The Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels Series

Stuck in traffic on the Cross-Bronx Expressway, Detective Sergeant Shelly Lowenkopf finds himself in the middle of an apparent attack by young black Indians with rubber-tipped arrows when another motorist fires back. Shelly takes the shooter down to the station, where he learns that the event was a staged performance, one in a series of events arranged by performance artists competing for a prize around the Bronx. To the surprise of both the police and the artist, the blanks in the rifle have been replaced with real bullets. Someone is turning performance art into the art of death.  The Art of Death is the 2nd book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Cured to death. The posh, idyllic Care Clinic promises to cure such twentieth-century afflictions as eating disorders, substance abuse, and low self-esteem. But when Shelly Lowenkopf and Homer Greeley—two former detectives from the Bronx—begin to investigate the whereabouts of one of the clinic’s most loyal patients, they’re in for some shocking treatment. A maniacal director browbeats patients and staff alike. A beautiful blonde picnics with a chimp and listens to Disney songs on a crank phonograph. And a bunch calling itself the Church of the Unflagging Eye worships the television set and everything on it. For Lowenkopf and Greeley, it would be just another missing persons case—if people weren’t suddenly turning up dead. Now the two detectives must solve a horrible killing before murder becomes the clinic’s nastiest—and most stubborn—habit. The Man Who Murdered Himself is the 7th book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A New York detective is recovering from a bomb blast and uncovering a semiprivate doom. Just ask Detective Shelly Lowenkopf, who passed on to the other side—at least for a moment or two. It all began with a mob boss who was taking tennis lessons. His new stepson wanted in on the rackets, while his real son was on the lam—until an explosion took him and Lowenkopf out of the picture. The question is: How far out of the picture? While Lowenkopf began his recuperation at St. Jude South Coast Hospital, the criminals got busy. A drug business, some missing sperm, a very-much-alive Mafia son, and James Dean’s hair comb all found their way to Lowenkopf’s bedside, one way or another. And with all that, who could blame him for temporarily copping out? The Semi-Private Doom is the 5th book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Lowenkopf and Greeley are called in on a gruesome murder in a psychiatric facility in the Bronx, where the victim has had an internal organ removed and damaged, like other victims of the same killer. Lowenkopf goes undercover in the hospital and learns that a patient in a locked ward is taking credit for the crimes, sending out his spirit to avenge an old injury from a past life. Unwilling to believe his incredible story, but confronted with details only the killer should know, Lowenkopf and Greeley investigate the people around the boasting patient—his doctor, a social worker, and the staff of the hospital. But none of the candidates could possibly have committed the crimes, and Lowenkopf must solve a locked-room puzzle with a madman insisting on his guilt.  The Organ Grinder’s Monkey is the 3rd book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When New York sergeant Shelly Lowenkopf is shipped out of the Bronx on a brief assignment in California, he’s like a fish out of water in the Tinseltown glitz. As police consultant on a movie set, he runs into real-life drama when a movie executive is murdered. The Next to Die is the 1st book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Lowenkopf and Greeley are called in on a gruesome murder in a psychiatric facility in the Bronx, where the victim has had an internal organ removed and damaged, like other victims of the same killer. Lowenkopf goes undercover in the hospital and learns that a patient in a locked ward is taking credit for the crimes, sending out his spirit to avenge an old injury from a past life. Unwilling to believe his incredible story, but confronted with details only the killer should know, Lowenkopf and Greeley investigate the people around the boasting patient—his doctor, a social worker, and the staff of the hospital. But none of the candidates could possibly have committed the crimes, and Lowenkopf must solve a locked-room puzzle with a madman insisting on his guilt.  The Organ Grinder’s Monkey is the 3rd book in the Allerton Avenue Precinct Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.