Book club discusses "Neptune Avenue" [June]

In June, the book club discussed the third "Jack Leightner crime novel" published last year entitled Neptune Avenue by Gabriel Cohen. Leightner is a veteran Brooklyn South homicide detective who catches the case of a young woman found dead in an abandoned row house with his new, young detective partner. It appears to be a suicide from the initial inspection.

Leightner, however, looks harder and knows otherwise.

The resulting case requires its share of police legwork but Leightner becomes quietly distracted as he learns of the death of a likable Russian acquaintance and attempts to investigate that death and comfort his friend's widow. And unexpectedly--his professional work takes a back seat to his personal interests and desires.

The detective character and the writer are a bi product of the Brooklyn neighborhoods as Cohen writes with an understanding and appreciation for the ethnically diverse communities ranging from Brooklyn Heights to Coney Island.

The book was well-received with comments during the book club including:

• it is a surprise how Leightner comes to ignore his professional case to look into the investigation of his friend's death
• the two concurrent cases though give the novel a quick pace of storytelling
  
• the detailed focus on the Russian based community in the novel was appreciated
• perhaps two (or so) incidents or descriptions of the neighborhood made one curious of when the book was written or when the story actually occurred
• one person who read the first book of the series, Red Hook, noted that Leightner gets different partners on-the-job due to his special detective rank
  
• Jack's attraction to his friend's widow, Eugenia, turns to into a surprisingly quick romance [one view]
• the map in front of the book was useful and one attendee (who grew up in the area) talked briefly about her childhood in Brooklyn.
  

The author photograph comes his website.