Four to Midnight

Rating:
Summary: exciting, insightful, literate
Review: FOUR TO MIDNIGHT is a very unusual police novel. As a good, juicy page-turner, it delivers the goods and then some - Flander's handling of action sequences is particularly exciting, and very nearly cinematic (I'd definitely like to see the movie of this one). But it's also an exceptional portrait of a city and the cultures within it - Philadelphia, its neighborhoods, its citizens and their multiple mindsets are all conveyed intimately and immediately, so that you instantly feel like you know this place and these people. Finally, the writing is quietly brilliant. There are very few great stylists in this genre, but Flander, in this book, announces himself as one of them - he has drawn together plot, theme, character and place seamlessly and masterfully, creating, not only a great read, but a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Page turner
Review: I have read many cop stories but this is one of the tops on my list. From start to finish you can not put this thriller down. What makes it especially interesting is that it seems so real especially since I live in the area. The character development is superb and the street imagery is so lifelike. This is a new author for me and I hope he continues to write more great stories such as this one.

Rating:
Summary: exciting, insightful, literate
Review: In Philadelphia, two white police officers Mutt and Roy, call for supervisory help. Sergeant Eddie North arrives only to have African-American Councilman Sonny Knight scream at him to get the two cops away from him. Later, Sonny accuses Mutt and Roy of beating him up and adds Eddie to his list of accusation. Both officers deny ever touching Sonny and Eddie believes them because he knows he is innocent and neither of the policemen on the scene showed any sins of using force, let alone excessive.

However, the brass, the politicians, and the media think otherwise forcing an Internal Affairs investigation. As this scenario further splits a city divided over another controversial case, Eddie tries to learn why Sonny lied, but soon finds he is drowning in a polluted cesspool of corruption, bad cops, and duality racism.

The inquiries made by the IA staff and by Eddie are intelligent and entertaining so that police procedural fans have a powerful enjoyable tale. However, FOUR TO MIDNIGHT is more than another urban police story. Instead the theme focuses on how racism engulfs everyone in a swamp and destroys the innocent and their friendships. Thus the audience receives a superb police procedural with a cleverly interwoven powerful message.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: superb police procedural with a cleverly interwoven message
Review: In Philadelphia, two white police officers Mutt and Roy, call for supervisory help. Sergeant Eddie North arrives only to have African-American Councilman Sonny Knight scream at him to get the two cops away from him. Later, Sonny accuses Mutt and Roy of beating him up and adds Eddie to his list of accusation. Both officers deny ever touching Sonny and Eddie believes them because he knows he is innocent and neither of the policemen on the scene showed any sins of using force, let alone excessive.

However, the brass, the politicians, and the media think otherwise forcing an Internal Affairs investigation. As this scenario further splits a city divided over another controversial case, Eddie tries to learn why Sonny lied, but soon finds he is drowning in a polluted cesspool of corruption, bad cops, and duality racism.

The inquiries made by the IA staff and by Eddie are intelligent and entertaining so that police procedural fans have a powerful enjoyable tale. However, FOUR TO MIDNIGHT is more than another urban police story. Instead the theme focuses on how racism engulfs everyone in a swamp and destroys the innocent and their friendships. Thus the audience receives a superb police procedural with a cleverly interwoven powerful message.

Harriet Klausner