Terror Town

Kaminsky is one of my favorite mystery writers. He was also one of the most prolific of American mystery writers. He kept four ongoing series alive, as well as wrote non-series novels, short-story collections & non-fiction titles. My two favorite Kaminsky series are the ones featuring Abe Lieberman & Bill Hanrahan; & Lew Fonesca. My favorite of the two series, by an inch, is the one featuring the Jewish & Irish cop partners. Happily, for me, "Terror Town" is the 9th novel in the Lieberman/Hanrahan series. Nicknamed the Rabbi & the Priest, Lieberman & Hanrahan have been Chicago cops & partners for eons. They're like brothers. They can finish each other's sentences. They have their own table at Abe's brother's deli. Always reserved for them. Seemingly living in the deli are the alter kochers, a group of retired not just Jewish men, who apparently sit all day long in the deli arguing & kibitzing over everything in a combo of Yiddish & English (even the non-Jewish ones). I love the characters in this series. While both cops are old enough to be grandfathers, they are both raising, or starting to raise, second families. Abe's daughter got divorced & left her two young children with her parents. Abe's wife is President of the Sisterhood of their synagogue. Bill's second wife is a Chinese-American. Iris was the intended of a Chinese mob boss. Having contended with that & settled it, in this novel, Iris is stalked by a crazed psychopath, while she is pregnant. One thinks the stalker & murderer of others in the book is a psychopath; but, there is a surprise twist at the end. While Bill is attempting to protect his wife, Abe has enlisted the help of a Latin street gang, whose leader holds him in high esteem. When one of the gang is killed by the psychopath, it is Abe who is chosen to give his eulogy in Church. I love the way Kaminsky thinks! Abe also has to solve the case of a religious fruitcake, who thinks he's the Second Coming of Christ. He's even gathered a flock of followers, who don't know that his father is an Orthodox Rabbi & he was raised as a Yeshiva student. Then there are other crimes in the part of Chicago called Terror Town, a totally Black populated area where Abe is matched up with a black detective & they end up having to go toe-to-toe against one of the most powerful & most beloved black business leaders in Chicago . . . for murder. As always, everything gets solved, amidst all the twists & turns & dead-ends. Abe even has a tete-a-tete with his estranged daughter, Lisa; who finally calls him "Dad" for the first time in so many books, I can't remember when she did it last. It's heartwarming & brings tears to the regular reader's eyes. Kaminsky had the wonderful knack of writing strong indelible characters combined with strong believable plots. His lead characters are always flawed; but, very likable. This was another wonderful addition to my favorite Kaminsky mystery series.

This is not his best work but it will be a joy to Abe Lieberman fans. It is still head and shoulders above other writers. And it is much better than any of his Lou Fonesca novels.

Stuart M. Kaminsky has been one of the hardest working writers in the mystery field for many years. And he is also one the best. Author of 50 novels, he is the recipient of the 2006 Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America, joining such illustrious past winners as Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard and Mary Higgins Clark. Kaminsky has created four mystery series. TERROR TOWN is the ninth featuring Chicago police detective Abe Lieberman. And for both longtime readers of the series and newcomers, it will not disappoint. Sergeant Lieberman is about as far from a superhero as you can find. A storeowner in need of police help describes Abe as a "thin old man with white hair and matching mustache. The man was not impressive. He looked like a sad baggy eyed spaniel." What Lieberman lacks in physical stature, he more than makes up for with his head and heart. But most importantly, he is a moral man, not afraid of putting the need for justice ahead of the letter of the law when necessary. Helping him is his longtime partner, Bill Hanrahan, nine years removed from the plunge into the bottle that cost him his family. Now sober, Bill is trying to make a go of it with his new wife, Iris, who is expecting their first child. Together, this odd couple of cops is known as "the Rabbi and Father Murph." In TERROR TOWN, these moral men face a world of random violence and madness, a world no longer safe. An insane homeless man attacks the former star first baseman of the Chicago Cubs with a Coke bottle in a restaurant. Then when released, the attacker begins stalking both the player and the cop who arrested him. A bald giant wanders the streets extorting money from storeowners and terrifying people in the name of God, claiming he was chosen to lead a new Crusade. Then there is the gang-controlled ghetto called Terror Town. Kaminsky is able to paint a picture with words of a real noir world. "The police enter the streets of Terror Town with the same foreboding as Marines in Baghdad. Police have been ambushed and gunned down in this city within a city." And in this "border town surrounded by a city" a young mother is robbed and shot dead coming out of a bank with her infant child in her arms, which Kaminsky describes in chilling detail. Much like another Grand Master Award Winner, Ed McBain, Kaminsky weaves together different plot lines effortlessly throughout the book. And like McBain, who virtually created the American police procedural with his 87th Precinct books, Kaminsky makes these cops human, taking us into their homes and lives. Kaminsky can write hard-boiled with the best of them. But it is the humanity of his characters, especially Abe, that makes this series so rewarding and memorable. We visit the T & L deli, which is owned by Abe's brother, Maish, who burdens Abe with yet another problem when he suffers a heart attack. At the T & L we find the "alter cockers" at their familiar table by the window; these old, retired men have nothing bett