Last Chance for Glory - Hardcover

Solomita (A Good Day to Die, not reviewed) depicts a New York City where the bad guys are tough, but the good guys are tougher...and make better wisecracks. A woman is found murdered in the back seat of a Mercedes Benz in Gramercy Park. A confession is easily extracted from Billy Sowell, a docile, retarded vagrant. The case is closed, and Billy is incarcerated. Two years later, private investigator Marty Blake sips a Moussy at a bar in northern Queens, hoping to get some answers from Bela Kosinski, a cop who had worked on the murder case and is now spending a besotted retirement swilling vodka. Marty has been hired by a criminal lawyer renowned for his shifting wig and ability to get off the most unrepentant rapists and murderers to gather evidence for his newest challenge: to win the appeal of a wrongly imprisoned man. Marty's ease on the information superhighway and Bela's knack for grilling witnesses make them a good team that quickly discovers Billy was framed. Before they can secure his release, Billy is silenced forever by Tommy Brannigan, Bela's former partner. Unwilling to give up the first real mission of their lives, Marty and Bela set out to find the killer's identity, unraveling a conspiracy by the Manhattan borough president, a Supreme Court justice, and the top-secret Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department, whose spies follow them and bug their homes before resorting to more mortal measures. As the danger increases, their torpid lives are raised to loftier heights, but there is precious little time to prove themselves heroes. The evolution of Marty and Bela's partnership and the meaning it gives to their lives are as touching as any story of romantic love, and when a sober Bela blushes over his new-found ambition, it'll break your heart. Witty, sincere, boorishly sentimental. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Solomita's second book not to feature his NYPD series hero, Stanley Moodrow, follows last year's A Good Day to Die and is more successful than its predecessor--but not by much. Here, the PI is computer whiz Marty Blake, who on his first case at his own New York City agency, kicks over a bucket of worms. As in previous Solomita novels, colorful figures dominate. Of particular note are Maxwell Steinberg, the eminent lawyer with the lousy wig who hires Marty to assist his efforts to free Billy Sowell, a retarded black man wrongly accused of murder years before, and retired rummy cop Bela Kosinski, who redeems his earlier involvement in Billy's case by teaming up with the PI. Marty himself is a bland hero, easily overshadowed by his more seasoned and charismatic sidekicks. But most missed is Solomita's strongest series element, the mean streets of New York, which he has previously mapped with grit and savvy. The story line, tracing the original cover-up, which was spun by bad cops, a spineless judge and a murderous politico, delivers some jolts, but without New York's commanding urban presence, this tale fails to deliver Solomita's usual high caliber of down-and-dirty action.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.