James David Buchanan - "Different Rules"
Hodder & Stoughton (0 340 62900 2)
Weddy tried to shrug it away, "It was a long time ago." Without thinking, he picked up the photograph and studied it.
Peering over his shoulder, Callie asked, "That’s them, huh? Bunch-a assholes."
"Yeah, I guess they were."
"What do you mean, you guess, ?"
"Different times. Different rules."
Callie gave up then and headed out in search of less contemplative company. As he went he grumbled, "They had a rule then you could blow up citizens?"
Weddy put the picture away.
Thus Detective Guido Mancuso (Weddy) and his partner Callaghan, when the group of rich kids - would be revolutionaries of the 60/70s - whose organisation he was ordered to infiltrate, reappear in his life years later. Some of the now solid establishment figures are being blackmailed because of their youthful misdemeanours. He is put on the case.
For Mancuso this episode in his past is painful and guilt ridden. Old wounds are opened and his self contained, macho, "don’t give a shit" attitude wavers as he becomes increasingly vulnerable and open to people and influences from the past and his youth.
This is definitely more than a cut above any run-of-the-mill mystery thriller. Buchanan is strong on characterisation - no cardboard cut-outs here - all characters you can believe in, even the minor ones. The plot is tightly structured with flashbacks linking the past to the present - clues which keep you guessing and unbearable suspense in parts. The locations in New York are described with skill and finesse; the modest neighbourhood with a mainly Italian community which is Weddy’s home, the North Shore, around Oyster Bay and beyond, habitat of the old WASP rich ,and a brief foray into Harlem.
Real quality writing I’d say. Read it! (PED)
