2 out of 4 stars
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Connected is a crime novel that is written by Joe DeCicco, inspired by his experience as a New York City detective. DeCicco explains that “all names, characters, organizations, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictionally without any intent to describe their actual account.” The story follows a New York Police Officer, Mike Romano, as he begins working at the NYPD detective unit.
Detective Romano quickly proves that he is made for the job with his clever ways of dealing with colleagues, mobsters, and suspects in every case. He faces resistance from his difficult boss who constantly makes racist comments about his Italian background. Detective Romano always has witty comebacks and finds ways to manipulate risky situations to avoid getting into trouble. Other detectives refer to him as a “bulldog” because of his tenacity to solve cases and his courage to challenge the legal system for justice.
Joe DeCicco does an impressive job at describing the different personalities involved in this line of work. He includes many different cultures in his stories; it is obvious that he is experienced working with diverse cultures in a large city. He also includes the roles of the Italian, Russian, and Chinese mob in the different cases. It was interesting to read about how Detective Romano interacted with the different mobs and their influence in the community.
Each chapter takes you inside Detective Romano’s head as he interacts with influential members of the community, suspects, victims, and the court. Every case is written with great details; you feel like you are running around the city with Detective Romano as he tries to put all the pieces of the crime together. Some of the cases were about attempted murder, sex assault, and robbery. Graphic language and details of physical abuse can make it hard for some to read through. I felt that it added authenticity to the crimes committed.
I gave this book a 2 out of 4 stars because there were many misspelled words. Many words were missing a letter or had an extra letter added. Even though I could make out what the word was, it did get bothersome to see misspelled words often. Also, some sentences had words that were typed out of order, which made it difficult to smoothly read through those parts of the story.
I also felt that although the book was interesting, it was not memorable enough for me to highly recommend it. DeCicco did an excellent job with describing the challenges that a detective can encounter on the streets and back at the office. He also shares the personal challenges that this career has on family life. The stories were somewhat predictable since it was based on real life events. This book would have been more interesting if there were suspenseful moments or unpredictable turns to the cases.
I would recommend this book to those who are interested in becoming a detective and enjoy reading about the difficulties of dealing with the legal system while trying to solve different types of cases. Those who are sensitive to graphic details of assault or profanity may not want to read this book. Overall, I enjoyed reading about the different cases and gained insight about this line of work.
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Connected
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However, I might still check it out since I am interested in this field. Good job with the constructive criticism!
