cover image Boca Knights

Boca Knights

Steven M. Forman, . . Forge, $24.95 (331pp) ISBN 978-0-7653-1987-6

Forman’s debut, an offbeat crime novel, introduces Eddie Perlmutter, a tough Jewish Boston cop, who has had conversations since age 11 with his penis (“Hey, check me out. I can stand , I heard one night in bed”). In his late 50s, retired from the Boston force and suffering from arthritis, Perlmutter begins a new life in Boca Raton, Fla., where he soon steps on the toes of the local Russian mafia, falls for a nurse who happens to resemble actress Halle Berry and looks into the murder of golfer Robert Goldenblatt. Found in his garage with a four-iron embedded in his forehead, Goldenblatt was apparently the victim of a dispute over “country-club politics.” While the book’s overall silliness and lack of credible characters, not to mention the absurd solution to Goldenblatt’s demise, will put off some readers, those with a cockeyed sense of humor will find much to like in this parody of a cop caper. (Feb.)