Lieberman's Folly

By: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Detectives Abe Lieberman and Bill Hanrahan have been partners a long time - long enough to call each other "Rabbi" and "Father Murphy". Lieberman is 60, a grandfather, and a devout Jew. Hanrahan is a lapsed Catholic who's been hitting the bottle pretty heavily ever since his wife walked out on him. They may be flawed, but they're good cops. But even good cops have bad days.

On a hot Chicago afternoon, Lieberman would prefer to be watching his beloved Cubs from the bleachers at Wrigley Field instead of sitting in his brother Maish's deli with Hanrahan, meeting a prostitute and valued informant. But Estralda Valdez needs their protection from a psychotic john, and the partners agree to watch her back on their off-duty time.

That Friday night, while Lieberman is in temple, Hanrahan has the first watch, across the street from Estralda's apartment in a Chinese restaurant. But while he passes the time with two doubles and flirts with the waitress, the beautiful prostitute is brutally murdered. Tortured by guilt and chewed out by their chief, Lieberman and Hanrahan race against the clock to find the killer. They owe at least that much to Estralda.

©1991 Stuart Kaminsky (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Just wanted to hear Richard Ferrone

I sampled this title from the Plus Catalog because it's a detective story narrated by Richard Ferrone. I've loved Ferrone's narrations of the Prey detective novels by John Sandford, and I've been going through the back catalog of Richard Ferrone narrations since his untimely passing a few years back.

I don't think I'll continue with this series, given that books 2-onward cost actual credits. The story and characters aren't bad, but they're not particularly engaging either. The lead characters give off a real "Barney Miller" vibe, with Lieberman fitting the Abe Vigoda role and Hanrahan filling the Max Gail part. It was a little difficult to keep track of the characters in the book, which for me is usually due to my attention wandering because it just isn't engaging enough.

Overall a good listen for Ferrone fans, but not good enough for me to actually purchase the later books in the series.

If George Pelecanos was a Chicago Jew...

he would have written this book (and that's high praise). Well thought-out story that's not just a police procedural. Well-rounded characters have three dimensional lives.