City Blood: A Novel of Revenge - Hardcover

Howard, Clark

4

12 ratings by Goodreads

9781883402396: City Blood: A Novel of Revenge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883402395 ISBN 13: 9781883402396

Publisher: Otto Penzler Books, 1994

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Joe Kelly's investigation of the murder of a topless dancer with mob connections turns ugly when his partner, Nick, is killed, Nick's wife reveals her interest in Joe, the dancer's sister arrives, and a madman starts planting bombs on buses.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Called to the scene of go-go dancer Ronnie Lynn's beating death, Chicago detective Joe Kiley and his partner, Nick Bianco, find a nasty lead: Tony, the boyfriend the victim was slated to meet, has the same name as Tony Touhy, kid brother of North Side mobster Phil Touhy, a silent partner in the club where she worked. Joe and Nick decide to follow up on their own instead of sharing the lead with the not-deeply-interested homicide boys. Joe would've played it a lot differently if he'd known that Nick would get killed during an unauthorized stakeout of Tony Touhy...and if he'd known that Tony didn't really kill Ronnie. By the time he figures out all that, though, it's too late to pull out of his bulldog quest to sink the Touhy brothers--for Nick's murder if not for Ronnie's--even though higher-ups on the force are screaming at him to stop. He gets reassigned to the Bomb and Arson squad (and goes after an inoffensive bomber whose case will tie into Nick's murder in a satisfyingly unexpected way); the one cop who takes his side ends up dead; and he ought to have his hands full between Nick's widow Stella, whom he's long lusted after, and Ronnie's sister Alma, who lusts after him. A gritty handling of all the usual suspects. Jack-of-all- crimes Howard (Love's Blood, 1993, etc.) takes full advantage of the fact that, since his hero isn't a series character, anything could happen to him--right down to the quietly inconclusive ending. -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

This unusual cop story set in Chicago ends with a whimper but offers moments that glitter with insight and gritty, urban realism. The brutal murder of a topless dancer sends Chicago cop Joe Kiley and his longtime partner on an unofficial hunt for the victim's boyfriend, the brother of a mob kingpin. Kiley, a wary loner who seems aimed toward self-destruction, is distraught when his partner is killed in the course of their probings. His guilt is not eased when the dead dancer's twin sister comes on to him or when he and his partner's widow are drawn together. Although the dancer's murderer is soon determined not be the mobster's brother, Kiley stays on that trail, which leads him to a city bar where organized crime and a powerful gang come together. Howard (Quicksilver) doesn't give us a nice-guy hero in Joe and litters his work with crude acts of bigotry and rank prejudice. His villains are named early and his characterizations are uneven, but this graphic depiction of urban and emotional decay carries a powerful, lasting punch.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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