Lethal Rage

Canadian policeman Pilkey writes from firsthand experience in his gritty procedural debut, which introduces Jack Warren, a six-year veteran of the Toronto force who moves from a relatively quiet sector to the violent 51 Division. Drugs, prostitution, robberies, and domestic abuse are rampant, Jack soon discovers, while an aggressive new crack cocaine dealer, who's calling his product “Black,” is exacerbating the violence. Pilkey charts the stresses the dangerous job puts on Jack's marriage, the us-against-them mentality that binds patrol cops, the off-duty cop parties to blow off steam, and the way the 51 can change good cops to bad. A deadly confrontation with the chief suspect responsible for Black forces Jack to face the inadequacy of the legal system as well as the possibility of taking the law into his own hands. Pilkey's insider knowledge and his restraint in romanticizing Jack and his comrades more than compensate for the at times stilted narrative. (May)