Spiced with the flavor of New York City like a Sabrett hot
dog bought from a push cart outside Macy’s on 34th Street, NYPD
Detective Louis Martelli peels the onion investigating the murder of a wealthy
socialite Matthew B. Richardson III. Shot at point blank range in Times Square by an assassin in a clown
suit, all of the signs of a professional hit were blatantly obvious once the assassin
himself was found in a dumpster with a single gunshot to his head. So begins House
of Cards: Dead Men Tell No Tales,
the latest action-packed suspense novel of the exploits of the big city
detective Louis Martelli, by Theodore Jerome Cohen.
An inherent characteristic of Theodore Jerome Cohen’s books
are they educate while entertaining, and House
of Cards is no exception. The reader
is expertly brought into the workings of the mortgage loan bust, where
irresponsible home loans were bought and packaged into large investment paper
portfolios, misrepresented as to their risk and sold to investors and capital
managers worldwide. Once the investors
caught wind of this through illegal insider information, the lucky ones purchased
insurance from companies such as AIG to mitigate the risk, and as the pop of
the financial bubble caused losses to the taxpayers needing to bail out the
insurance companies, the crooked investment bankers paid themselves record
bonuses. With more wealth generated by fraudulent
white collar criminals since the beginning of our country, it was easy for the
street gangsters to seek their share. Like moths to a flame, the situation burned up all that got too close.
Louis Martelli is use to working between the administrative lines
while staying off the police department’s radar. Cohen brings his character to a new level of
shady integrity, having him become a self-appointed judge and jury of right and
wrong, good and bad. The circuitous course
of events leads to a childhood friend, and their destinies collide in a
dramatic climax of fate. Like poker,
it’s all in the luck of the draw, unless you have the deck stacked and know how
to cheat!
I found Theodore Jerome Cohen’s references and remarks to
show a mature analogist style found in classic novels by authors such as Dan Brown, or Tom Clancy, or even the
late Michael Crichton. Heavily
laden in terse, poignant dialog, as well as street-smart observations, the
reader gets easily drawn into the book; both effortlessly and willingly. Before you know it, the book has more pages
on the left side then the right, and you just can’t put it down until you see
what’s going to happen next.
Having grown up in New York, I found the references to Brooklyn to be personally nostalgic, but like a good pastrami sandwich, you don’t have to be a New Yorker to enjoy one. This book would be as good on the commuter trains out of Penn Station as it would on the beaches of Cozumel or poolside in Hollywood. The appeal of House of Cards is universal to all readers, and as with any great hero, Louis Martelli lives on to fight another battle. Should you think I’m giving away the ending, all I can say is the most famous of NY expressions, “What’s it to ya?”
