"Capt. Nora Riter is a cop with a future, assuming her deadbeat husband doesn't mess it up first. He's hocked her jewelry, stolen her gun, and had cocaine delivered to their home. Their marriage is a toxic mess that could end her career-unless Blaze Longo ends it first. On the streets of Red Hook, Blaze is a legend: a merciless loan shark who wields a cleaver like a scalpel and wears a pouch around his neck carrying the severed ears of clients stupid enough not to pay up. Now the ice-cold psychopath has planned a kidnapping scheme that will catapult him into the big time, and it's up to Nora to put him in his place."
"Nikolai 'Niki' Zorakoff has made a killing on the Soviet black market. He smuggles in luxury goods from the West - the blue jeans and perfumes that wealthy Muscovites simply can't do without - and sells them for small fortunes. But when the KGB takes an interest in Niki's operation, he knows he must run or die. So, with a forged passport and as much money as he can carry, Niki heads to the Russian haven of Odessa Beach. It isn't long before Niki makes contact with the mobsters of South Brooklyn, who loan him the capital to start a restaurant that becomes one of the area's hottest nightspots. But when the time comes to pay, Niki decides he would rather not settle up, starting a gang war that will pit two generations of mobsters against each other in a fight to the death."
"This tense story follows Captain Butterfly, Marjorie Butera, a 19-year veteran of the force. Assigned to the Internal Affairs Division, charged with finding proof of the corruption in the force, Butera's investigation focuses on vicious Inspector Ronald Janesky. But Janesky--in line for promotion to commissioner, with a record based on illegal arrests and torturing prisoners--is apparently untouchable. Captain Butera's fellow (male) officers fear Janesky and despise the Butterfly as a female snitch. Only her lover, journalist Charles Rose, supports her decision to expose the crooked cop."
"Detective Victoria has never been shy about robbing heroin addicts. He loves the looks on their faces when he kicks down their doors and finds their highs gone in an instant. After seventeen years on the force, Victoria has no delusions about being an honest cop. And that makes him a perfect bagman for Tommy Doyle. Doyle is the New York Police Department's chief of detectives, the top dog in a very dirty bunch. To young Bobby Porterfield the old man is a legend. But as Porterfield is drawn deeper into the dark side of the department, he finds that justice is never black and white. And when Doyle's top men begin to die, Porterfield fears he may be next."
"When a confrontation brews between two decent men, aloof New York detective Nick Manaris and Diego Cienfuego, a Cuban immigrant and single father of three who is working for a cousin involved with criminals, the results are tragic and far-reaching."
