Gus Murphy

From award-winning New York Times bestselling author Reed Farrel Coleman comes a gritty, atmospheric new series about the other side of Long Island, far from the wealth of the Hamptons, where real people live-and die. Gus Murphy thought he had the world all figured out. A retired Suffolk County cop, he had everything a man could want: a great marriage, two kids, a nice house, and the rest of his life ahead of him. But when tragedy strikes, his life is thrown into complete disarray. In the course of a single deadly moment, his family is blown apart, and Gus is transformed from a man who believes he understands everything into a man who understands nothing. Divorced and working as a courtesy van driver for the run-down hotel in which he has a room, Gus has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm's length. But his comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino comes to him for help. Four months earlier, TJ Delcamino's battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the police don't seem interested in pursuing the killers. In desperation, Tommy seeks out the only cop he ever trusted: Gus Murphy. Gus reluctantly agrees to see what he can uncover. As he begins to sweep away the layers of dust that have collected over the case during the intervening months, Gus finds that Delcamino is telling the truth. It seems that everyone involved with the late TJ Delcamino-from his best friend to his girlfriend, from a gang enforcer to a Mafia capo, and even the police-has something to hide, and all are willing to go to extreme lengths to hide it. Gus has taken on a dangerous favor as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, all while searching through the sewers for a killer.

Former Suffolk County cop Gus Murphy returns to prowl the meaner streets of Long Island's darkest precincts with a Russian mercenary at his back in the stunning second installment of Reed Farrel Coleman's critically acclaimed series. Gus Murphy and his girlfriend, Magdalena, are put in harm's way when Gus is caught up in the distant aftershocks of heinous crimes committed decades ago in Vietnam and Russia. Gus's ex-priest pal, Bill Kilkenny, introduces him to a wealthy businessman anxious to have someone look more deeply into the brutal murder of his granddaughter. Though the police already have the girl's murderer in custody, they have been unable to provide a reason for the killing. The businessman, Spears, offers big incentives if Gus can supply him with what the cops cannot-a motive. Later that same day, Gus witnesses the execution of a man who has just met with his friend Slava. As Gus looks into the girl's murder and tries to protect Slava from the executioner's bullet, he must navigate a minefield populated by hostile cops, street gangs, and a Russian mercenary who will stop at nothing to do his master's bidding. But in trying to solve the girl's murder and save his friend, Gus may be opening a door into a past that was best left forgotten. Can he fix the damage done, or is it true that what you break you forever own?