View Review Redemption of the Irish Rabbi Junkie Detective: A Novel of Cops and Brothers PDF by Brian Ellis

Redemption of the Irish Rabbi Junkie Detective: A Novel of Cops and Brothers

Metro Police Detective Lieutenant Tom Spenser is a third generation Pittsburgh cop whose world is rife with addiction, violence, loss and grief; it’s just another day for this cop. Tommy Spenser has a penchant for tough cases, good Scotch, opiate painkillers, and failed marriages. Two years after Tommy's grandfather, the patriarch of the family, has passed away in his sleep, Tommy is still struggling with losing one of the few people who loved him unconditionally. Tom's estranged father, recovering alcoholic Frank Spenser, is the retired deputy commissioner of police, now a sort of wartime consigliore to the mayor, and daily endures the awkward and painfully strained relationship with his three sons who were once victims of his abuse. Tom's eldest brother Kenneth is the Deputy Homicide Inspector for the city and has slowly assumed the leadership roles in the void both his grandfather and dad have left in their wake. Tom's twin brother, Brady, who runs Internal Affairs, struggles with trying to live up to the family's legacy yet still find his own way in life, and is ever vigilant of the sibling with whom he entered the world. Lastly, there is Tom's partner Marco Escardo, a formerly violent youth offender that the Spenser family rehabilitated and took under their wing, who has grown up to be the unofficial fourth Spenser brother in the family's lineage of wearing the badge. Marco is torn between his admiration and contempt for his quasi-brother and partner, fully knowing Tommy is on a collision course with tragedy unless something changes. A champion boxer in his youth, Tommy carries the scars and beatings of his soul most visibly. He is highly revered and near-Machiavellian in his dealings as a police officer, but has a soft spot for protecting those who cannot fight for themselves. One night, while conducting a drug raid two doors down, Tommy is called to a domestic disturbance involving the introverted, yet extraordinarily gifted and lovely Claire. Clarissa 'Claire' Hewitt, formerly a musician with the Pittsburgh Symphony, is trying to escape the prison of her marriage with a volatile, abusive narcissist. Before he knows it, Tommy takes Claire into his world and his home as they begin to entwine themselves in each other's lives, tenderly sharing their stories as survivors, and slowly letting go of the years of abuse they both have endured. Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, two heroin kingpins have fallen in less than a week and free enterprise means quick money for anyone daring to take the toppled throne, no matter how many bodies stack up in the Metro morgue. Police Headquarters has become the new Fort Apache. When given a high visibility case and leadership in a newly formed task force by his eldest brother, Tommy is thrown into a maelstrom of betrayal and deceit, at the same time battling his own addictions and demons. After a visit to an oncologist and realizing he is in Stage II of Hodgkins' Lymphoma, Tommy sets out to take back the reins of his life. What starts out as him seeking to save Claire ends up with Tommy realizing that he still has time to save himself, and right a lifelong of wrongs for those he loves most.