19th Precinct

Lt. Joe Dante #5

by Christopher Newman

In a posh Manhattan hotel, the brilliant chief executive of a multimillion dollar electronics corporation has been murdered-shot in the head, execution style-along with his stunning mistress. Was the motive jealous rage, or the ultimate corporate raid? A ruthless IRA terrorist is loose on the streets of New York City. Joe Dante has already met him once, and let him get away-with murder. It almost cost Dante his badge... But when Dante catches up, it's going to cost the killer more. A lot more. To corner his quarry, Dante's got to go deep undercover-and deep into the crime-infested New York underworld ruled by the merciless Irish mob, the Westies. With the mob and the terrorists calling the shots, Dante's got to live by their rules... or die by them.

310 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 23, 1992

About the author

Born in San Francisco, California in 1952, Christopher Newman was educated in Bay Area Catholic schools, the University of California at Santa Cruz and Birmingham University, England. He travelled overland from Europe across the Asian subcontinent to Singapore alone in his late teens. Before he was 21 he'd worked for a year aboard a tanker plying trade between the Persian Gulf and ports around the Pacific rim. He wrote the first draft of his third published novel, Manana Man, while in residence in Cali, Colombia his senior year in college. At 27, he moved to New York City, working as a trim carpenter for five years in Manhattan before publishing his first Joe Dante novel, Midtown South, in 1985. When that title met with considerable commercial success, his publisher convinced him to turn his protagonist into a series character. Eight more Joe Dante novels followed, all making various national best seller lists. Midtown North, published in 1991, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Chains of Command, left unfinished at the time of best-selling author William Caunitz death in 1998, was completed by Mr. Newman at the estate's request. It was named a 1999 New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Mr. Newman left New York in 2002 and currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky.

Reviews

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent cops 'n' bad guys adventure! Great characters and plenty of action all over NYC. Interesting, though, and rather poignant, since it was written in 1992, with lots of references to the World Trade Center and the area surrounding, and the "bad guys" are IRA. How times have changed......

[Kendra · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise requires way more suspension of disbelief than I'm capable of. There's no mystery surrounding the connection between crimes as the author writes from several characters' perspectives - including that IRA terrorist. I couldn't even get through the second chapter before throwing the book aside.

[Toesnorth's mom]

filthy and ridiculous