Lou Manfredo

Lou Manfredo's Rizzo's War is billed as a thriller. Honestly, I don't know why - there's little pulse-pounding action and suspense here. But I like it that way. Instead, Manfredo's written a pretty good cop story, one centered around a pair of detectives and how they deal with the moral ambiguities of the job.

Mike McQueen has been newly promoted to detective after stumbling across an assault on mayor's daughter's roomate behind a bar. He's been partnered with Joe Rizzo, a 14 year veteran show more detective whose basic philosophy is "There is no right. There is no wrong. There just is..." In the end, McQueen gets to decide what kind of cop he is when they get pulled into an under-the-table search for a powerful politician's daughter.

This is good stuff. Manfredo was a New York City cop and so has an authentic voice. His mystery isn't meant to be much of a mystery. Instead he's interested in the process of uncovering the truth and the compromises we all make on a daily basis as we try to negotiate our way through events that don't fit into neat black and white boxes. It's a good read, and I hope he brings this pair back for more stories. show less

This is NOT your average police/crime/forensic procedural. This is a book with great police characters who actually have brains and hearts as well as brawn with some police procedure to help flesh out the characters.

Lou Manfredo's debut novel opens with a crime scene, but quickly shifts to a discussion between the two main characters: Detective Joe Rizzo, a 20+ year veteran of the NYPD, and his newest partner, young just-made detective, eagerly ambitious Mike McQueen. By the end of the first show more seven pages, I was determined to dislike Rizzo intensely. By the end of the book, I was in love with him. Manfredo's character development is some of the best I've seen in a police procedural, and to me is exceptional in a first book.

As they solve their cases, Rizzo teaches young McQueen the ropes, gingerly stepping through the minefield of looking the other way, developing a series of 'favors' given and returned, and staying just inside the law. Set in a predominently Italian neighborhood, Joe exhibits the ability to take cultural differences into account when questioning people, when trying to determine what really happened and why, and he insists that McQueen try to apply those same attitudes.

Unlike many books currently featuring policemen and detectives, the cases are not the central point of the book. While they are well presented, giving us a good view of the dreadful, often demoralizing life of big city crime solvers and the reader is drawn steadily along to see how they are resolved, the core discussion is the subject of honesty, integrity, right vs wrong, black vs white and how the average cop on the beat is confronted with moral decisions every day.

The author, drawing on his own 25 years experience in the Brooklyn criminal justice system, adds into the mix the inevitable crooked politicians and cops on the take to give us an exciting, tightly drawn picture of law and order in today's world.

In the end, we come to understand Rizzo's motto: "There's no wrong. There's no right. There just is." show less

There's nothing especially new in this book - - but I mean that as a compliment. This novel reads like all the tv cop shows and movies you've ever seen rolled into one. Seasoned cops, rookie cops, gangsters, action, character development and authenticity - - it has it all. This is an exciting book that gives the reader a glimpse of the inside world of police work complete with its temptations, truth and lies. I haven't read the earlier "Rizzo" books - - but I will!

Entertaining and about as subtle as an episode of Law and Order, Rizzo’s War is a testosterone-fueled look at a year in the life of two New York City cops. Focusing heavily on the relative morality inherent in the job, the book is fast-paced and engaging, but does not attempt to be nor is it high literary art. To sum it up: fun but forgettable.