Rizzo’s Daughter

As the title suggests, Manfredo’s uneven third novel featuring NYPD Det. Sgt. Joe Rizzo (after 2011’s Rizzo’s Fire) passes the generational torch to Joe’s 21-year-old daughter, Carol. Already eligible for retirement, Joe has prolonged his career to help Carol start hers in good stead with the NYPD’s bureaucracy. Joe’s wife, Jennifer, worries about both her husband and daughter facing the physical and moral perils posed by the streets. That Carol makes a risky collar on her first patrol suggests Jennifer may be right. Meanwhile, Joe’s investigation into gangster Louis Quattropa’s assassination edges him toward sympathy with the old guard Mafia’s fear of the possible culprits, the upstart Russian mob. While Manfredo, a 25-year veteran of the Brooklyn criminal justice system, crafts gritty dialogue as authentic-sounding as a wiretap transcript, the episodic story line rings false by schematically illustrating the costs of lives pursued inside and outside the law. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber. (Mar.)