cover image Chased

Chased

Billy Chase, Lenny Grimaldi. New Horizon, $22.95 (200pp) ISBN 978-0-88282-077-4

Chase may well be one of the most courageous police officers now working a beat. As an undercover narcotics agent in Bridgeport, Conn., he has infiltrated black, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Colombian and Italian mobs, fortified by smarts he acquried on the street in his own youth, and fueled by his hatred of drugs and organized crime. But while his primary struggle was waged against gangsters, he also fought racism: on more than one occasion, Chase held a gun on thugs he had arrested only to hear them yell for help, claiming he was robbing them ; spectators were all too ready to believe the claim. But despite the promise of Chase's story, his writing--abetted by Grimaldi ( Only in Bridgeport )--does not always live up to it. The pace of his suspenseful life is not reflected well in his prose and the result disappoints. (Mar.)