Blue Eyes

Jerome Charyn

Apr 2012 · The Isaac Sidel Novels Book 1 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

DIVA cop and his disgraced mentor attempt to bust a white slavery ring/divDIV/divDIVBefore Isaac Sidel adopts him, Manfred Coen is a mutt. A kid from the Bronx, he joins the police academy after his father’s suicide leaves him directionless, and is trudging along like any other cadet when first deputy Sidel, the commissioner’s right hand man, comes looking for a young cop with blue eyes to infiltrate a ring of Polish smugglers. He chooses Coen, and asks the cadet to join his department after he finishes the academy. Working under Sidel means fast promotions, plush assignments, and, when a corruption scandal topples his mentor, the resentment of every rank-and-file detective on the force./divDIV /divDIVNow just an ordinary cop, Coen hears word that his old mentor has a line on a human trafficking operation. When Sidel’s attempt at infiltration fails, he sends in Coen. For Coen, it’s a shot to prove himself and redeem his mentor, but it could cost the blue-eyed cop his life./div

Ratings and reviews

Does time stand still when you’re reading a Jerome Charyn cult detective novel or does it move so fast you lose track of it? I whipped through Blue Eyes, grateful it’s only the first of ten Isaac Sidel adventures still ahead of me – the next books are going with me on my vacation. It felt like I was reading a novel in 3D. Imagine a Jewish Philip Marlowe in New York City on a parallel universe, with characters who make film noir villains look downright silly. Jerome Charyn cut his teeth on Jeronimo Guzmann and Odette/Odile. His bio says he traveled around in a squad car with his brother, a first grade detective working homicide. Which is what gives Blue Eyes its gritty reality. It’s The Big Apple of the 1970s, where vulgarities and epithets fly, but you’re quickly sucked into the vortex of players and tribes. Shotgun Coen is the Blue Eyes of the story, a blond Jewish cop who straddles cultures and the intersecting worlds of crime and law enforcement. A magnet for women and crime, Coen stands guard over the underworld of the City. His mentor, Isaac Sidel, part guardian angel and part “rabbi”, hovers over him. His life is like the ping pong game he excels in. Hold your breath – it’s a thrilling and dangerous ride.

About the author

DIVJerome Charyn (b. 1937) is the critically acclaimed author of nearly fifty books. Born in the Bronx, he attended Columbia College, where he fell in love with the works of William Faulkner and James Joyce. After graduating, he took a job as a playground director and wrote in his spare time, producing his first novel, a Lower East Side fairytale called Once Upon a Droshky, in 1964./divDIV /divDIVIn 1974 Charyn published Blue Eyes, his first Isaac Sidel mystery. Begun as a distraction while trying to finish a different book, this first in a series of Sidel novels introduced the eccentric, near-mythic detective and his bizarre cast of sidekicks. Charyn followed the character through Citizen Sidel (1999), which ends with his antihero making a run at the White House. Charyn, who divides his time between New York and Paris, is also accomplished at table tennis, and once ranked amongst France’s top 10 percent of ping-pong players./div