Sacrifice Fly

July 23, 2012
O’Mara’s solid debut introduces Raymond Donne, ex–Brooklyn cop turned Brooklyn school teacher, whose well-intentioned attempt to locate eighth-grade student Frankie Rivas takes him back into the world he left behind. Instead of the boy, Donne finds the body of Frankie’s father, Francisco, in their apartment and Frankie and his younger sister, Milagros, missing. Seeing the police make little progress in their investigation, Donne tries to help, but is rebuffed by Detective Royce. A disparate cast of characters includes classic bad cop Jack Knight, a former colleague; Elijah Cruz of EC Medical Supplies, who looks after less fortunate fellow parishioners; and irritating oddball bar-fly techie Edgar “Emo” O’Brien. Donne pushes enough buttons to find himself kidnapped and his family threatened, until he has no choice but to pull out all the stops. Readers will enjoy meeting a complex, conflicted, and capable hero able to navigate the varied strata of Brooklyn despite the occasional bruising to body and soul. Agent: Maura Teitelbaum, Abrams Artists Agency.

September 15, 2012
This debut by a New York schoolteacher endows a New York schoolteacher with the power to crack a case the police can't be bothered to solve. You'd never know it was five years since Raymond Donne quit the NYPD. The leg injury that sidelined him reminds him so often of his departure that it might as well have been last week. Although Ray's job teaching middle school wouldn't seem to require his making personal calls on his students, he's so concerned when promising pitcher Frankie Rivas, 14, misses over a week of class that he hikes out to Roberto Clemente Plaza, where Frankie lives with his sister, Milagros, 8, and their grandmother, Matilda Santos. And when he makes a second stop to see Francisco Rivas Sr., who has official custody of his son, and finds that he's too late to speak to him alive, Detective Royce, finding him on the scene, assumes that Ray's trying to talk himself back into another case. Royce has a point. After all, Ray is the one a neighbor calls after someone breaks into Ms. Santos' apartment. It's Ray, not Royce, who drives upstate to question Frankie's cousin, Anita, and her husband, John Roberts, whose travel agency employed Francisco, and Ray who returns to the city with an important clue the cops would never have found. Ray, whose uncle and namesake is a high-ranking officer, left the force on purpose, and he keeps telling himself he wants no part of it now. But everything he does to find Frankie and his sister and make sure they get home, even after he's been kidnapped by some serious criminals himself, says differently. Though Ray can be a mite sententious, he's also appealingly fallible and sensitive in this promising series kickoff.

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September 1, 2012

Ex-cop Raymond Donne is a conscientious middle school teacher who is genuinely concerned when one of his kids, Frankie Rivas, stops coming to school. So he looks for him--and instead finds Frankie's murdered father. Raymond doggedly hunts the mean streets of Brooklyn for Frankie and is encouraged when the boy makes contact, but then really worries when he disappears again. Mix in an eager aspiring detective friend with techie skills, Ray's ex-partner and loyal friend Billy Morris, and unofficial help from his high-ranking police chief uncle, and perhaps our teacher can finally atone for his past mistakes. VERDICT O'Mara's clever debut reads more fun than grim thanks to its first-person play-by-play narration and oddball cast of characters. Similar to The Rockford Files for attitude and outcome; pair with David Housewright for tone. [See Prepub Alert, 7/2/12.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2012
Raymond Donne is a cop turned special-education teacher who has left the force after a debilitating injury. When one of his favorite students, about to graduate with a baseball scholarship to a private high school, goes missing, Donne can't help getting involved, especially when the lead detective on the case seems more concerned with getting home on time than investigating. Donne discovers the boy's father has been murdered, complicating the case and drawing more attentionand not only from the cops. The well-drawn characters are what really bring this compelling debut to life, along with the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, setting. Donne is a damaged protagonist, and it is not just the physical injuries he sustained as a cop that hinder him, but also the more significant psychological injuries he harbors. Donne is the type of character who keeps readers coming back for more, much in the manner of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch or James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux. Here's hoping we see much more of him in the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)