cover image FOUR TO MIDNIGHT

FOUR TO MIDNIGHT

Scott Flander, . . Morrow, $24.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-06-018898-6

Flander certainly knows his Philadelphia and his cops. As in his highly praised first novel (Sons of the City), the Philadelphia Daily News reporter plunges readers directly into Sgt. Eddie North's daily life as a cop in a city riven by racial tension. When Sonny Knight, a powerful African-American city councilman, is found beaten on the streets of West Philadelphia, he accuses the first two white police officers to arrive on the scene of inflicting the damage—and then adds Eddie's name to his list when North answers their call for backup. Eddie knows he's innocent, and neither of his cops appears to have been involved in any violence. But the city's police and political leaders, already under pressure from the controversial case of a radical black college professor charged with killing a white cop, seem less than eager to believe North and his men—especially when one of the accused cops appears to have a hidden history of mayhem. Under investigation by internal affairs, Eddie risks his beloved job and several police department friendships as he tries to come up with reasons for Councilman Knight to have lied about his beating. Flander is especially good at showing how decent people on both sides of a racial quagmire can be dangerously blinkered and how easily hard-won loyalties and friendships can be destroyed. Agent, Barbara Lowenstein. (July 8)