One Dead Cop. Two
Dedicated Detectives.
And More Suspects Than You Can Shake a Wiretap At.
On a cold, rainy, March night, NYPD homicide detective Frank Flynn catches the
worst case there is: A cop shot under the Brooklyn Bridge. Forced to team-up
with an Internal Affairs investigator, the two detectives must work together to
sort through a plethora of suspects, all of whom have reasons for wanting the
dirty cop dead, to determine who shot the cop—and why—while harboring secrets
of their own.
The exciting new short story from David DeLee, the author of CRYSTAL WHITE and
the Grace deHaviland Bounty Hunter series.
My reading has slowed of late so I was after something short
and snappy to boost my numbers and dig me out of a mini-mini slump. Cop Shot, an author giveaway on Amazon
about a year ago seemed to fit the bill – 55 pages long and either a long short
story or a shortish novella.
Page 2 or 3, hard to tell when you are reading on a kindle
and I outwardly groaned after the 3rd mention of “jersey barriers”…………oh
dear – the shape of things to come? Thankfully not. After this irritating repetition
the story developed into an entertaining read.
David DeLee
Dead cop, decent cop, IAD cop, bent cop, divorced cop, drunken,
weak cop………murder, family, affairs, porn, video, blackmail, revenge, children,
mutual suspicion and a resolution.
Decent plot-line, interesting characters, well-written in spite
of minor gripe above, a few surprising twists and a satisfying conclusion. All
in all, not a bad way to spend an hour or hour and a half of reading time.
If time allowed I’d be interested in seeing something full
length from the author. (On the basis that I have more books though than you
can shake a stick at, it might be an unlikely occurrence though.)
My first love (before reading and books) was football. As a
kid growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I used to live and breathe football. My
favourite team of the time was Chelsea and I can recall charging around my back
garden in full kit, imitating my hero of the day Peter Osgood.
My first live match was a treat from my uncle – an
opportunity to see West Ham take on my beloved Chelsea in December, 1972. A
great day but marginally spoilt by the outcome; Chelsea losing 3 – 1 in East
London.
Johnny Giles
My dad used to like Leeds, probably because of the little
Irishman who used to run their midfield at the time – Johnny Giles. In truth
though, my father was always more interested in Gaelic Games and how the
All-Ireland football and hurling championships unfolded each year. Go on
Dublin!
Kenilworth Road
Early 1974, I probably started badgering my father to take
me to a football match and eventually he relented. On a Tuesday evening, the 16th
April, 1974 I visited Kenilworth Road for the very first time to see Luton Town
take on Oxford United. Luton were flying high and seeking promotion to Division
1 – the top-flight of English football at the time. My first taste of Luton saw
them lose 1 – 0, but the season ended successfully and promotion to the old
First Division was realised.
No instant love affair or attraction developed. Luton spent
one solitary season in Division One, before being relegated back down to the
second tier.
A year and a half later – 29th October, 1975 I
went to see Dunstable Town take on Luton in a friendly. The occasion was my 12th
birthday and the excitement was exacerbated by Dunstable Town having in their
line-up none other than the legendary George Best. Best by then was a shadow of
the former player that had helped Manchester United ascend to the top of
British and European football. I remember nothing of the game other than the
score line – a 1 -1 draw.
At some point during the 1975-76 season, I started to
regularly attend home games with some school friends. From memory there were 4
of us that used go and we would be down at the Oak Road end turnstiles at about
1.15 pm waiting for the ground to open at around 1.30. If we were lucky, we
were first through the gate and could rush up the steps to the top of the
terraces and would run down at speed to secure a spot at the front directly
behind the goal. Admission used to be 30p for children. Kenilworth Road was (and still) is a tight,
compact ground. Small in capacity but loud, noisy and heaving when Luton were
playing well. 9,000 could sound like 10 times that amount!
Over the next couple of years, a lasting love affair with
the club and the team developed. The following season or two the bond I felt
for the club grew. 1978 was the year I bought my first season ticket for the
princely sum of £15. Something I was to repeat for the following 20 years or so.
Ricky Hill
Late 70’s we had a decent side. David Pleat was manager and
we had a couple of skilful, black budding stars in Ricky Hill and Brian Stein.
We had a few unsuccessful seasons challenging for promotion back to the
top-flight, before cracking it in 1981-82. That year we ran away with the
title, ending the season above arch rivals – Watford and securing promotion
with only 4 defeats. By this time, I was happily following the Town to away
matches; particularly when they played in London, which was only half an hour
away on the train.
Brian Stein
Raddy Antic
1982-83 we were back in the big time! Man Utd, Liverpool,
Everton, Arsenal, Tottenham and the rest all rolled into town. Great days,
great crowds, memorable victories and humbling defeats all followed. By the end
of the season relegation loomed large. We travelled to Man Utd on a weekday
evening and lost. Saturday we were back in Manchester playing their arch-rivals
City in an us or them, do or die shoot-out. 85 minutes gone, a NIL-NIL draw
seemed inevitable and a quick return to the second division. Up steps the most
popular Yugoslavian in the history of the town – Raddy Antic who shoots and scores
from about 12 yards out. Pandemonium ensued – 5,000 happy, delirious, dancing
Luton fans – 38,000 disgruntled, angry Mancunians. The following 5 minutes were
the longest of my life. City missed a chance late on to equalise and send us
down, but we held on. You may dimly recall seeing footage of our manager
dancing across the pitch, before players and fans were attacked by City
supporters, triggering the intervention of mounted police.
David Pleat
We stayed in the top flight for 10 seasons in total. Most of
them struggling to avoid relegation, but a few in the middle were relatively
successful and in 1986-87 we finished the season in an all-time high of 7th
position. I had some of the best days of my life following Luton with my
friends. Sundays to Wednesdays would be spent reflecting on the game and
performance and result of the last game, assuming we had no midweek fixture.
Thursday to Saturday lunchtime was spent anticipating the next game on a
Saturday afternoon, planning an away trip and organising transport and a
driver.
I think what made these days so happy and memorable were my
friendships at the time. It was never just about the football, games and trips
away were social occasions and outings. Drink was never far from our thoughts –
if we won we would drink to celebrate and if we lost we would drink to cheer
ourselves up.
I used to be able to remember every away ground I visited
watching Luton – 40 easily…..Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, West Ham, QPR,
Millwall, Leighton Orient, Southampton, Reading, Newcastle, Sheffield
Wednesday, Ipswich, Norwich, West Brom, Wolves, Aston Villa, Birmingham,
Leicester, Derby, Oxford, Watford, Cambridge, Derby, Stoke, Shrewsbury,
Swansea, Blackburn, Liverpool, Everton, Man Utd, Man City, Cardiff, Brighton,
Cardiff, Leeds, Notts Forest, Notts County, Rotherham, Northampton and
Wimbledon.
My own life evolved and changed significantly in this
period. In either late 1984 or early 1985, I left home and moved into digs in
Leighton Buzzard – a quiet market town about 13 miles away from Luton. I
gradually separated from my football friends and started taking my then
girlfriend (future wife) to see super Luton instead. A shared passion.
On and off the pitch was a bit of a
roller-coaster……….plastic pitch, the Millwall riot, causing Maggie Thatcher to
show an interest in football and our chairman of the time, a Tory MP – David
Evans to introduce a membership scheme and away fans ban, which helped make us
the most unpopular club in English football.
Luton - Millwall 1985
Highlight and
lowlights…….
1985 FA Cup semi final, unluckily losing to the best team in
the country at the time Everton.
1988 FA Cup semi final, deservedly losing to Wimbledon 2 -1.
1988 Simod Cup Final, getting spanked by lower league
Reading 4 – 1 at Wembley.
1988 – 24th April – one of the greatest days of
my life – with the exception of the day I set eyes on my future wife for the
first time, the day I married my wife and the occasion of the birth of my three
children. Wembley stadium Littlewoods
Cup Final –LUTON TOWN 3 ARSENAL 2
Cup Winners - Steve Foster, Andy Dibble, Brian Stein
I can remember the match like it was yesterday. Luton went 1
– 0 up early first half through Brian Stein. Arsenal equalised second half,
then went 2 – 1 ahead. A few minutes later, the referee awarded them a penalty
and I thought it was all over. Up stepped Nigel Winterburn to seal the victory
but our goalkeeper Andy Dibble makes the save. 7 minutes from time, Danny
Wilson – who my wife hugged and kissed the following day at the victory parade
through the town – equalises. In the 90th minute after a sublime
cross from Ashley Grimes, Brian Stein strikes with his second of the game to
snatch the win and secure the only major trophy Luton have lifted in over 100
years of professional football.
Brian Stein's 90th minute winner!
1989 – we returned to Wembley to face Brian Clough’s
Nottingham Forest in the final the following year. Despite an early 1 – 0 lead
after a goal from Luton legend, Mick Harford we lost 3 – 1.
1992 saw us relegated from the top flight and saw the start
of a downward spiral. From Luton’s Wikipedia entry………
The club was
relegated from the top division at the end of the 1991–92 season, and sank to
the third tier four years later. Luton stayed in the third-tier Second Division
until relegation at the end of the 2000–01 season. Under the management of Joe
Kinnear, who had arrived halfway through the previous season, the team won
promotion from the fourth tier at the first attempt.
"Controversial"
owner John Gurney unsettled the club in 2003, terminating Kinnear's contract on
his arrival in May; Gurney replaced Kinnear with Mike Newell before leaving
Luton as the club entered administration. Newell's team finished as champions
of the third-tier Football League One in 2004–05.
While Newell's place
was taken by first Kevin Blackwell and later former player Mick Harford, the
team was then relegated twice in a row, starting in 2006–07, and spent the
latter part of the 2007–08 season in administration, thus incurring a ten-point
deduction from that season's total. The club then had a total of 30 points
docked from its 2008–09 record by The Football Association and The Football
League for various financial irregularities dating back several years. These
deductions proved to be too large an obstacle to overcome, but Luton came from
behind in the final of the Football League Trophy to win the competition for
the first time.
Relegation meant that
2009–10 saw Luton playing in the Conference Premier, a competition which the
club had never before contested. They remain there as of the 2013–14 season,
having unsuccessfully contested the promotion play-offs three times in the
previous four years. In the 2012–13 FA Cup fourth round, Luton won their away
tie against Premier League club Norwich City 1–0, and in doing so became the
first non-League team to beat a side from England's top division since
1989.
Over the past 15 years, football and Luton has assumed a lesser
significance in my life. I had been previously spoilt – I had the good fortune
to start watching my unfashionable but stylish and entertaining team at a time
when they were about to enter the most successful period in their history. I
enjoyed over 25 years watching them win, lose and draw with panache.
With the advent of our family in March 1995 and the
subsequent addition of two further mini Keanes in 1996 and 1998, football and
Luton was a lower priority. Money was tighter, time was tighter, work hours
were longer, baby-sitters for 3 young kids every other Saturday was a stretch and
an imposition on ever-willing grandparents. I/we gradually stopped attending
matches and eventually the buzz and the passion and ardour dimmed.
Saturday’s at 5 o’clock would still have me looking for the
Town’s result. But as the wiki entry above indicates, the club suffered through
a long period of poor management and our fortunes on the pitch declined.
Harsh treatment from the football authorities saw us lose
our Football League status in 2009. We have battled unsuccessfully to get back
ever since, coming close but never quite succeeding. A succession of managers have tried and
failed.
John Still
2013-2014 may finally see an upturn in our fortunes and the
start of a renaissance. Just over a year ago we appointed John Still as manager and he has galvanised the whole club, uniting staff, players and supporters in a common goal of getting Luton Town back into the football league.
Luton - Tamworth
Tuesday night Luton beat Tamworth 2 - 0 to move 16 points
clear of Cambridge United, who have 6 games left to play (possible 18 points).
By 22.00 hours GMT tonight, if Cambridge have lost at Woking, Luton will be
back in the football league. Should Cambridge draw or win, the champagne will
be on ice until Saturday lunchtime when Luton face Braintree at Kenilworth
Road. A victory then, if still required will get the corks popping. Should the
unthinkable happen and we lose, we will still have a further 3 opportunities to
secure the points required, but hopefully those matches won’t be needed. My
nerves can’t take it!
These days, I monitor their fortunes from the vantage point
of TV, radio, lap-top and newspaper, but my love affair and affections for the
town have been re-awakened.
About 10 o'clock tonight - fingers crossed!
C’mon You Hatters!*
*Luton are nicknamed The Hatters because of the town’s long
and historic connection with the millinery industry.
Sophie Kohl is living
her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level
diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they
were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.
Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight
calls. But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he
ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.
Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to
play the game. Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the
favour, and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has
ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it
leads.
American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation
rejected by the CIA, than anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained
a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.
As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen
Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a
jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political
games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.
I have previously read and
enjoyed a couple of the author’s earlier books back in the middle of2011 – The Istanbul Variations and
Victory Square, so was looking forward tocatching up with his latest offering. Both of those books
concerned Eastern Europe in the aftermath of WW2 and the Cold War. The Cairo Affair has a more
contemporary feel with events concerning the Arab Spring in 2011, particularly
with regard to Libya.
Difficult to decide what to put
into a review and what to leave out, without basically re-hashing the synopsis
above. The narrative jumps between two timelines; the early 90’s and 2011. The delivery
of events is presented from the perspective of several of the main players
within the book; an approach which worked for me. I was reminded of a recent
read – Penance by Dan O’Shea where a similar construction paid off.
A few bullet points then ………Egypt,
Libya, Langley, Budapest, 2011, Yugoslavia, Serbs, Croats, 1991, America,
desert, marriage, honeymoon, affair, diplomacy, intelligence services, police –
both secret and other, heritage, freedom, loyalty, money, secrets,
surveillance, Mubarak, Gaddafi, assassin, death, politics, plans, plots, truth,
lies, trust, manipulation, cooperation, relationships, family, betrayal,
revenge, poetry and much more.
A few more bullet points and a
verdict ……. Interesting, enjoyable, clever, intelligent, stunning,
entertaining, educational, informative, eye-opening, satisfying and amazing.
Well-fleshed characters – not all
of them likeable and great detail, the plot and the premise for “Stumbler”, makes
you wonder whether Steinhauer has his own mole working inside Langley.
Time to dust off his other books.
5 from 5
Accessed via Net Galley. In the
UK – The Cairo Affair was released
last month.
“I think
Los Angeles reveals itself most at the margins. On the street corners, in bars
and nightclubs. In the sounds of the traffic, police sirens and helicopters, in
the words and music of local bands…”
He has published 5 books in total in addition to the 2 up on
here. You can check out Martyrs and
Holymen, Unintended Consequences and Common Criminals if you’re so
inclined.
Angry Nights
Angry
Nights is about a world where betrayal can become a part of the structure of
everyday experience…At a time when the plight of urban America increasingly
makes for grim headlines and when some have even cast the very future of our
cities in doubt, Angry Nights provides a gripping account of life in the
American inner city. In prose that is terse and bristling with tension, Angry
Nights reveals a highly charged world that many of us fear, or worse, prefer to
deny…
Fish, Soap and Bonds
Fish, Soap and Bondsfollows the movements of three homeless persons on the
unforgiving streets of Los Angeles. Through their eyes we experience both the
depths and heights of humanity: hate and discrimination, sacrifice and
redemption. This is the third in Fondation’s series of “LA Stories.”
Larry Fondation
All 5 books are
loosely connected tales of LA life, a place I like reading about.
I managed to remember the title of another film watched in February - Savages, based on the Don Winslow book of the same name. Slow start and it was okay but not memorable. Apart from John Travolta and Salma Hayek I didn't recognise anyone else in the film.
March started with a bang film-wise and then fell away before ending on a high.
From Dusk Til Dawn - a bit of Tarantino, Clooney and Harvey Keitel along with a young JulietteLewis. A bit of a wild ride, kind of starts out as a crime film, then morphs in a vampire movie with a blood and guts finale in a Mexican tittie bar.........I loved it. Second time around for me.
The Cider House Rules - based on the John Irving book which I read years ago. About a doctor running an orphanage and performing illegal abortions for troubled women. Michael Caine is excellent. Charlize Theron is superb too. Tobey Maguire, of Spiderman fame gets to serve under Caine as his apprentice doctor/abortionist and perfects that kind of goofy look he seems quite good at. Verdict - really enjoyable.
A reminder also to dig something of Irving's out this year for a read or re-read!
About Time - another enjoyable Richard Curtis film, released last year. Stars Bill Nighy in a kind of feel-good family flick involving a bit of time travelling. Excellent and a decent way of passing a few hours.
Missing in Action - I only caught an hour of this - a bit of ol' Chuck Norris showing those naughty Vietnamese who's the daddy! I always did have a bit of a soft spot for Chuck, can't say the film has aged that well though.
Getaway - with Ethan Hawke (should have stuck to the writing) and Selina Gomez. Absolutely direand a couple of hours of my life I'll never get back! Those nasty black-ops agency types ought to play this on a loop to suspected Al-Qaeda dudes...........they'll soon throw the towel in and confess!
The Book Thief - best til last. Loved the book, loved the film - absolutely fantastic in my opinion and recommended. Didn't find it too mawkish or sentimental - just the right tone.
Geoffrey Rush is superb as is the young girl who plays Liesel, Sophie Nelisse. TV - same old, same old.....Brooklyn Nine-Nine still rules.
Second best programme on UK TV at the minute is Gogglebox, though I did miss the first couple of this new series........for the uninitiated it's a reality programme following a selection of families watching TV shows .....giving their reactions, thoughts, comments, analysis on a variety of shows that aired on mainstream telly the previous week.........absolutely hilarious!
From Wikipedia..........Gogglebox is a British observational documentary, which has aired since 7 March 2013 on Channel 4. The show features recurring British couples, families and friends sitting in their living rooms watching weekly British television shows.
Stars of the show - Leon and June Bernicoff
Farah Ramzan Golant, the boss of All3Media, said: "Everyone loves watching TV and talking about TV. But the show isn't really about TV. The show is about people's lives, their relationships, their living rooms and the way children and parents talk about TV. It's near real-time because you're watching what happened in the seven days before. That’s quite priceless. It captures a cultural response to something that's happening in the world. Gogglebox shows TV in people's living rooms is alive and well and thriving. It is asserting the indispensable role of TV in the fabric of people's lives."
Some of what was added to the shelves in March.......
Time to apportion some responsibility for these,
My fault
My fault
Jose Ignacio
Favourite cover - Purple Jesus, (how could you not want to read a book titled that?), followed by Never Hit the Ground, with Welcome to Oakland or Nightmare Alley in third.
March provided a decent month of reading, without me finding that book that was truly stand out and memorable. I had a slow start to the month with the Hunsicker book, which has made me decide, as much as possible to avoid long books at the start of the working week as I just get bogged down. Better to save them for a holiday or a weekend start when I can eat a big chunk up and make some progress. My enjoyment of The Contractors probably suffered as a result, though a mark of 3 appears generous.
Book of the month!
9 books were read in the month, which is 1 shy of my goal of 10 to achieve 120 for the year. I have yet to hit that magical figure in any month in 2014 - hopefully I will catch up later in the year.
All 9 books were authors new to me, (18 from 26 so far in 2014 - I've decided to count Agatha Christie as a new author last month),
4 of the books were debut novels and I would happily read more from all debut authors - Kirschman, Veste, Harvkey and McCrary.
2 were by females (making 5 from 26 for the year - 19% go me! Double last year's % but could still do better)
5 were Net Galley books (God, I really went overboard on there didn't I?), 2 were received from the author, 1 from the publisher and 1 book was actually bought, though it subsequently transpired it wasn't even a whole book, just a portion of it.
7 were US authors - no surprise there, 1 from Australia, 1 from the UK.
In the course of the month my reading took me to Sydney, Liverpool, Cincinatti, Texas, New York, Missouri and Indiana, with some flying visits to Arizona and Mexico as well as a couple of unknown locations!
Progress on my challenges - no Vintage Reads, no Scottish reads, no Espionage reads, no TBR Mountain reads, 1 for my Down Under challenge and a few states filled on my USA challenge (6 from 51, so I'm making some progress there).
Most of my reads were very good, just a bit short of great. Tough to pick a book of the month, but as I read it cover to cover in about 3 hours flat it has to be Ellen Kirschman's Burying Ben. The good news is, she's writing a second Dot Meyerhoff book!
Runner-up!
A close second would be Les Edgerton and The Bitch.
April aims - hit 10 for the month, keep up the female count, chip away at some of my challenges, clear the Net Galley burden from my shoulders - free is not always a good thing!
