|
John Westermann was a police
officer for the Freeport Police Department (New York). Since leaving the job, he has written five novels:
Ladies of the Night; High Crimes; The Honor Farm; Sweet Deal; and, Exit Wounds.
Kirkus Reviews said of Sweet
Deal, “Suburban Long Island, scene of Westermann's Exit Wounds (1990), is the menacing background
in the search for a cop killer. Westermann, one of the few crime writers to realize that America is now the suburbs and that
criminals live in ranch houses too, uses the sprawl outside New York to great effect as Detective Jack Mills seeks to become
a real cop after years in the police department's p.r. division. Mills, a handsome former athlete now in his 30s, skated
through his youth, supported by men and women who would do anything for a jock. Now divorced and living alone after the departure
of his latest popsy, the homicide detective stands his first real police duty when he's charged with finding out who murdered
Arthur Backman, a policeman disliked by everyone he knew, including his wife and yuppie son. Teamed with sexy Claire Williamson,
a more experienced and competent detective, Mills begins to turn up evidence of Backman's corruption and his sordid liaison
with a pathetic cop groupie, and rather quickly Mills finds that he is poking into the affairs of the local syndicate, the
local Republican machine, and his own superiors at the police station. He may be in over his head. Even more awkward, he has
become more than a little smitten with Detective Williamson, a very difficult woman to impress. Things get uglier as another
rotten policeman dies and a nice little old Irish lady is menaced by a villain on a ten-speed. Good stuff. Westermann paints
people rather than types and puts them into a palpable world of strip malls, frontage roads, and postwar subdivisions. Gangsters
in the townships are as creepy as their brothers in the boroughs.”
One reader of Sweet Deal
said, “Someone is brutally bumping off corrupt Long Island cops. I found this a page-turner with good
dialog and strong plotting. Although the characters are believable they are mostly stereotyped. Lucy Lallos the tricycle-riding
alcoholic was the best, and Champ the dog was good. The hero Detective Jack Mills is handsome, athletic and incorruptible.
His marriage is on the rocks because of his dedication to his job. There's a black officer with a chip on his shoulder
about being black, and an attractive female officer with a chip on her shoulder about being attractive and female, a hooker
with a heart of gold, a rich obnoxious lawyer and sinister Mafiosi. It is all well done and the writer knows his craft and
how to divert us with red herrings and how to keep us on the edge of our seats with cliffhanger chapter endings and clever
switches of POV but we've been here before. The climactic hostage scene was high in tension but low in plausibility. The
most original touch is the dense Long Island atmosphere. If you live there this might be appealing, but there was nothing
that made me want to jump onto the LIRR and take a look at the place.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of The
Honor Farm, “On Long Island, Vietnam vet and Nassau County cop Orin Boyd (returning from Exit Wounds)
is still only a uniformed cop, largely because of his frank contempt for authority. Breaking up an apparent assault, Boyd
knocks around crooked right-wing State Senator Tommy Cotton (aka "Senator Sewer"). Cotton wants Boyd's head.
But Police Commissioner David Trimble has a plan of his own: in exchange for Boyd copping a plea for assault, thus satisfying
Cotton, and doing six months in the county's "country club" jail, he'll grant Boyd a gold shield on the
further condition that, while in jail, Boyd investigate the death of Trimble's son, who allegedly hanged himself with
one day left in an 18-month sentence. Shortly after Boyd's arrival at the "farm," there's another "suicide"
and the surfacing of many motley suspects. The top con there, an ex-PBA leader looking for Boyd's legendary stash of ill-gotten
money, begins a computer campaign to dry up Boyd's bank accounts and to frame his wife for embezzlement. Boyd's boat
is sunk, his house is torched and his wife and little daughter are stalked by a hit man. Westermann, who worked 20 years as
a Long Island cop, brings plenty of colorful detail to the novel and to Boyd, who's smart, funny and not above taking
the law into his own hands. The pacing is relentless, and the uncovering of secrets old and new will keep readers glued as
they're plunged into a Long Island that's way beyond Levittown.”
One reader of The Honor
Farm said, “I picked this book up at a wholesaler for three bucks. I recognized the author's name
from the press for "Exit Wounds", the movie. Needless to say, my expectations were not very high. I was surprised
at the depth of character and the layers of plot that Westermann is able to tool into this story. Of course, the hook is that
the author has been a real cop for twenty years, but don't let that mislead you. It definitely shows in his writing that
he knows his stuff, but Westermann is a true craftsman with words. His pacing, dialogue, and characters are directly on target,
telling a story with minimalist narrative (ala James Ellroy). If Westermann was half as good at being a cop, as he is at writing
about it, the streets should be very safe in his neighborhood.”
|
