One Night in Fear City

At the start of this taut crime thriller set in 1977 from Hernandez (The Broken), Carolina Lynch, the adult daughter of Josiah Lynch, a Wall Street power player and “puppet master extraordinaire” who’s made his wealth in oil, reluctantly attends a Manhattan high-class fundraiser for Joe Renfrow, the right-leaning Democratic mayoral candidate running on a law-and-order platform whom her father’s backing. The senior Lynch hopes that a mayor Renfrow will be his man in City Hall, but that Machiavellian plan is derailed after she leaves the event. Members of the Savage Kings street gang abduct Carolina en route to her limo, despite a bevy of highly trained security guards protecting her, and later send Josiah a ransom demand of $1 million. He hires Vietnam vet Vic Espada, a former member of a rival gang, the Ruthless Ones, and an ex-Marine now working as a bounty hunter, to rescue Carolina, a mission complicated by a citywide blackout. Hernandez tosses in some surprising twists as he builds toward a satisfying conclusion. This vivid recreation of the tense atmosphere permeating New York City in the 1970s is well worth a look. (Self-published)