Lady Gold
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Angela Amato is a former NYPD detective who left the force and became a legal aid attorney. Her reasons for going over to the other side are shared by Gerry Conte, the detective in Lady Gold who is assigned to baby-sit a young mobster-turned-informant who is being kept "on ice" while he is telling what he knows and can learn. Conte goes with him on "dates" and spends time chatting with him - a useful way of coaxing information out. She also has the courage to worm her way into the confidence of his Mafioso uncle Tony. And as time goes on, the feeling between the gold shield detective who hates what the mobsters do to the reputation of honest Italian-Americans and the young wiseguy who thinks he can go through life without paying for his actions edges into an odd and moving love story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Long on atmosphere but short on action, this first novel by former NYPD detective Amato and Sharkey (author of the true-crime book Above Suspicion, 1993) describes the unlikely friendship between a small-time informer and a street-smart New York cop at a turning point in her personal and professional life. When 30-year-old Detective Gerry Conte is assigned to keep an eye on Eugene Rossi, who has promised to rat on his mob-underboss uncle, she feels contempt for the preening, volatile young con and doubts that his information will prove useful. But as time goes by, she develops sympathy for Eugene, who, she realizes, was tricked into cooperating with the police through his naivete and poor reading skills. Meanwhile, Eugene shows a surprisingly gentle side: he helps insecure Gerry gain confidence in her body by taking her to the gym and, through his trust in her, gives her faith in her own judgment--even as their friendship upsets Gerry's live-in lover, a fellow cop who already resents her early success and her ambition to become a lawyer. Whether Amato and Sharkey are describing a seedy Italian pastry shop or the resignation of a hardworking woman who's learned to make the best of an imperfect life, they are adept at evoking places and mood, and the story of Gerry's friendship with Eugene is surprisingly moving. Unfortunately, the plot is episodic and meandering--which makes for a fine portrayal of an honorable cop's workaday life but also for a less than thrilling story. FYI: Like her heroine, Amato quit her job as an NYPD detective to become a defense attorney.
