What do you think?
Rate this book
SOLITAIRE
A public assassination.
A private surveillance empire.
A ghost in the darkness.
When a Times Square shooting leaves a deputy mayor dead, the FBI investigation leads to KATSAI- an AI intelligence network that enhances public safety while also deciding outcomes, prosecutions and elections.
KATSAI decides who rises, and who disappears.
Once an investigative journalist becomes a target, Agents Devi and West are cut off by both New York City and Washington, DC political machines. Their only ally is a man who doesn't exist- Solitaire, a covert operative
hunted across the globe with a personal stake in burning KATSAI to the ground.
If Solitaire fails and KATSAI survives, ballots are just theatre.
The flash drive decides.
A private surveillance empire.
A ghost in the darkness.
When a Times Square shooting leaves a deputy mayor dead, the FBI investigation leads to KATSAI- an AI intelligence network that enhances public safety while also deciding outcomes, prosecutions and elections.
KATSAI decides who rises, and who disappears.
Once an investigative journalist becomes a target, Agents Devi and West are cut off by both New York City and Washington, DC political machines. Their only ally is a man who doesn't exist- Solitaire, a covert operative
hunted across the globe with a personal stake in burning KATSAI to the ground.
If Solitaire fails and KATSAI survives, ballots are just theatre.
The flash drive decides.
259 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2026
About the author
Billy Pepitone
11 books26 followersBill Pepitone is a former law-enforcement professional with deep experience in security operations, crisis response, and institutional power structures. A 9/11 first responder, his career included twenty years of decorated service with the New York City Police Department followed by senior leadership roles in public safety and security, providing firsthand insight into the systems, politics, and moral gray zones that shape modern law enforcement and intelligence work.
In 2021, he was a party nominated candidate for Mayor of New York City, an experience that drives the political authenticity and insider perspective found throughout his fiction.
Pepitone has published multiple novellas through independent presses and self-publishing platforms. SOLITAIRE is his first full-length novel, and the foundation of an ongoing thriller series centered on intimate, high-stakes missions with global consequences.
He currently resides in the northeastern United States.
In 2021, he was a party nominated candidate for Mayor of New York City, an experience that drives the political authenticity and insider perspective found throughout his fiction.
Pepitone has published multiple novellas through independent presses and self-publishing platforms. SOLITAIRE is his first full-length novel, and the foundation of an ongoing thriller series centered on intimate, high-stakes missions with global consequences.
He currently resides in the northeastern United States.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2026
5/5 Stars
Noir is loosely defined as crime fiction that is littered with hardened and cynical protagonists and antagonists in bleak settings. David Fincher’s films Seven and Zodiac are two examples of contemporary noir that seem to redefine the modern landscape of the genre. Creating detectives, politicians, and antagonists that blend into the murky settings of bureaucratic corruption amidst crime and betrayal is a tricky art few are able to pull off convincingly. The first that often come to mind are Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon or Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential. For many years I’d read Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine which had some great stories submitted from authors of different professional backgrounds. The professions of these amateur authors ranged from accountants to tradesmen to multiple other daytime jobs. While John Grisham did practice law, Tom Clancy had been an insurance agent. The point being the obvious; while not having first hand experience that relates to the story does not limit the author's ability to write an inferior story. Stephen King has obviously never had first hand experience with the supernatural elements of his stories but still has managed to pull off a pretty career of doing it in a convincing manner.
This brings us to Bill Pepitone’s new novel Solitaire. While the point has redundantly been made that you don’t have to have lived it to write about it, but having lived it can give an advantage to an author. Pepitone is a former New York City Mayoral Candidate and former New York City Police Department member. Both of these are evident in this new story about political corruption, crime, and the impact of bureaucracy in this latest noir thriller Solitaire.
Anthony Burgess was renowned for opening his stories with an arresting first line that would hook the reader and immerse them into the story better than most. While Pepitone doesn’t go that extreme, he does open at The Crossroads of the World and takes us directly into time and place. Needless to say, we are taken to Pepitone’s hometown and he wastes no time setting the stage for his story. And while he isn’t spindling words into the poetic sounding sentences like Chabon, or reaching for the bizarre to hook the reader like Burgess did, he does manage to keep his tone to that of a detective as our omniscient narrator. Directly from the start it isn’t difficult to imagine the voice of our omniscient narrator as that of a Jack Webb. Solitaire is a briskly paced story about a political assassination attempt on the Mayor of New York (Frank Shaw) that goes wrong. While the intended victim (Shaw) is missed, it is his Deputy Mayor, Robert Caldwell that is mortally wounded. What follows is a traditional crime story revolving around voter fraud, technology, and an ambiguous villain of Orewellean proportions in KATSAI; the ominous and figurative technological eye-in-the-sky. While the story revolves around a USB and different technological operations centers it never gets bogged down in the wrong places with technological specifications. Not getting bogged down with detail is a pattern Pepitone not only limits to the (often) distracting and overwhelming technical aspects of his story, but also setting and imagery as this is a very plot driven novel that keeps the reader turning the pages quickly. This is not to say that Solitaire is lacking the inspirational details through prose. Small details do manage to paint a vivid picture of the setting and characters that reflect creativity. “Ambassador Divivier is a sixty-five-year-old dark-skinned man with a patch over his left eye.”
Pepitione is also in good company with another thriller and author of detective fiction James Patterson. While Patterson writes in shorter paragraphs in his Kiss the Girls, Bill Pepitione keeps his chapters short and easy to ingest. Both Pepitone and Patterson understand their respective audiences' innate interests in turning to this kind of thriller for escapism and intrigue through their structure.
Moving past words and language, Solitaire also offers an array of multidimensional characters. While Robert Caldwell faces an immediate fate, we are then introduced to Grace Delgado who is intertwined into the mystery that carries the story. With minimal exposition, Pepitone creates a leading lady who is far from a one-note “traditional” detective that is more typical to this genre. Having lived through the 9-11 attacks to the death of her parents to a drunk driver, she continues to convey a steady presence of intellect and suspicion with minor implications of sex appeal. We are also given an array of others in passing that reflect Pepitione’s understanding of the men and women of law enforcement through dialog and mannerisms. With a background in politics and a deep understanding of bureaucracy, we are not only given insight into Shaw’s occasionally murky cabinet of bureaucrats. Reaching beyond the detectives and stereotypes of law enforcement Delgado manages to immerse himself through an intertwined web with the company detective Michael Sloan.
Avid readers of detective fiction and thrillers expect them to be an exercise in second-guessing, puzzle-solving, and order and darker themes and motives. Solitaire manages to provide all of these while keeping true to its gritty noir elements. While resolution is expected, Solitaire provides not only the climatic conclusion audiences will expect but also ambiguity. While Solitaire’s conclusion provides all the reader could ask for, it also leaves us asking larger questions about the nature of elections and the influence of technology on voting. While never reaching for overt diversity in characterization or themes, Solitaire does manage to do what it sets out to do very well. The audiences of Patterson and even Rex Stout will not be disappointed in this thrilling novel. While it would be honest for me to wrap-up a conclusion like this with praise, applause, and a direct endorsement I also was left with a sense of more from beyond Solitaire. I would like to see these characters take on another story in another novel. Pepitione provided the resolution for the story that was rewarding, but also interesting and intrigued for more. While I hope that down the road this will be looked back on simply for sequels to follow, I believe Solitaire will leave a lasting impression for its audience in its own right. I will not only have Solitaire on my list of personal favorites of 2026, but also at the top of my list among political, noir, and detective fiction I have read in a long time.
4/4 Stars
Noir is loosely defined as crime fiction that is littered with hardened and cynical protagonists and antagonists in bleak settings. David Fincher’s films Seven and Zodiac are two examples of contemporary noir that seem to redefine the modern landscape of the genre. Creating detectives, politicians, and antagonists that blend into the murky settings of bureaucratic corruption amidst crime and betrayal is a tricky art few are able to pull off convincingly. The first that often come to mind are Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon or Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential. For many years I’d read Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine which had some great stories submitted from authors of different professional backgrounds. The professions of these amateur authors ranged from accountants to tradesmen to multiple other daytime jobs. While John Grisham did practice law, Tom Clancy had been an insurance agent. The point being the obvious; while not having first hand experience that relates to the story does not limit the author's ability to write an inferior story. Stephen King has obviously never had first hand experience with the supernatural elements of his stories but still has managed to pull off a pretty career of doing it in a convincing manner.
This brings us to Bill Pepitone’s new novel Solitaire. While the point has redundantly been made that you don’t have to have lived it to write about it, but having lived it can give an advantage to an author. Pepitone is a former New York City Mayoral Candidate and former New York City Police Department member. Both of these are evident in this new story about political corruption, crime, and the impact of bureaucracy in this latest noir thriller Solitaire.
Anthony Burgess was renowned for opening his stories with an arresting first line that would hook the reader and immerse them into the story better than most. While Pepitone doesn’t go that extreme, he does open at The Crossroads of the World and takes us directly into time and place. Needless to say, we are taken to Pepitone’s hometown and he wastes no time setting the stage for his story. And while he isn’t spindling words into the poetic sounding sentences like Chabon, or reaching for the bizarre to hook the reader like Burgess did, he does manage to keep his tone to that of a detective as our omniscient narrator. Directly from the start it isn’t difficult to imagine the voice of our omniscient narrator as that of a Jack Webb. Solitaire is a briskly paced story about a political assassination attempt on the Mayor of New York (Frank Shaw) that goes wrong. While the intended victim (Shaw) is missed, it is his Deputy Mayor, Robert Caldwell that is mortally wounded. What follows is a traditional crime story revolving around voter fraud, technology, and an ambiguous villain of Orewellean proportions in KATSAI; the ominous and figurative technological eye-in-the-sky. While the story revolves around a USB and different technological operations centers it never gets bogged down in the wrong places with technological specifications. Not getting bogged down with detail is a pattern Pepitone not only limits to the (often) distracting and overwhelming technical aspects of his story, but also setting and imagery as this is a very plot driven novel that keeps the reader turning the pages quickly. This is not to say that Solitaire is lacking the inspirational details through prose. Small details do manage to paint a vivid picture of the setting and characters that reflect creativity. “Ambassador Divivier is a sixty-five-year-old dark-skinned man with a patch over his left eye.”
Pepitione is also in good company with another thriller and author of detective fiction James Patterson. While Patterson writes in shorter paragraphs in his Kiss the Girls, Bill Pepitione keeps his chapters short and easy to ingest. Both Pepitone and Patterson understand their respective audiences' innate interests in turning to this kind of thriller for escapism and intrigue through their structure.
Moving past words and language, Solitaire also offers an array of multidimensional characters. While Robert Caldwell faces an immediate fate, we are then introduced to Grace Delgado who is intertwined into the mystery that carries the story. With minimal exposition, Pepitone creates a leading lady who is far from a one-note “traditional” detective that is more typical to this genre. Having lived through the 9-11 attacks to the death of her parents to a drunk driver, she continues to convey a steady presence of intellect and suspicion with minor implications of sex appeal. We are also given an array of others in passing that reflect Pepitione’s understanding of the men and women of law enforcement through dialog and mannerisms. With a background in politics and a deep understanding of bureaucracy, we are not only given insight into Shaw’s occasionally murky cabinet of bureaucrats. Reaching beyond the detectives and stereotypes of law enforcement Delgado manages to immerse himself through an intertwined web with the company detective Michael Sloan.
Avid readers of detective fiction and thrillers expect them to be an exercise in second-guessing, puzzle-solving, and order and darker themes and motives. Solitaire manages to provide all of these while keeping true to its gritty noir elements. While resolution is expected, Solitaire provides not only the climatic conclusion audiences will expect but also ambiguity. While Solitaire’s conclusion provides all the reader could ask for, it also leaves us asking larger questions about the nature of elections and the influence of technology on voting. While never reaching for overt diversity in characterization or themes, Solitaire does manage to do what it sets out to do very well. The audiences of Patterson and even Rex Stout will not be disappointed in this thrilling novel. While it would be honest for me to wrap-up a conclusion like this with praise, applause, and a direct endorsement I also was left with a sense of more from beyond Solitaire. I would like to see these characters take on another story in another novel. Pepitione provided the resolution for the story that was rewarding, but also interesting and intrigued for more. While I hope that down the road this will be looked back on simply for sequels to follow, I believe Solitaire will leave a lasting impression for its audience in its own right. I will not only have Solitaire on my list of personal favorites of 2026, but also at the top of my list among political, noir, and detective fiction I have read in a long time.
4/4 Stars
March 24, 2026
Really enjoyed Solitaire. It’s fast, smart, and very hard to put down. The story feels timely, the action is strong, and the main character is memorable. It has a movie-tv series feel and keeps the tension high all the way through. Definitely recommend it if you like political or conspiracy thrillers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews