When former NYPD detective Joe Serpe hit bottom, he just kept on going. Having lost his career to charges of corruption, his family to divorce, his partner to suicide, and his fireman brother to the tragedy of 9/11, Serpe's world is nearly empty but for his cat, Mulligan. Living in a basement apartment in a blue collar town on Long Island, Joe spends his days filling tanks with home heating oil and his nights filling his belly with vodka.

But when a young retarded man who worked for Joe's oil company is cruelly murdered, Joe Serpe rediscovers purpose and grasps for a last chance at redemption.

Along with his former Internal Affairs Bureau nemesis, Bob Healy, and Marla Stein, a brave and beautiful, group home psychologist, Joe wades into the world of street gangs, anti-immigration organizations, and the Red Mafia.

"Hose Monkey" is a rough and tumble ride through a violent, often cruel world--a world where it's hard to tell the bad guys from the good guys without a scorecard. It is a world of murder and extortion, but one in which an innocent Down Syndrome girl may hold the key that unlocks the mystery. At the same time, "Hose Monkey" is a story of salvation and forgiveness. . . a tale of justice done.

A year after ex-NYPD detectives and former enemies Joe Serpe and Bob Healy teamed up to solve the murder of a retarded young man who worked at Joe's company--and prevented the Russian Mafia from infiltrating the home heating oil business on Long Island--they are faced with an even more heinous series of crimes.

Five oil truck drivers have been robbed and shot to death, their lifeless bodies left to bleed out on the cold and loveless suburban streets. The killer should have chosen his victims more wisely, because the fourth victim, Rusty Monaco, was another retired NYPD detective, one who had saved Joe Serpe's life while they were both still on the job.

Still reeling from his wife's recent miscarriage, Moe Prager is bullied into taking the case of an up-and-coming politico whose career has stalled over the suspicious disappearance of a young woman. It's been almost two years since Moira Heaton, State Senator Steven Brightman's intern, vanished on Thanksgiving Eve 1981. In spite of Brightman's best efforts to clear his name, he has been tried and convicted in the press. As a reluctant Moe peels away the layers of the case, he discovers the tragic circumstances of Moira Heaton's disappearance are buried deep in the past and that there is another more heinous crime at the heart of it all. Will the ugly truth set Brightman free or will it bury all the players beneath the crumbling artiface of corruption, murder, and hate?

There are no second acts for the dead . . . or are there?

For over twenty years, retired NYPD officer and PI Moe Prager, has been haunted by the secret that would eventually destroy his family. Now, two years after the fallout from the truth, more than secrets are haunting the Prager family. Moe Prager follows a trail of graverobbers from cemetery to cemetery, from ashes to ashes and back again in order to finally solve the enigma of his dead brother-in-law Patrick. He plunges deeper into the dark recesses of his past than ever before, revisiting all of his old cases, in order to uncover the twisted alchemy of vengeance and resurrection. Will Moe, at last, put his past to rest? Will he find the man who belongs in that vacant grave or will it remain empty, empty ever after?

Ex-NYPD cop turned P.I. and entrepreneur, Moe Prager is faced with a gut-wrenching case. The apparent suicide of his old friend and NYPD Chief of Detectives, Larry McDonald, forces Moe back onto the decaying Coney Island streets he patrolled when he was in uniform. But now, beneath the boardwalk and behind the rusted and crumbling rides of the midway, he finds a trail of death, betrayal, and corruption reaching back to 1972. As Faulkner once said, ''The past is never dead. It isn't even past.'' So it goes for Moe Prager in "Soul Patch."

"Walking the Perfect Square" introduced Moe Prager - retired New York City cop-turned-wine shop owner - to much acclaim and an enthusiastic readership. Still possessed of his vintage police savvy, and perhaps the only Jewish licensed PI in the five boroughs, Moe wonders if he's really meant to be a merchant and not a cop. "Redemption Street" finds him in 1981, lured into the mystery of a 1966 hotel fire - one that killed seventeen people, including his first love - by a long-grieving brother and Moe's own restless determination to set things right.

Reed Farrel Coleman's crisp, page-turning narrative has Moe trudging through his childhood summer vacation stomping grounds, the now-decaying Catskill resort scene. The borscht belt's near-forgotten landscape of scarred lives, ambitious politicians, and corrupt cops is the minefield Moe must brave to find the truth. Was the fire really sparked by a negligent smoker or was it murder? Will the long dead keep their secrets or divulge their stories? And will what Moe uncovers lead him down another blind alley or into the bright light of "Redemption Street"?