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Isaac Sidel #5
The Good Policeman
Sent on a cross-country lecture tour after capturing the FBI's most wanted criminal, New York City Police Commissioner Isaac Sidel returns to the city and finds himself battling criminals, the establishment, and the Christy Mathewson Club
Paperback
First published July 1, 1990
6 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Charyn
221 books230 followersJerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 3, 2016
Too many undeveloped characters, not much plot, poor dialogue. I cannot believe I read it all, but I kept waiting for something to happen.
September 4, 2009
Not sure why I finished this book. I didn't particularly like it. But I kept reading anyway. So I guess it maintained my interest to an extent.
I think I was kind of repulsed by the extent of corruption on just about every level.
The police commissioner of New York is not exactly corrupt but he hangs around with a lot of mobsters. We had a chief of police in Chicago had to resign because he knew a guy with the Outfit. Against the rules. Does New York have no rules? So I had a little difficulty on that level. This is not to say that Chicago is not without corruption.
But I would certainly hope that our local FBI SAIC is not as corrupt as LeComte is in this story. It brought back memories of Fast Eddie Hanrahan. But most of that kind of corruption is gone now, I think. Or, at least it is not so much at the surface.
But if you like corruption you might like this book.
I think I was kind of repulsed by the extent of corruption on just about every level.
The police commissioner of New York is not exactly corrupt but he hangs around with a lot of mobsters. We had a chief of police in Chicago had to resign because he knew a guy with the Outfit. Against the rules. Does New York have no rules? So I had a little difficulty on that level. This is not to say that Chicago is not without corruption.
But I would certainly hope that our local FBI SAIC is not as corrupt as LeComte is in this story. It brought back memories of Fast Eddie Hanrahan. But most of that kind of corruption is gone now, I think. Or, at least it is not so much at the surface.
But if you like corruption you might like this book.
February 22, 2024
saac Sidel wird vom Justizministerium auf Promotion-Tour geschickt. Viel lieber würde er aber seiner Arbeit als Polizeichef nachgehen. Kurzerhand bricht er die Tour ab und kehrt nach New York zurück. Aber mit seinem Alleingang sticht er in ein Wespennest, in dem sich die Mafia, sein eigener Geheimdienst und die Bürgermeisterin tummeln. Und da ist noch seine alte Jugendliebe Margaret Tolstoi, die in Lebensgefahr schwebt.
Der Autor beschreibt ein New York, in dem das Verbrechen die Oberhand gewonnen hat. Jeder bekriegt jeden und auch Diejenigen, die das Gesetz vertreten sollen, mischen munter mit. Isaac Sidel ist mittendrin. Er ist der einsame Bulle, der zwar keine weiße Weste hat, aber trotzdem für das kämpft, was in seinen Augen gut ist. Da dass das nicht immer das ist, was seine Vorgesetzten wollen, ist der Ärger vorprogrammiert.
Erzählt wird eine Geschichte, die mir nicht wirklich gefallen hat, mit einem Protagonisten, der mir nicht sympathisch war. Die Atmosphäre hat der Autor gut eingefangen, aber das war zu wenig, um auch mich einzufangen.
Der Autor beschreibt ein New York, in dem das Verbrechen die Oberhand gewonnen hat. Jeder bekriegt jeden und auch Diejenigen, die das Gesetz vertreten sollen, mischen munter mit. Isaac Sidel ist mittendrin. Er ist der einsame Bulle, der zwar keine weiße Weste hat, aber trotzdem für das kämpft, was in seinen Augen gut ist. Da dass das nicht immer das ist, was seine Vorgesetzten wollen, ist der Ärger vorprogrammiert.
Erzählt wird eine Geschichte, die mir nicht wirklich gefallen hat, mit einem Protagonisten, der mir nicht sympathisch war. Die Atmosphäre hat der Autor gut eingefangen, aber das war zu wenig, um auch mich einzufangen.
January 23, 2022
Tiens ben j'ai fait ma note de lecture pour le suivant avant celui-là... Je l'ai moins aimé, faut dire, il pousse peut-être un peu trop loin les circonvolutions et relations bizarres venues de nulle part?
Want to read
November 9, 2018Synopsis: Commissioner Isaac Sidel is bored and he wants to get back to policing. A missing mob lawyer seems to point to his kind of problem.
November 16, 2009
Jerome Charyn, who dances with the Devil, laughing.
January 20, 2011
My favorite of all the Sidel books - equally fun for readers of both sexes. This is the one that was made into a TV movie starring Ron Silver.
October 23, 2011
Okay book; another time killer.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews