Alphaville: 1988 Crime, Punishment and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side

Codella and Bennett provide a rich and compelling criminal history interlaced with the stories of Codella's years as a police officer, rising through the ranks in the 1980s and 1990s. Mixing information about organized crime, technology, and urban histories, the narrative shifts among different experiences of Codella's time as a housing officer and a plainclothes officer and the different historical forces that influence his hunt for the mobster Davey Blue Eyes. Keith Szarabajka's performance is admirable: he balances the straight first-person narrative with rich vocal characterization while easily shifting into the more straightforward historical aspects of the book such as the history of heroin or city planning. He takes some effective liberties with the dialogue, ratcheting up the intensity and sometimes even the strength of an accent, which provides added authenticity and drama. A St. Martin's/Dunne hardcover. (Feb.)