Codella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0283071354 ISBN 13: 9780283071355

Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

Welcome to Alphabet City in the Lower Eat Side, Manhattan's most crime-ridden neighbourhood. Murder, rape and violence are hitting record levels the streets, fuelled by a drug problem that's got the city by the throat so hard it could explode into full-blown anarchy. It was into this vision of hell that Mike Codella and his partner Gio stepped in 1988, two plainclothes narcs expected just to pull a few street arrests to keep statistics looking good, and try to get out alive. But Mike had his eyes on something bigger. Davey Blue Eyes: local kingpin, druglord and stone cold murderer. Just one drawback - no one even knew what he looked like. Fascinating, brutal and told with a furious, even poetic energy, Alphaville stands shoulder to shoulder with other modern true crime classics such as Serpico, The French Connection, Wiseguy, or David Simon's Homicide. "Nerve-shreddingly real. Addictive, brilliant and compelling. A staggeringly well-written true-life drama, which had me breathless from the first page to the last." (R.J. Ellory, number 1 bestselling autor of "A Simple Act of Violence" and "A Quiet Belief in Angels").

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Codella worked and supervised the DEA, Secret Service Tast Force, Special Frauds Squad, Missing Persons Squad, Operation 8 and several other outstanding units. He retired from the Police Department in 2003 as a Detective Sergeant and is now a professional fight trainer and martial arts instructor. Bruce Bennett's writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun; as a guitar player he has performed and recorded with the A-Bones, Hasil Adkins, Action Swingers, Yo La Tengo, and Andre Williams. A Manhattan native and twenty year resident of the Lower East Side, including the period covered in Alphaville, Bennett now lives and works in Brooklyn.

Review:

"Codella describes [Alphabet City] so vividly, with such hardboiled language that you feel like you're in the squad car with him." --"New York Post" "Written in a hyper-noir style reminiscent of Richard Price and George Pelecanos, this memoir features all the stuff of an excellent police procedural complete with drug gang rivalries, beatings, killings, and endless dealer collars and convictions. Raw, bloody, and very real, Codella's book is a historical snapshot of what was one of Gotham's most dangerous neighborhoods and the men who brought order to its frightening mayhem." --"Publishers Weekly" "From dodging Internal Affairs and a hit ordered by a drug kingpin to making a huge dent in New York's drug trade, Codella's life makes for a real page-turner. This should be popular with true crime readers whether or not they agree with him that the ends justified the means. Highly recommended." --"Library Journal""Codella secures justice of a sort in this taut true-crime tale...

About this edition

• Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0283071354
• ISBN 13: 9780283071355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320