Black Sand

by William J. Caunitz

1980. 184 pages. Green pictorial dust jacket over green cloth. Pages are clean and bright, and appear almost good as new. With minimal tanning throughout. Binding has remained firm. Boards are a little rub worn, slight shelf wear to corners, spine and edges. Corners are a little bumped. Spine ends are mildly crushed. Light wear to unclipped dust jacket with tears, nicks and creases to spine, edge and corners. Light tanning to spine and edges.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Procedural, Crime, Adventure

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

William J. Caunitz was a New York City Police Department officer who used his own experiences to write best-selling thrillers.

After serving in the United States Marine Corps, and working for an insurance company, he joined the NYPD in his twenties. He first worked as a patrolman, and eventually rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant, followed by an assignment as a detective squad commander.Caunitz would eventually serve 30 years with the N.Y.P.D.

Caunitz was praised for his "raw authenticity" when describing precinct day-to-day life in his novels, especially for One Police Plaza , which was eventually made into a television movie. His novels usually center around one or two police officers that follow detailed police procedures to solve a crime, and he also used some sensational elements of thrillers.

Caunitz died in 1996 from pulmonary fibrosis. His last novel, Chains of Command, was half-completed at the time of his death and finished by Christopher Newman.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two American gunmen murder some guy to get access to an ancient artifact. A task force with the NYPD, and a Greek Unit team up to get to the bottom of things.

Felt like someone was aiming for a Telly Savalas project.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good international cops and bad guys story with a heavy leaning on an angle tying Greece policemen into a new york operation. As usual, Caunitz goes deep on the interworkings of the police department, and he took the opportunity to show similarities and differences with an overseas force in this one.

Worth the read if a Caunitz fan or just looking for a more "global" sort of police yarn.

[Steven Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If written well, I enjoy a good cop tale every now then. This book is definitely a product of the time it is set in - late 1970s New York city.

No cell phones, computers, tablets, or any of the other electronic junk so prevalent in our lives now. How long has it been since you had a character that had to find a payphone and dig change out of his car to make a phone call?

Also no safe sex in this book either. For a character today to cat around as much as the lead cop does in this book, I would not be surprised to see him suffer from a number of STDs.

Another thing dating this book was lack of common semi-automatic pistols carried by the police. No Glocks, Berettas, S&Ws, etc.

[Sully Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reread this old paperback while travelling. It was interesting for its story, concise descriptions of Greece, the way it limns the "Greek point of view," and insight into how much the world and our attitudes have changed over the past forty or fifty years. I need to check if there are any other Caunitz' paperbacks still hanging around here.

[Steve Mepham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Re-reading this after many years as I remembered it being an easy read and I was looking for something uncomplicated for a waiting room read. It is not as good as I remember, but an OK book all the same.

[Michael Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caunitz is a very good writer. "Black Sand" is something different, at least to me, and covers two different cultures and two different police environments. I highly recommend this.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Major Andreas Vassos, a Greek officer of the Hellenic National Police on vacation at a Greek resort town with his wife and son come upon an assassination attempt on two Greek local policemen. Grabbing one of the downed officers pistol he returns fire and wounds one of the assassins but starts a volley of return fire that kills and wounds a number of civilians. Later investigations reveals that the assassins were Americans and Vassos is sent to New York city to work with Detective Teddy Lucas in an attempt to find out who was behind the attack. At the same time Vassos is searching for an ancient papyrus document purported to have belonged to Alexander the Great. Plenty of police action in and around NYC as the clues begin to narrow down the search for the document and those behind the murders.

[Joe White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some mystery novel characteristic underpinnings that could have been extended various directions to include connections to ancient history, writing linguistic beginnings, archeological art-world crime, and financial transactions in the art world. However the subject served as a beacon of interest and was then underplayed.

The significant bulk of this book ended up being an earthy cop-novel, that in some places became a little tedious and overdone with police station in-house trivia being acted out.

One good point was that the characters seemed to be more realistic with genuine thoughts and actions than is usually found in mystery thrillers. There were no superheroes. The plot-line action was discovered in first person by the main characters, with few unexpected twists.

[Emilia Corbalán (amorxloslibros) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5 ⭐ Estuvo muy entretenido.

La verdad que el libro me sorprendió y me entretuvo bastante su lectura. Si bien a la mitad decae un poco, el inicio y el desenlace son muy buenos y tienen un muy buen ritmo. Además tiene ese plus de historia griega sobre Alejandro Magno que es muy interesante e informativa.
No está la temática entre los thrillers que suelo leer, así que fue como algo bastante nuevo, no suelo leer policiales que tengan que ver con objetos antiguos robados ni su comercialización ilegial en el mercado negro del arte así que fue una grata experiencia.
Recomiendo la lectura si les gusta este tipo de thrillers para adultos 💫

[M. D. Ferres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definirei questo romanzo un noir poliziesco e la sua pregevolezza sta nel fatto che l'autore sia stato effettivamente un ufficiale e detective della polizia di NY. Le descrizioni delle procedure d'indagine sono estremamente dettagliate e realistiche, come mai mi era capitato di leggere prima d'ora. La scrittura è molto serrata, priva di enfasi. Avrei preferito una maggiore caratterizzazione dei personaggi, ma non la considero una vera e propria mancanza.
Un bel libro, scritto nell'ormai lontano 1989 e ambientato tra Atene e New York.

[Tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, a passable read, lots of potential, but not quite there. It puts the "procedure" in police procedurals - to the point of listing the specific forms they have to fill out. The Greek connection raised my interest, and the main characters were believable, not just caricatures. However, some of the bad guys were pretty one-dimensional, and there were way too many subordinate characters. All in all, a solid three.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1988 novel is the 3rd novel of the NYPD written by Caunitz, an NYPD Lieutenant. Entertaining.

NYPD novel - A machine gun attack at a Greek resort kills two Greek cops and a number of bystanders, including the wife and son of police Major Andreas Vassos. Evidence points to antiquity fraud based in NYC. Vassos is assigned to work with NYPD Lt. Teddy Lucas who is plagued by his own demons.

[Cws]

A Cau

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as his 2nd one, but this - the 3rdone - was still a great read!

[Sheldon Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little better than the previous two. It adds elements of what will later be Steve Berry's domain of artifact hunting.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written. Greek artifact thread made it extra interesting. I was eager to find out what happened to the characters.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would recommend for readers of old school police procedurals. I had a hard time following all the police lingo.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. This seemed very "realistic" as detective plot. Showed the problems they face while doing their jobs, not just following one lead to the next, which is typical.

[Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable but not marvellous.