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Detective Joe Rizzo has been a cop for 27 years; he's at the point where he is planning to retire once he gets his finances together, possibly in a year or less. He knows the 62nd precinct like the back of his hand, and he's sharing that knowledge with his new partner, Priscilla (Cil) Jackson. Their partnership is a great match; although Cil may be a junior detective, she has excellent instincts and the gumption to stand up to Joe when needed. The case they're working on involves the murder of a hermit-like man, Robert Lauria, whose death goes undetected for days. There are no leads until Cil makes a connection between Lauria, who was a writer, and a Broadway hit play. Soon there are other deaths with the victims having links to the play as well. The most notable is the play's playwright, Carl Jurgens whose case is assigned to a different precinct. Solving his murder would be a huge political coup; understandably, Joe and Cil do everything in their power to ensure that they get the credit for solving the case. On the personal front, Joe is facing a problem that can't be resolved as tidily as a murder investigation. His daughter, Carol, is in college and has decided that she wants to become a cop. Rizzo is adamantly opposed and forbids her to do so. After having been a cop for so long, he is well aware of the reality of the job, the shortcuts that are taken to close cases and he doesn't want his daughter exposed to the dirty side of the work. As he notes, he often does illegal things to enforce the law; and there are many examples of that throughout the book. "I break as many laws as I enforce. Maybe more.' RIZZO'S FIRE is one of the most authentic police procedurals I've ever read. Manfredo, who was himself a cop for 25 years, excels at showing the exact nature of the job and how routine it is to bend the rules when on a case or how often success is based on the collection of favors due. It is quite eye opening to see such a truthful rendering compared to many police procedurals where the lead is a lot more "noble." The partnership of the old white guy with a young black lesbian is inspired. The main negative of the book for me was the plot—the whole situation around what happened with the play, the victims and the villain was not credible. And although the future of his daughter was certainly of great concern to Joe, far too much of the narrative was devoted to this thread. In fact, Manfredo spent too much time on the personal issues of both Joe and Cil. If you want to see a warts-and-all depiction in the life of a homicide detective, then the Rizzo series is definitely for you. § Formerly a training development manager for a large company, Maddy is now retired and continues to enable the addiction of crime fiction fans as owner of the online discussion group, 4 Mystery Addicts(4MA), while avidly reading in every possible free moment herself.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, January 2012
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