Manhattan South

Thorn Savage NYPD #1

by John Mackie

Retired NYPD Detective Mackie captures the character of Manhattan in his gripping debut novel, the first in a new series featuring Detective Thornton Savage and his homicide task force. When Candace Mayhew's husband travels for business, she joins her Gambino-mob boyfriend for a clandestine meeting. With a tap of a trigger, the lovers lay dead. Later that same morning, Andric Karazov plays with his toy Napoleonic Calvary and thinks about the less-than-perfect job he just completed, and a senator in Queens contemplates his run for the presidency while his wife enjoys another rendezvous with her Russian lesbian lover.

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, John spent his early years dreaming of baseball glory and idolizing the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Though his path didn’t lead to third base, it did take him to the streets of New York City as a decorated police officer. During his 17-year career with the NYPD—serving in Times Square, Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Brownsville—he earned over thirty commendations, including the Medal of Valor.
Forced into early retirement due to injury, John embarked on a new chapter as a writer, channeling his passion and grit into fiction. His debut novel Manhattan South was published by NAL/Penguin in 2002, followed by Manhattan North, East Side, West Side, and To Kill a Queen (2012). He now lives in Florida, continuing to write with the same determination that guided him on the beat.

Reviews

[Mabrams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read! The grunt work that leads to the breaks to the sprinkling of "right time, right place" luck that moves the case forward. All the odds and ends of out of the box thinking exhibited in this book are fantastic! Even the politics they used to hinder the story were well used and not too heavy handed. Showing law enforcement as humans with a job to do is just a great balance in this story. I will definitely be continuing the series!

[Bev Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts I hated and skipped over and parts I really liked thus 3 stars.

[William Prystauk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Delivered to us in third person narration, we follow Sergeant Thorn Savage and his three-person homicide crew as they go up against the Russian mob, a crooked senator and his scheming wife, a Ukrainian assassin, office politics and one assassination after another.

Mackie writes at a fast pace with chapters that aren’t too long-winded. Our third person narrator all too often makes commentary consistent with Savage’s character, which falls into the category of indirect internal monologue. Though I didn’t find this to be confusing, Mackie often gets on the soapbox to rant against police administration politics. Furthermore, with the harsh criticisms, which are obviously coming directly from Mackie, I can easily see how some people would think the author is homophobic and a little racist. But I did like how he wasn’t politically correct by any means.

At times, the dialogue for the police was far too similar amongst the characters. Furthermore, some of the dialogue was outright laughable:

(After taking out an assassin) “Thorn said reflectively, ‘It happened too fast. I spun, drew down on him, and told him to give it up. He decided to roll the dice. He got snake eyes.’ ”

I almost spit iced tea across the room after reading that one. It seems Mackie watched one too many “Noir” B-movies. And tell me the name “Thorn Savage” isn’t another hokey B-movie character homage. Did Mackie even have an editor to reel him in?

Here’s some third person narrative after Savage guns down another bad guy:

“He then crashed face first onto the floor, his huge body twisting like a poleaxed cow in an Omaha slaughter stall.”

Are you kidding me? I had to put the book down till I stopped laughing. That has to be one of the world’s worst similes.

And one more regarding Savage:

“Paranoia draped him like watery, cheap syrup on a hot waffle, filling every pore.”

What the hell was that?! Again, his editor must have been on vacation.

Needless to say, the book is riddled with the aforementioned, though Mackie does have his moments of acceptable prose. Mackie was inconsistent for certain, too tongue-in-cheek and too over-the-top, and I really wonder what his editor was doing when these pages came across his desk. The only plug for the book came from former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik. He said, “Mackie was a cop’s cop; now he’s a writer’s writer.” Kerik should stick to law enforcement – and keeping himself out of jail – instead of making flippant comments about writers.

The book did have a couple of minor surprises, which worked well, but the ending didn’t satisfy. It was clear Mackie had another book in mind that would carry over some of the storyline. The last five pages reeked of “sequel” all the way.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This can be a fun book. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. I read it after reading The Book Thief because I wanted something that wasn't too deep and this delivered in spades.

The crime-solving is fun. The prose is often overwrought, as though the author is trying too hard (my favorite is the Senator's "Killarney eyes"), and the main character is a jerk - yet I found myself pulling for him to prevail. The characters at times cross the line into being caricatures - but I found myself okay with that. The case they were solving kept my attention.

I gave this book four stars. It won't be to everyone's taste, but it fills a niche and is enjoyable if approached as what it is.

[Steven Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good short read dealing with a NYPD homicide detective, the Russian mob, and a dirty politician aiming for the White House. Not a book I will read again, and I found nothing terribly memorable about it.

I really hated the fact that the author, a retired cop, made several firearm-related mistakes within the book. The first mentions a shell casing as being a "9mm Glock." Now this could be an editor's mistake as most editors do not know anything about guns, but if it is the author's mistake, that to me is inexcusable.

The author has also watched too many Hollywood movies, or is willfully ignorant of how firearm suppressors work. I wish suppressors did work that way.

[Gene Howe, E · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a GREAT read

This is one of those books that you want to read again and again. It has it all to keep your interest to the last page. I for one am going to order the rest this series and then check if Mr Mackie has written any other books.

[Neil Stenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Mackie clearly knows his subject, as he should being ex-NYPD. Would recommend to those who liked NYPD Blue on TV

[Toesnorth's mom]

good