Bronx Requiem

September 26, 2016
Ex-con James Beck places loyalty above all else, as shown in Clarkson’s highly entertaining sequel to 2015’s Among Thieves. With a firm belief in the brotherhood of criminals, Beck unconditionally trusts his crew of fellow ex-cons, many of whom he met in prison before his first-degree manslaughter conviction was overturned. He’s especially anxious to bring into his fold Paco “Packy” Johnson, who’s being paroled after 17 years in prison. But soon after being released, Packy is murdered on a Bronx street. Beck and his team, who operate out of his Red Hook saloon, set out to find who killed Packy and try to help his 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, who works for pimp Derrick Watkins, one of the Bronx’s most vicious criminals. Beck and company run up against not only Watkins but also Det. John Palmer, an overly ambitious cop not above skirting the law. Strong storytelling combined with breathless action and a high body count keeps the solid plot churning, as do the complex characters. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, Janklow & Nesbit.

A fast-moving, bloody visit to the Bronx featuring the return of tough guy James Beck (Among Thieves, 2015).Packy Johnson has just been released after a 17-year stint in the New York prison system. Less than a full day out, his corpse lies in a gutter not far from his mother-in-law's apartment, beaten to a pulp and shot in the head but not robbed. His old prison friend James Beck is anguished and outraged, determined to learn what happened. A friend warns Beck that if he does "anything foolish--it won't do anybody any good." Meanwhile, detectives John Palmer and Raymond Ippolito catch the case. The ambitious young Palmer wants to pin the crime on Beck, a convicted but eventually exonerated cop killer. Still, says Ippolito, "You kill a cop, you're supposed to fry." Packy's daughter, Amelia, street name Princess, is a teenage hooker controlled by pimp Derrick Watkins. She hasn't seen her father since she was 3. Her grandmother Lorena Leon, a nasty piece of work, dismisses Amelia as a "whore and a drug addict." This yarn has a lot of colorful bad guys such as the evil albino "Whitey" Bondurant and "Juju" Jackson, whose youthful acne reminds people of jujube candies, and, of course, Derrick, who calls Amelia a "broke-ass bitch [who] can't even earn a pimp his money" seconds before she blows his brains out and disappears. The fights are spectacular and not for the squeamish. Beck gets a bad beating outside a bar despite his brass knuckles: "Beck knew he might die this night. But not as a beaten, helpless, handcuffed ex-con." But stomping, crushing, smashing, kicking, fracturing, and crunching win the day for our hero. And that's not even the main event. Readers who take their novels strong and dark will savor this one. But if you want sweetness and light, move along. There's nothing to see here. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
Clarkson (Among Thieves, 2015) is back with a new James Beck mystery. Five years after his conviction for killing a cop was overturned, Beck anticipates welcoming Packy Johnson, the man whose friendship sustained Beck during eight years in prison, when Johnson is released after spending most of his life institutionalized. But Johnson immediately goes after the pimp of his 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, whom he has never known, and ends up beaten and shot dead in a gutter. So Beck is after both answersabout who killed his friend and whyand his own brand of justice. Beck and his crew of ex-cons, who operate out of a renovated building in Red Hook, end up pitted against the Bronx underworld, which has connections to the state penal system, and the police, in a case headed by ambitious NYPD detective John Palmer. Beck is skilled, both physicallyeven beaten and handcuffed, he takes down four armed opponentsand mentally, as he works out an elaborate plan to get what he wants. Beck is much like Lee Child's Jack Reacher in his skill set but unlike Reacher in working with a close-knit circle. A must for fans of gritty crime fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)