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Detective Brian McKenna #2
The Edge Of The City
A terrorist stranglehold tightens on New York...and only one cop can break its grip.
Born in the mountainous jungles of Peru. Smuggled to the concrete jungles of NYC. It's the most ingenious terrorist setup ever conceived, and it could bring the city-- and the nation-- to its knees.
Former NYPD detective Brian McKenna has tangled with the Shining Path before. His new identity and early retirement in Florida were supposed to put him beyond the terrorist army's retribution. But when the guerrillas cut down the son of his closest friend, New York's police commissioner Ray Brunette, McKenna's lured back into the center of the action, and into a deadly battle of wits with a brilliant man and a cunning and dangerous woman.
Former NYPD Captain Dan Mahoney spins a chillingly authentic tale of a city held hostage, a city at the edge of disaster.
Born in the mountainous jungles of Peru. Smuggled to the concrete jungles of NYC. It's the most ingenious terrorist setup ever conceived, and it could bring the city-- and the nation-- to its knees.
Former NYPD detective Brian McKenna has tangled with the Shining Path before. His new identity and early retirement in Florida were supposed to put him beyond the terrorist army's retribution. But when the guerrillas cut down the son of his closest friend, New York's police commissioner Ray Brunette, McKenna's lured back into the center of the action, and into a deadly battle of wits with a brilliant man and a cunning and dangerous woman.
Former NYPD Captain Dan Mahoney spins a chillingly authentic tale of a city held hostage, a city at the edge of disaster.
514 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
5 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Dan Mahoney
19 books21 followers I was born in Manhattan on September 21, 1947, five minutes after Stephen King was born someplace in Maine. (I don't know what that means, but I'm hoping it means something.) I grew up in Manhattan and Queens and soon found myself to be the eldest of five children. I graduated from high school at age 16, a bad thing because I was too young to get a driver's license in New York and too stupid to realize that I had to go to college to get my ticket punched. Instead, I worked as a machinist and auto mechanic for a year before enlisting in the Marine Corps at age 17. A while later I found myself in Vietnam as a machine gunner with the 9th Marines, an outfit known as The Walking Dead. It was a very bad job, to say the least.
After getting discharged in one piece in 1968, I did as my father and grandfather had done before me and joined the NYPD. During the next twenty years I managed to get promoted regularly and served in various patrol and detective commands, mostly good jobs in mostly rotten places. I also took advantage of the VA Bill and finally went to college, attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice part time and graduating in 1977 as the class valedictorian with a BA in Romance Languages.
Also part time, I got a job as Yoko Ono's security chief after John Lennon was murdered. It turned out to be interesting work since, at the time, crazies were coming out of the woodwork to annoy and harass her. Yoko liked to travel and so did I, so one of the great benefits of the job was that I got to go to some very nice places in a very nice way.
Meanwhile, my brothers and sisters were also busy. My brother Eddie decided to call himself Eddie Money and he's been singing, doing shows, and selling records ever since. My sister Peggy became a psychologist and my two other sisters, Pat and Kathy, are both nurses.
By 1989 I had twenty years with the NYPD and it was time to retire since the chiefs had never been too happy about my high-profile, off-duty job, and I had learned by tough experience that unhappy chiefs make for miserable captains. My wife at the time had also had enough of me since, between police work, school, and working for Yoko, I hadn't been home much during our marriage, so she gave me my walking papers and a heavy-duty alimony and child-support bill.
After retiring, I began working as the director of investigations for the Holmes Detective Bureau, an old and well-regarded New York PI agency. I also got a literary agent and began working on my first book, Detective First Grade. My agent sold it to St. Martin's Press a week after I finished it and it was published in May, `93. The book got good reviews and sold well, so I had myself another good part-time career. I wrote another seven books in the next twelve years, a rate of one book every year and a half. All of them feature Detective Brian McKenna or Detective Cisco Sanchez as my protagonist, and although not New York Times best-sellers, they have all received good reviews and I have sold well enough that I now regularly make the USA Today Best Seller List. Detective First Grade, Edge of the City, Hyde, Once In, Never Out, Black and White, and The Two Chinatowns, and The Protectors are all still in print.
I now have a government job working for the Department of Homeland Security, but that will have to end soon because I must get to work on my next book. My hobbies are skiing, traveling, and hanging out with my pals in pubs in town where we spend most of our time lying about our old cases. Our motto is: "The older we get, the better we were."
After getting discharged in one piece in 1968, I did as my father and grandfather had done before me and joined the NYPD. During the next twenty years I managed to get promoted regularly and served in various patrol and detective commands, mostly good jobs in mostly rotten places. I also took advantage of the VA Bill and finally went to college, attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice part time and graduating in 1977 as the class valedictorian with a BA in Romance Languages.
Also part time, I got a job as Yoko Ono's security chief after John Lennon was murdered. It turned out to be interesting work since, at the time, crazies were coming out of the woodwork to annoy and harass her. Yoko liked to travel and so did I, so one of the great benefits of the job was that I got to go to some very nice places in a very nice way.
Meanwhile, my brothers and sisters were also busy. My brother Eddie decided to call himself Eddie Money and he's been singing, doing shows, and selling records ever since. My sister Peggy became a psychologist and my two other sisters, Pat and Kathy, are both nurses.
By 1989 I had twenty years with the NYPD and it was time to retire since the chiefs had never been too happy about my high-profile, off-duty job, and I had learned by tough experience that unhappy chiefs make for miserable captains. My wife at the time had also had enough of me since, between police work, school, and working for Yoko, I hadn't been home much during our marriage, so she gave me my walking papers and a heavy-duty alimony and child-support bill.
After retiring, I began working as the director of investigations for the Holmes Detective Bureau, an old and well-regarded New York PI agency. I also got a literary agent and began working on my first book, Detective First Grade. My agent sold it to St. Martin's Press a week after I finished it and it was published in May, `93. The book got good reviews and sold well, so I had myself another good part-time career. I wrote another seven books in the next twelve years, a rate of one book every year and a half. All of them feature Detective Brian McKenna or Detective Cisco Sanchez as my protagonist, and although not New York Times best-sellers, they have all received good reviews and I have sold well enough that I now regularly make the USA Today Best Seller List. Detective First Grade, Edge of the City, Hyde, Once In, Never Out, Black and White, and The Two Chinatowns, and The Protectors are all still in print.
I now have a government job working for the Department of Homeland Security, but that will have to end soon because I must get to work on my next book. My hobbies are skiing, traveling, and hanging out with my pals in pubs in town where we spend most of our time lying about our old cases. Our motto is: "The older we get, the better we were."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 3, 2022
Another one of my favourite books of all time. This was the second Dan Mahoney book I had the privilege of reading, and looking back, after almost finishing the last Dan Mahoney book in existence, I have to say this one is probably the most unique.
Every other Dan Mahoney book is either about a serial killer, (or serial killer duo) or about a foreign terrorist group that kidnaps somebody to achieve a goal in a far off land. This book is about neither. This book is the story of how fast, intelligent detective work led to the defusing of a very intense situation.
A group of Peruvian terrorist-extremists formally introduced in Dan Mahoney’s first book, “Detective First Grade” bring now-retired Mckenna back into New York so he can negotiate with them and after they hold a couple of ferry’s hostage in the middle of New York Cities harbour. It’s a race against the clock for Mckenna and his team, and it’s definitely a very interesting race to follow.
I rate this book 5 stars for how well thought out and well constructed the bad guys in this story are. I really recommend reading Detective First Grade before reading this book, as it’s a good precursor to explain in more depth the motive of the “bad guys”.
Every other Dan Mahoney book is either about a serial killer, (or serial killer duo) or about a foreign terrorist group that kidnaps somebody to achieve a goal in a far off land. This book is about neither. This book is the story of how fast, intelligent detective work led to the defusing of a very intense situation.
A group of Peruvian terrorist-extremists formally introduced in Dan Mahoney’s first book, “Detective First Grade” bring now-retired Mckenna back into New York so he can negotiate with them and after they hold a couple of ferry’s hostage in the middle of New York Cities harbour. It’s a race against the clock for Mckenna and his team, and it’s definitely a very interesting race to follow.
I rate this book 5 stars for how well thought out and well constructed the bad guys in this story are. I really recommend reading Detective First Grade before reading this book, as it’s a good precursor to explain in more depth the motive of the “bad guys”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 18, 2019
This book could probably have been fifty pages shorter, if not one hundred, and not leave anything pertinent out. Otherwise enjoyable.
August 2, 2025
5 stars, but, Dan should have talked to someone who has flown a 727. Everything he tried to detail was wrong. ( Retired airline pilot with over 23,000 hrs of 727 time.)
September 15, 2025
You don’t mess with New York cops is all I’m saying
November 10, 2025
Terriorists hold NYC hostage. Story line is a bit over the top and it could have easily been 100 pages shorter. Oops.
January 3, 2026
Covfefe!
* * * * * 5 Stars!
* * * * * 5 Stars!
February 11, 2013
I know from Mahoney's later novels that both his writing and his editing tighten up considerably, allowing the suspense in the story to be more evident. This novel, Edge of the City, second in the series, IS a suspenseful story, but like his first novel, it is bogged down by extraneous details. There was also one huge gap in the story, a thread left loose (Peruvian vs. Russian...); nevertheless, the story, about a group of terrorists who cause chaos in New York City, is good and certainly held my attention, and as I said, each book in the series is a bit better than the one before. I also like the protagonist of these stories, Brian McKenna. Overall, I would definitely recommend Mahoney to anyone who enjoys reading crime thrillers.
May 2, 2016
#2 in the Brian McKenna series.
Brian McKenna, NYPD, returns from retirement to confront Sendero Luminoso terrorists who have murdered the son of the Police Commissioner and hijacked the Staten Island ferry.
Brian McKenna, NYPD, returns from retirement to confront Sendero Luminoso terrorists who have murdered the son of the Police Commissioner and hijacked the Staten Island ferry.
February 19, 2009
My uncle loaned me this book is a friendof Dan Mahoney, a retired NYPD detective. Interesting story. Great New York descriptions. Brian the "Main Man" is a likeable guy.
July 24, 2010
i'm scared of sendero luminoso
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews