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A Novel
by Kevin Wade
"A fast-moving classic crime novel" (John Sandford) crafted by the veteran screenwriter and showrunner for the acclaimed police procedural series Blue Bloods, Johnny Careless is Kevin Wade's razor-sharp debut novel.
olice Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island's North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective's shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a "have-not" among the glittering "haves," a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it.
When the corpse of Jeep's childhood friend Johnny Chambliss―born into privilege and known as "Johnny Careless" for his reckless, golden-boy antics―surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. He is challenged by Johnny's wealthy and secretive family and his beautiful, enigmatic ex-wife as he untangles a knotted mystery fraught with theft, corrupt local moguls, and decades-old secrets, all while grappling with his own deep-seated grief for his lost pal.
A fast-paced story, Johnny Careless "combines grit and wit in a way that conjures Donald Westlake or Robert Parker in full stride" (Carl Hiassen).
"Wade's gift for suspense is as well honed as one would expect from his film and TV credits―the real surprise is his character work, which goes deep enough that readers will find themselves thinking about Jeep and Johnny long after they've turned the final page. Haunting and heartbreaking, this is a winner." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A haunting debut novel that works through misunderstandings and violence to something that feels like redemption." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Kevin Wade's cinematic prose carries you away at a sizzling pace that's unstoppable. Johnny Careless is fresh and wildly entertaining, the characters so real you expect them to walk through the door." ―Patricia Cornwell, New York Times bestselling author
"From page one, Kevin Wade stomps on the accelerator ― smart, cool writing abetted by (mostly) smart, secret-bearing characters. Johnny Careless combines grit and wit in a way that conjures Donald Westlake or Robert Parker in full stride." ―Carl Hiaasen, New York Times bestselling author
This information about Johnny Careless was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kevin Wade is a playwright, screenwriter, and television writer and producer whose credits include the stage plays Key Exchange, Mr. & Mrs., and Cruise Control, and the screenplays for Working Girl (seven Academy Award nominations), True Colors, Mr. Baseball, Junior, Meet Joe Black, and Maid in Manhattan. For television, he created the ABC television drama Cashmere Mafia and in 2010 joined the rookie CBS drama Blue Bloods as a writer. Starting with the second season and for the rest of the show's fourteen year-run, Wade served as its showrunner, executive producer, and back-seat driver.
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