Murder Takes Time

There was only one rule in our neighborhood—never break an oath. But oaths are easy to take and damn hard to keep. Now I'm staring at my best friend, lying on the floor in a pool of blood, my bullet in his gut. Where the hell did it go wrong? To understand that you’d have to go back to the beginning, back to when the three of us ruled the neighborhood.

A string of brutal murders has bodies piling up in Brooklyn, and Detective Frankie Donovan knows what is going on. Clues left at the crime scenes point to someone from the old neighborhood, and that isn't good. Frankie has taken two oaths in his life—the one he took to uphold the law when he became a cop, and the one he took with his two best friends when they were eight years old and inseparable. Those relationships have forced Frankie to make many tough decisions, but now he faces the toughest one of his life; he has five murders to solve and one of those two friends is responsible. If Frankie lets him go, he breaks the oath he took as a cop and risks losing his job. But if he tries to bring him in, he breaks the oath he kept for twenty-five years—and risks losing his life. In the neighborhood where Frankie Donovan grew up, you never broke an oath.

I live in Texas now, but I grew up in Cleland Heights, a mixed ethnic neighborhood in Wilmington, Delaware that sat on the fringes of the Italian, Irish and Polish neighborhoods. The main characters of Murder Takes Time grew up in Cleland Heights and many of the scenes in the book were taken from real-life experiences. Somehow I survived the transition to adulthood, but when my kids were young I left the Northeast and settled in Texas, where my wife suggested we get a few animals. I should have known better; we now have a full-blown animal sanctuary with rescues from all over. At last count we had 41 animals--12 dogs, a horse, a three-legged cat and 26 pigs. Oh, and one crazy--and very large--wild boar, who takes walks with me every day and happens to also be my best buddy. Since this is a bio some of you might wonder what I do. By day I am a headhunter, scouring the country for top talent to fill jobs in the biotech and medical device industry. In the evening I help my wife tend the animals, and at night--late at night--I turn into a writer.