This book is stays with you long after you finish. It is rare for a novel to be so real, so affecting, but this is. Anyone interested in police work, NYC or more important, friendship and betrayal, should rush out and get this brillant book. You will never forget it. Leuci is a magnificent writer

Robert Leuci is right to use a character's name for the title of his book Blaze. While the plot twists are nice, this novel is character-driven. Blaze is a very enjoyable cops vs criminals book. The characterization is a tiny bit simplistic in that good guys are terrifically handsome or beautiful, and the bad guys are largely grotesque. If the book came with sound effects, you'd hear a big wolf whistle (a la 1940s movies) when the protagonist Nora enters a scene. The most intriguing character is Nicky the Hawk, who charms the reader as much as he charms Nora.

Blaze is a police procedural, complete with the requisite cop jargon, banter among villains, dependable partner, laughably stupid thugs, dirty cops, naive hooker, etc. But the book works. The reader wants everything to be ok for Nora and for Nick. Nora has to deal with a crazy husband, and Nick has to keep his hooker/cousin off the streets for a while. And everyone has to avoid Blaze, who collects body parts both as a job and as recreation. Just don't call him stupid or. . . . If you read thrillers or fast-moving books about police/killers/investigators/lawyers, you'll probably like this one. You'll find yourself urging the characters, "Don't do it . . don't do it." But you know they're going to, and you're happy to be along.

Laura

On the streets of Brooklyn works Blaze Longo, a nasty loan shark, who grimly earns a living by kidnapping and brutally murdering his victims. Blaze is also a collector of sorts. He wears a pouch containing the ears of everyone he has had the pleasure to do business with in his distinctive style.

Her superior assigns NYPD Captain Nora Riter to investigate Blaze and put out his flame. Nora is struggling with personal problems, but wonders why the City's lead detective would be assigned to work a case involving a sadistic loan shark? Nora knows she needs an informant if she is to bring Blaze to justice. She selects unemployed local Nick Ossman as her mark. She blackmails him into betraying the neighborhood gang in order to stop a sociopath-killing machine even if it means both of their lives may end up inside Blaze's personal counter.

BLAZE is an exciting police procedural that works in spite of employing much of the stereotypical elements that make up many of the sub-genre novels. Nora is superhuman in her obsession to attain justice. NYPD is politically motivated, filled with their own dirty tactics, and includes bad cops. The villain seems more powerful than the marvelous Dr. Doom ever has been. Yet the novel works because the characters seem so real, especially Nick and Nora, who must cross taboos to hope to achieve the impossible task of putting out Blaze.

This is a good book written from first-hand knowledge about cops and gangsters in New York City by a former detective. Nora Ritter is a rising star and Captain with the NYPD. She is sent out by her boss to take down the small time loan shark and psychopath Blaze Longo. Nora comes across Nicky "The Hawk" Ossman while he is stealing a lamb from the meat market. Nicky later gets busted for assaulting a police officer. Nora uses this to her advantage and blackmails Nicky into setting up Blaze instead of getting assault charges filed on him. Nora and Nicky get into some dangerous and exciting situations while trying to take down Blaze. This is a quick moving and hard hitting thriller that you will enjoy.

The story manages to hold your interest and the characters are okay, yet Leuci's individual elements do not really come together to bring about a highly engrossing book. If you like police stories, try Leuci's The Snitch and Captain Butterfly.