Bronx Requiem by John Clarkson, a Mysterious Review.

Review: While James Beck was in prison serving a sentence for a crime he was wrongly convicted of, he met Paco "Packy" Johnson, who had been behind bars for seventeen years now. Packy helped him adjust and survive. When Beck's conviction is overturned, he and a number of other ex-cons decide to join forces to help other men fresh out of prison find jobs and start their lives anew, in Bronx Requiem, a crime novel by John Clarkson.

In due course Packy is released, but after just seventeen hours of freedom he's found murdered, badly beaten with a gunshot to the back of the head. Beck and his team agree to search for Packy's killer. As they began their investigation the clues point to numerous gangs and dirty cops in the Bronx. They quickly learn they have to deal with greater issues than just the murder of Packy. It was beginning to take all the abilities, contacts and shrewdness and perseverance of the team to not only learn the truth but to go on and survive the consequences of what they uncover.

Bronx Requiem is an exciting thriller, but one not for the faint of heart. It has a lot of violence, obscene language and some really obnoxious characters. It's a story of bad guys versus bad guys, albeit one group having a higher moral code than the other. There are a lot of twists and turns — some expected, some not so much and some not at all — but in the end, this page-turner is hard to put down.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Bronx Requiem.

Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided a copy of Bronx Requiem for this review.