PAYBACK is the second police procedural in Lorenzo Carcaterra’s series featuring Tank Rizzo, a disabled and retired New York City police detective. His disability stems from the sad fact that he was shot while not on the job. That incident included several shootings, and Tank’s old partner, Frank “Pearl” Monroe, was left a paraplegic who has been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, Tank has remained on good terms with the Chief of Detectives Ray Connors, who occasionally calls upon him to solve cold cases.

"Readers will find PAYBACK’s tightly woven plot to be well-written and suspenseful. Not one word is out of place, which makes for a stellar reading experience."

The novel opens with a flashback to Detective Eddie Kenwood questioning a young man in an interview room. He would stop at nothing to close a case, and his tactics included forcing innocent people, usually young black men, to confess to crimes committed by someone else. One of these individuals is Randy Jenkins, who has been accused of murder. It was under threats of harm from Kenwood that he felt he had no choice but to sign a false confession. Pearl knows that Jenkins is innocent, so he wants Tank to clear him of all charges and take down Kenwood.

Meanwhile, Tank looks after his 15-year-old nephew, Chris, whose mother and father recently died in a suspicious car accident. Tank and his brother were estranged for years, and Carcaterra fills readers in on the family trajectory: “The past never leaves us. It hovers over us, hidden by the passage of time, waiting to strike when we least expect it. It can do damage or ease suffering, its path never truly known until it confronts us.” Chris has done enough computer searches to convince himself that his parents were murdered due to a money-laundering scheme, and he enlists his uncle’s help in bringing those responsible to justice.

Carcaterra's characters are finely honed and believable. Readers will find PAYBACK’s tightly woven plot to be well-written and suspenseful. Not one word is out of place, which makes for a stellar reading experience.