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FOR THE RECORD by J. J.  Hunter

FOR THE RECORD

by J. J. Hunter

Pub Date: May 11th, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4827-3625-0
Publisher: CreateSpace

Hunter tells the story of an assistant district attorney out to settle personal business with the mob in this debut crime novel.

Rachel Marcatto, a former cop and mob lawyer, has finally found her true calling. As an assistant DA in Manhattan, she’s on a one-woman crusade against the Roselli crime family, which she believes was responsible for her father’s death. As a result, Rachel finds herself exposed to the dangers of the streets; in a single day, she sees a witness murdered in front of her, gets involved in a shootout in Prospect Park, and her car gets intentionally rear-ended on the Manhattan Bridge. The next day, she receives a note at her office: “Be at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial at 5:00 tonight. Come alone.” Rachel hopes that the meeting will lead her to something she can use to take down mob boss Dominic Roselli, but she’s unsure whom she can trust in the ranks of law enforcement, which include homicide detective Bill Casey, her father’s former partner; crime-lab head Dr. Lillian Barry, her longtime friend; and colleague Tommy D’Amato, the mayor’s nephew. As she relentlessly pursues the case, she proves that you can take the cop off the streets, but you can’t take the streets out of the cop. Hunter writes in a breathless, graphic prose that embodies the hard-driving, impatient character of her protagonist: “It was the inharmonious site of blood splattered on the front panel of her tan trench coat...gun tucked in her waistband, and the distant look in her eyes that, no doubt, gave alarm to those walking by her.” Hunter also depicts a community with plenty of links between cops, lawyers, and mobsters, and although these connections make for compelling fiction, they sometimes strain credulity. For example, early in the book, Rachel is bafflingly surprised to learn that a Mafioso whom she’s been investigating for months was also one of her father’s best friends. Even so, Hunter presents a fun adventure in an underworld of bad cops and complex criminals, even if it’s a world that genre fans will find rather familiar.

A fast-paced, if not entirely original, crime novel.