We All Fall Down

by Steven Hart

As the first and only woman police officer in the fading blue-collar town of Bridgeborough, Karen McCarthy knows she has a lot to prove - to her fellow cops and, even more dauntingly, to herself. So when she bungles a chance to arrest the number-one suspect in a cop-killing incident, Karen throws herself into the investigation in any way she can manage. Trouble is, the more she learns about the case, the less clear-cut everything seems to be. There is also a cabal of corrupt officers within the force to reckon with, and when Karen comes face-to-face with the killer himself, an already difficult case turns into a threat to her life as well as her police career. Already praised by top-notch novelists as a bold new thriller, We All Fall Down offers a realistically drawn woman cop who's neither an adorable ditz nor a fantasy superheroine. Karen McCarthy is a very tough, highly vulnerable woman who is still learning to deal with her demons. For her, every victory is hard-won, and carries a personal cost.

Steven Hart, an award-winning journalist and nonfiction author ( The Last Three Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway ) makes his first try at fiction with We All Fall Down . Readers and critics Hart and his heroine should come back, and soon.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery

250 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2011

Reviews

[Brenda Perlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

We All Fall Down is a well-written book that is clever and heart stomping! I love stories about the New Jersey crime scene and corruption. What’s not to love? This characters were believable and intriguing. This story took me on a great adventure that was an enjoyable escape. This was an easy read that was action filled and entertaining all the way through.

"The river was running fast, swollen with a solid week of rain. A tree trunk had gotten caught on something fifty feet from shore, and now it was angled against the whirling, bubbling current. Broadmer pictured himself clutching that tree trunk, wet and cold but safe from the cops. If he kept himself on the far side of the trunk, they wouldn't even be able to shoot him. He might give himself to the current, let it carry him to safety."

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up at 29%

I stopped reading at 29% and finally succumbed to the poor layout, poor grammar, insufficient editing and overall incoherence. It started out out with such promise and very quickly failed to deliver.

[Chaplain Stanley Chapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

So/So

a little bit of heroic efforts combined with sexual language and a suspect scripts story line left me hurrying to the end

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The language was foul and the characters were all scumbags. The plot line was interesting but not worth finishing.

[Lyndsey Nicole Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice crime novel. She's the only girl on the force. Nobody seems to take her seriously. If only they did. Thingd would have been smooth sailing. Things that go wrong - will.