JOHNNY CARELESS

The premature death of his oldest friend sends a rookie Nassau County, Long Island, police chief down Memory Lane. It’s one bumpy trip.

When the body of John Payson Chambliss, the scion of wealthy blue-blood Pete Chambliss, washes up on the Bayville beach, everyone assumes he was accidentally struck by a boat—everyone but Chief Jeep Mullane, Johnny’s high-school lacrosse teammate, who’s struck by the unexplained scratches on Johnny’s back. As Jeep peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Johnny’s death, screenwriter Wade, best known for the TV series Blue Bloods, interleaves his account of Johnny’s funeral, Jeep’s awkward reunion with Johnny’s ex-wife, and his pursuit of a well-organized gang’s recent spate of big-ticket car thefts in the area with a measured series of flashbacks to key incidents spaced a year apart and marching toward the present. Jeep takes the rap for Johnny hitting a deer with the family car. Johnny gets it on with visitor Catalina Soto, and sends her money to raise the son she bears back in Santiago until Pete ends the payments by threatening to cut off Johnny’s trust fund. Jeep, attempting to live up to the model of his father, an NYPD officer whose tireless work at Ground Zero led to his early death, struggles to balance loyalty to his friends, his team, and the law. He takes up with a model who wants to stop her artist lover from adding nude photos of her to his professional portfolio without a release, a fling that ends very badly indeed. A colleague repaying a questionable favor sets Jeep on a promising trail to Johnny’s possible killer.

A haunting debut novel that works through misunderstandings and violence to something that feels like redemption.