Down by the Sea - Hardcover

Proceeding thematically (and lyrically) from his debut novel, Under the Board walk , Kent's second mystery again follows vice squad detective Louis Monroe through the streets and into the casinos of Atlantic City. Monroe starts by busting a crooked cop delivering drugs in a pizza box. The bust gets him the cold shoulder from the rest of the force, a new partner--the odious Deegen--and an undercover assignment as informer to a department higher-up known as the "Extraterrestrial." As Deeg and Monroe hit the low spots, Monroe tries to arrest every hooker he can find, even one monster of a whore who likes pounding him into the pavement. His mission may be fired by the fact that he's engaged to marry Ellie, a former streetwalker who is now very pregnant with another man's child. Kent's salvo of memorably verbose scenes featuring an endless supply of corrupt cops doesn't quite overpower the two main (if severely understated) mysteries in this cluttered work: Who is Ellie's father? Who is the father of Ellie's child? Once these two secrets are uncovered, readers understand why the target of Monroe's first bust is now a protected federal witness, why the "Extraterrestrial" wants the vice cop in his pocket, and why that big hooker likes punching his lights out.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Atlantic City may be a nice place to visit, but it's hell to police, as Vice detective Louis Monroe (Under the Boardwalk, 1988) keeps getting reminded. Taking time out from his preparations to marry former call-girl Ellen Meade, impossibly idealistic Monroe busts hated fellow-officer Reuben Claymore for drug dealing, only to find that he's unleashed an unlovely gaggle of politicos and cops--each dying to bring each other down. Inspector Ephrum Traile, head of Internal Affairs, orders Monroe to wear a wire to gather evidence against his corrupt new partner, Sgt. Ray Deegan, who's out to get state cop Wayne Zimmer, who's out to get mayor Bernie Tilton. The plots and counterplots all end up revolving around a child stolen from a former Miss New Jersey 30 years ago--and, yes, both mother and baby turn up with surprising new faces. As unlikely a premise as one of Jon Jackson's tough Detroit procedurals with Candide sitting in for Fang Mulheisen. But taken scene by scene--as Kent shows the rescue of a beached whale, an unbelievable slot-machine payoff, and several fistfights with a 300- pound dominatrix--an impressively imagined entry. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.