The Blue Wall

by Kenneth Abel

Brooklyn River drownings aren't usually a pretty sight, but this corpse is obviously from the nicer side of town. The girl's father spared no expense or expertise - let alone time - in posting her missing and insisting that the NYPD find her ...The tragic death of Eva Cruz is the first scene in a play that leaves Detective Dave Moser wondering just who his real friends are. It seems that everyone but himself, one Internal Affairs lieutenant and an FBI new girl, is on the take to the tune of thousands or millions of dollars. And as Moser gets nearer and nearer to the centre of the puzzle of why Eva Cruz died, the higher the NYPD blue wall of silence gets.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Suspense

Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Pseudonym of Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky.
Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky has taught at Kenyon since 1993. He teaches courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing. His research centers on the politics of spectacle in early modern drama, and he has also published a series of crime novels under the pseudonym Kenneth Abel. In 2001, he received the Junior Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Series:
* Danny Chaisson

Reviews

[Erich Sysak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tightly written with witty dialog, quirky characters and a brisk plot.

[Michael Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, I'm late learning about a good author and very good book. "The Blue Wall" is a well-done story that kept my attention, and at the same time scares me: It's very much about corruption in police departments. Or at least about this one department.
And it's easy enough to extrapolate.
One policeman, Dave Moser, who progressed through the ranks to detective, somehow resists the temptation and stays straight.
Naturally, in an ocean of corruption, he is suspected of being "a rat."
This all rings too, too true, just as if author Kenneth Abel has been there.
He has created -- or copied -- some interesting characters, and even his vicious, murderous villains demand the attention of readers. And, again, seem all too true.
HOW, we must ask, HOW can police officers, indeed whole departments, become so corrupt, so open to bribery, and amenable to even worse crimes?
Not specified in this book is an easy answer: Victimless-crime, or consensual-crime, laws.
As the Insane War on Some Drugs continues, corruptive crime continues.
Very few police officers can be bribed to look away from robbery or murder -- unless they have already been totally compromised. But police are usually human, are usually much like everybody else: They recognize individual humans are prone to alleged vices, such as gambling or illicit sex or use of various frowned-upon substances. Even individual human police officers.
It's a stereotype or cliché that police will confiscate drugs or drug money or pornography and use it for themselves or as gifts or party treats for other officers.
And passing more laws will not improve the situation.
Everyone, even politicians, even bureaucrats, even police should realize by now our crime problems are not "caused by drugs" but by drug laws.
Those laws make drugs expensive, and profitable, so making them and selling them are enticing. Brave and/or stupid people get into the business.
With so much money there to be acquired, bribery and murder become normal, commonplace.
None of that is explicated in "The Blue Wall," but it is the accurate background of this excellent book. I recommend it. Even if it is a 1996 creation, it is not out of date.

[Kayeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

the side of cops you prefer not exist I think.....the undercurrent is dirty cops, the main character is righteous.....

[close:] His car is dead, his wife has left him, and Detective Dave Moser needs all the friends he can get. Instead, he's about to take on a case that buries him in a morass of corruption and contract murder in the NYPD. Once again Kenneth Abel, author of the acclaimed novel Bait, hurtles us into the gritty, hair-raising world of cops and criminals as Moser finds himself alone, hunting a killer, torn between loyalty and honor, survival and...The Blue Wall.
It's not just another floater when Moser and his partner investigate a gorgeous young woman, found dead in the water, missing both eyes. She looked like she came from money with her fancy dental work. No needle tracks. A VIP missing persons report leads Moser to a Park Avenue address and the girl's father, a wealthy Guatemalan with a stone-faced bodyguard and a lot to hide. As Moser and his partner look for leads in the case, a series of unrelated homicides follow-- unrelated until Moser connects the lives of the victims. And when Lt. Tom Richter of the hated Internal Affairs Division tries to persuade him to investigate a fellow cop, it's clear that there's another correlation as well. Moser's on a downhill slide--straight into a federal probe of organized crime that's directly connected to his case.

A wiseguy is singing like a canary, implicating Moser's friend as ringleader of a gang of bent cops, connecting him to the murder that haunts Moser's days and nights. And Moser's the man in the middle: suspected as a possible co-conspirator if he doesn't play along with IAD, loathed as a rat if he does. If he wants a future--in or out of the force--he must keep his own counsel, watch his back, and follow a bloody, unmarked trail to its bitter end.

Stunning, taut, bristling with suspense, The Blue Wall races to an explosive climax that will echo in memory long after the last page is turned.



[close:]

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonably entertaining mystery, although the fact that every single character is either a corrupt cop or a gangster made it difficult to engage in past a certain level. But fans of the hard-boiled will find a lot to like here.

[Marti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because our name is Abell--almost spelled the same. It is about police--okay--just not very exciting.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing, and a complex plot that holds together until the end.