Lieberman's Choice

This is a taut and interesting mystery from beginning to end. A man shoots his wife and her lover, walks past a dozen witnesses to the elevator, and goes to the roof to await the police behind a prepared barricade with ammo, food, water, supplies, and enough explosives to bring down a Chicago city block. Enter Abraham Lieberman, Chicago detective, to find a way to talk this madman down. Here's the catch, the killer and the wife's lover are both cops.

Of course, there's more to the main mystery here, but I will leave it to the reader to discover that. The other thing driving this novel is the sub-plot involving the terrifying domestic violence that Lieberman is having nightmares about. That perp is beyond creepy and legitimately show more disturbing.

Always with a tremendous economy of words, Kaminsky's Lieberman delivers in all the right ways in this second entry. show less

Summary: A cop kills his wife and the cop who is sleeping with her, and threatens to blow up a city block unless one demand is met.

Abe Lieberman can’t get to sleep. And then the phone rings. A fellow policeman walked into his apartment with a loaded shotgun and blew away his wife and the cop she was sleeping with. When his partner, recently “on the wagon” arrives, the scene is so awful he needs a drink. The officer, Bernie Shepard, has barricaded himself on the roof with his dog. He’s armed to the teeth. And he’s rigged up enough explosives to blow away not only the building but a city block.

Abe is the first one who talks to him and size up the situation. Shepard wants a TV reporter to interview him. Eventually, he gets his show more wish. He has one demand. Specifically, he wants to talk to Captain Alan Kearney at midnight, after a day-long siege. In his mind, Kearney is the one who had corrupted his wife.

There are lots of people who want to make this go away as quickly as possible, from a mayor facing re-election to the chief of police. And there are the civilians. First, a couple of hard-up bounty seekers living in the building attempt an assault on the rooftop nest only to end up splattered on the street below. Then a gang leader who Shepard had arrested wants to take a crack. Incredibly, they let him and he manages to wound Shepard. But Shepard has positioned himself so well that no chopper, no sniper, can take him out.

If Lieberman had his choice, he’d just hang out with the Alter Cockers at his brother Maish’s deli. Or he would be home with his family. Instead, he is on point negotiating with a man who has already killed four–one who has nothing left to lose. And if that is not enough, he has to deal with a religious crazy, Frankie Kraylaw. who is abusing his wife.

As the hours tick down and the pressure increases, will they find a way to avoid a confrontation with Kearney or a catastrophic explosion? Amid it all, Lieberman, the veteran of Chicago’s streets seems the wisest and sanest. But will it be enough? show less

Another surprisingly good read in the Lieberman series. I see an improvement from the first book, which is probably normal. I find Lieberman to be a very interesting character - he uses his brain instead of his gun in most cases, he's very even-tempered most of the time, even around the criminals. He often shows them respect that they don't expect, and seems to want to help them if possible, even when they are considering killing him. But if needed, he can be pretty scary. Once, he needed information from a criminal, and pointed his gun at the guy, then pulled the trigger when he didn't get what he needed. The gun didn't fire, but he pointed it away from the guy and tried again, and it fired. He commented about how it was unreliable show more sometimes, but the guy became more cooperative. He also faces armed shooters without his gun sometimes.

He's a family man, has a brother that owns a Jewish deli that always makes me hungry for bagels and pastrami sandwiches, among other things. He sometimes hangs out there where a group of 6retired men, called The Alter Cockers, comment and advise him on both his professional and personal life. They are not all Jewish; there's one Chinese man, whose daughter often comes in for lunch and never orders the same thing twice.

The story was pretty good - a cop who shoots his wife, her lover, and one or two others, then holds up on the roof of the building which he fortified and rigged with explosives; he then demands to see first a news team, then another cop at a certain time that he believes played some part in his wife's unfaithfulness. But aside from the main story, there's a lot going on, mostly unrelated things like friends and family matters, or partially related people. There's humor and philosophy mixed in that makes for a fun read, in my opinion. show less