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The Big Silence: An Abe Lieberman Mystery

The Big Silence: An Abe Lieberman Mystery
By Stuart M. Kaminsky

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Abe Lieberman is a strong, sympathetic character, an Everyman whose love for his family is only matched by his quiet, zealous commitment to justice: "A figure out of Talmudic lore-endearing, wise in his crotchets, weary with his wisdom." says The Washington Post. He loves what he does and it takes its toll as his commitment to what is right is sorely tested every day on the mean streets of Chicago. As a moral man, he is sometimes faced with some uncomfortable ethical choices in order to see that justice-rather than the letter of the law-is metered out.

The Big Silence takes Lieberman and his Irish partner, Bill Hanrahan-the Rabbi and the Priest, as they are known on the streets-on a journey that will test their consciences to the limit. When the young son of an informant in a governmental witness protection program is kidnapped and a grisly death occurs, they will have to make some hard choices to make things right. Told with compassion and with the keen insight into the human psyche, The Big Silence is gritty, compelling...and unforgettable.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1478924 in Books
  • Published on: 2001-11-19
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 272 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.com
Veteran Chicago detective Abe Lieberman has things on his mind. His daughter's in from L.A., having left her husband. In addition, a small-time Korean gangster who lost his livelihood thanks to Abe has come to kill him--again.

"You come near here again, you're dead. I think it's better to be alive than dead, but you make up your own mind."

"I can go?" Kim asked warily.

"I wish you would. I've got an important phone call to make."

Kim rose, confused. "You won't even arrest me?"

"No."

Lieberman's foot was driving him crazy. He had to scratch it, and he did.

"So, more dishonor from the Jew devil," Kim said.

"You get your dialogue from very bad Hong Kong movies," Lieberman said. "You need a slightly higher grade of culture. You ever see Mildred Pierce?"

Bill Hanrahan, a pro lineman would-have-been thanks to bad knees, is Abe's longtime partner (cops call them the Rabbi and the Priest) and he, too, has issues. A softball assignment guarding the ex-wife and son of mob-accountant-about-to-sing Mickey Gornitz has just gone south; the woman's been murdered and the boy snatched. It's not the first time a woman's been killed while in Hanrahan's care, although it is the first since he's been sober. The kidnapper's demand to Gornitz--an unwelcome confidant of Abe's--is simple: kill yourself and the boy lives. An untenable situation for all, the resolution of which plumbs the vagaries of philosophy and morality.

Kaminsky has as sure a hand (from character development and dialogue to plot and pacing) as you'll find in any police procedural, and he's got more successful series running than many authors have successful novels. To the wonderful Lieberman series, add his contemporary Russian detective, Porfiry Rostnikov (star of 2000's Fall of a Cosmonaut); his 1940s Hollywood PI, Toby Peters (1991's Poor Butterfly), and his newest, Sarasota process server-cum-people locator, Lew Fonesca (1999's Vengeance). Do yourself a favor and read them all. --Michael Hudson

From Publishers Weekly
Versatile, prolific and reliable, Kaminsky seldom disappoints, whether spinning a tale about his Russian policeman (Porfiry Rostnikov), private eye to the stars (Toby Peters) or Chicago policeman Abe Lieberman. Here Lieberman and his Irish partner, Bill Hanrahan, known to colleagues as "the Rabbi and the Priest," have to handle an onslaught of personal and professional crises. Hanrahan, a former football lineman who missed out on a pro career because of bad knees, is nearly suicidal over a blown assignment that resulted in a kidnapping and murder. Lieberman, a slight, 60ish career policeman, juggles a pair of bothersome cases and a pair of family crises on top of shouldering some of Hanrahan's burden as a partner should. Drawing on Chicago's cultural diversity, Kaminsky enriches the story with a range of Jewish, Irish-Catholic, Korean, African-American, Hispanic and other ethnic characters. In his world-weary, wise and compassionate way, Lieberman uses every tool at his command, from common sense to favors traded as readily with a gang leader as with another cop. Crimes are not so much solved as resolved. And the partnerships Lieberman has forged with his compatriotsDbe they relatives, police officers, suspects or citizensDmake the resolutions and the process of achieving them a joy to follow. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A clock ticks on the life of a Mob squealer's son while the two Chicago cops trying to save his life are distracted by a stick-up team, scam artists, a mentally-ill ex-football star who is murdered, family responsibilities, weariness, guilt, and dicey digestion. In the latest addition to the Edgar-winning Kaminsky's Lieberman series, one of the cops, Detective Bill Hanrahan, goes on assignment to Cleveland to protect the wife and 17-year-old son of a Mob bookkeeper who has started to blab to the feds. The assignment goes haywire, with the bookkeeper's wife murdered and the son kidnapped. Hanrahan takes his load of guilt back to his partner, Abe Lieberman, who philosophically metes out advice to Hanrahan while dealing with a suicidal brother and disappointing daughter. The Lieberman mysteries, presenting messy lives and troubled memories, are intriguing mysteries of character, as much about solving moral problems as they are about solving crimes. Connie Fletcher
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