Payback

Lorenzo Carcaterra has written about a dozen books, but Payback is only my second Carcaterra novel and the second with protagonist Tank Rizzo, a disabled and retired New York City police detective. He was disabled following a shooting in which there were multiple deaths, and his beloved partner, “Pearl” Monroe was left a paraplegic who had been confined to a wheelchair for life. Tank was a good guy, honest, and dedicated, and two years after leaving the force, he sometimes was thrown a cold case by the Police Chief. Also, Tank was not afraid to use force to accomplish what he wanted to get done.

We are introduced to Detective Eddie Kenwood who had the opposite values from Tank. He forced some innocent people to sign confessions under threat of doing damage to them. He had put numerous suspects in prison, almost always young black men, for crimes they had not committed including Randy Jenkins. Jenkins had been accused of murder, and it was under threats from Kenwood that he felt he had no choice but to sign the false confessions. It was about two decades later that this matter fell into Tank’s lap. By that time, Kenwood was also retired and living on his pension and other ill-gotten gains. That was about the same time that Tank’s estranged brother and sister-in-law were killed in a car crash. Tank had no prior contact with his nephew, 15-year-old Chris, but since Tank was the only living relative, Chris was sent to live with him. By that time, Tank was living in his own brownstone, and he had Pearl come to live with him. So, now with Chris, three males were sharing the residence, and Chris was convinced his parents had been murdered. It was not clear if this living arrangement was going to work out. Chris was a computer whiz and he was able to hack his way into enough data that Tank thought Chris might be right about his parents’ deaths.

Carcaterra used some of the same characters as in his first book in the series including Carmine Tramonti, the restaurant owning former mobster, and Carmine’s daughter Connie with whom Tank had a longstanding relationship, and others. The author was successful at surrounding his protagonist with very interesting and believable characters. The plot was not simple, but it was also not overly complex. I was able to keep track of the good guys and bad guys without having to reread sections of the book. At no point did the author unnecessarily complicate the story in order to show the reader just how clever he is. In the course of this book, we learn about the reason Tank and his younger brother, Jack had not spoken to one another for years – a heart wrenching story. In reflecting back on the past and the loss of his brother long before death, the author wrote, “The past never leaves us. It hovers over us, hidden by the passage of time, waiting to strike when we least expect it. It can do damage or ease suffering, its path never truly known until it confronts us.”

Just as I raved about Carcaterra’s work in Tin Badges, and now I catch myself raving again about Payback. Great characters, great plot – and I highly recommend this author and this book. I loved it, and now I’ll be impatient until Carcaterra writes the next novel about Tank.