Detective Jack Leightner Books

It's not the dead body--Jack Leightner has seen hundred of bodies in his tour with the NYPD. It's not the dank setting--the narrow banks along Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. So why does the sight of the fatally stabbed young man make the detective almost faint in the canal's tangled weeds? Jack doesn't understand why he becomes obsessed with this low-priority case, why he allows it to jeopardize his career and even his life. Especially since the investigation draws him exactly where he doesn't want to go: into the heart of Red Hook. The neighborhood is Leightner's bad dream, scene of his troubled childhood and a terrible secret. The place also compels Jack's estranged son Ben, a young documentary filmmaker fascinated by its history. The Hook has been home to dockworkers and drug dealers, Al Capone and Joey Gallo, a giant public housing project, and one of the nation's greatest ports. Ben wants to find out why the once-thriving waterfront community has become a beautiful ruin--and why it has damaged his own family. In Gabriel Cohen's gripping first novel, this strange terrain is where Jack Leightner must seek his own redemption--and even, perhaps, the salvation of Red Hook itself. More than a crime story, Red Hook is a deep and sympathetic exploration of the mysteries of human nature, the curse and blessings of family, and one unforgettable place. Red Hook is a 2002 Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel.

In the chill of winter, a homemade coffin drifts ashore in New York Harbor , containing the body of a boy with the letters “G.I.” written on his forehead. As a detective with Brooklyn South Homicide, Jack Leightner finds that corpses are a part of every working day. But today his attention is riveted on a considerably smaller box, containing an engagement ring for his girlfriend Michelle.… In his second mystery featuring Detective Jack Leightner, Edgar Award--nominated author Gabriel Cohen vividly captures New York’s most fascinating borough. The relatively gentle treatment of the victim in Jack’s new case leads him to believe that the boy may have been subject to a strange type of mercy killing. But when a new body appears, it’s clear that no mercy was involved. Meanwhile, Jack can’t figure out his new partner, Tommy Balfa. The man seems fixated on some mysterious trouble of his own, leaving Jack to find out why the unknown boy was sent adrift. Eventually, Jack is forced to take on a second, unofficial investigation into his own partner’s shady activities. And both cases keep interfering with his attempts to propose to his girlfriend. As all three plots thicken, Jack’s pursuit of the killer takes him on a whirlwind tour of hidden parts of New York Harbor, from the secret world of Governors Island to the dilapidated shipyards of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard. Red Hook , Cohen’s debut, was called “outstanding” ( The New York Times ), “accomplished” ( Publishers Weekly ), and “compelling” ( Booklist ). The Graving Dock, the eagerly awaited sequel, is a triumph, even richer in atmosphere, action, and the mysteries of the human heart.

“If we took it all personally,” Brooklyn South homicide detective Jack Leightner tells his rookie NYPD partner, “there’s no way we could do the job.” Very soon, though, that notion gets shot to hell, as the deeply principled cop hears about the murder of an old Russian friend on Neptune Avenue---and then is disturbed to find himself increasingly drawn to the man’s stunning widow, Eugenia. She informs Jack of her husband’s troubles with Semyon Balakutis, a local nightclub operator and extortionist. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger in central Brooklyn is killing young women and posing them as suicides. From the Russian emigré community of Brighton Beach to the racially charged neighborhood of Crown Heights, from the crimes of World War II to the harshness of his own father, Jack’s latest cases plunge him deep into the roots of why men act in anger---and into the eternal mystery of love. Gabriel Cohen stuns in this riveting third addition to the Brooklyn-set series.

Brooklyn South homicide detective Jack Leightner is at home enjoying a quiet day off when a stranger appears at his door and completely overturns his understanding of his own past. The following day, what looks like a mundane killing in a Brooklyn deli takes a bizarre turn when a crew of Homeland Security agents suddenly show up wearing anti-radiation gear. Soon Jack is embroiled in two dangerous and far-reaching investigations:  a hunt for the Pakistani-American deli killer, who may be a member of a terrorist cell planning a new attack on New York, and an inquiry into his own family’s history on the Mafia-dominated waterfront of Red Hook in the 1960s. At the same time, Jack is trying to figure out if he can forgive his former love Michelle. Throw in a couple of incredible (and true stories) that transport the reader to the Gulf of Aden in the age of modern pirates and to New York Harbor back in 1943, and you have the ingredients for a fascinating and thrilling new crime novel from Edgar Award finalist Gabriel Cohen.