PUBLIC MORALS
THE DEVINE TRILOGY
It's 1982, and everyone is trying to "Escape From New York."
Terence Devine, a charismatic Vice cop with one eye on removing his family to Florida, is caught on tape taking money from a pimp. Forced to cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation into his own unit, Devine’s position becomes even more precarious when he’s linked to the murder of a sex worker whose customers include some of the most powerful men in the city. Despite his fevered efforts to deflect the inquiry into the woman’s death, Devine receives a life sentence for killing her.
Forty years later his long-estranged daughter, Sheila, a documentary filmmaker, reaches out to him in prison. When they meet, Devine insists he’s innocent. Sheila is reluctant to delve into her family’s troubled history and ridicules her father’s claims, although she sees the box-office potential in making a movie about him.
But as she examines his case she starts to question his guilt, and the pointed questions she asks place her own life in danger.
Public Morals is the story of people trying to right the wrongs of a world corrupted by power and greed. It is also about the elusive nature of justice and the difficulty of escaping the past, even when your life depends on doing just that.
paperback RETAILERS
BOOK DETAILS
Publisher : Level Best Books (November 21, 2023)
Language : English
Paperback : 328 pages
ISBN-10 : 1685125182
ISBN-13 : 978-1685125189
Item Weight : 1.06 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 0.73 x 9 inches
ebook RETAILERS
KINDLE DETAILS
ASIN : B0CKWQ9P5P
Publisher : Level Best Books (November 21, 2023)
Publication date : November 21, 2023
Language : English
File size : 1268 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 364 pages

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
This story is a gritty exploration of power, greed, and the elusive quest for truth. The writing paints a vivid picture of New York’s underbelly. I received a gifted copy.

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of greed, corruption and family love (kinda)
Tom Coffey has written an engaging book about the seedy and corrupt side of New York in the 80's following the story of the characters to the recent past. All I can say is that this author must have a real cynical side to him to allow all the characters to have a such a dark side, many of them having no redeeming features. The prose really put you in the middle of the action, especially in the first half of the book. A real page turner as you want to see what conniving is going to happen next. Everybody has an agenda and the agendas all clash with nobody trusting anybody else with all their dark secrets. You can tell that Tom has a detailed knowledge of New York and being a journalist his cynicism must come naturally. I certainly can't see him hobnobbing with the yoga crowd of the upper West Side meditating in his Lululemon pants

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty Tale of Greed and Corruption!
I’ll try not to give away too much of the plot, but warning, there will be spoilers! To be specific, the book is broken up into two parts. Public Morals begins in the year 1982 and ‘Part 1’ is a story about an undercover New York City cop named Devine who is serving in a vice division called Public Morals. The problem with this cop is that he’s dirty. Acting as a collector on the side for extra cash by shaking down the pimps, this guy plays both sides. He’s married, but certainly not faithful and he holds no honor to anyone. He gets in over his head with his dirty dealings and winds up in trouble, finding himself in need to cut a deal with the Internal Affairs Division. He's made an offer that he can’t refuse; spy on his fellow officers and blow the lid off Public Morals. During all this, he also winds up as the last person to be seen with a murdered prostitute, one that he’d shaken down just before the murder to collect money that the girl’s pimp owed him. This becomes a problem for Devine. Between his own shakedowns, his actual job, and the cooperation investigation he realizes that there’s more corruption going on in the city than what he’d realized, and much of it higher up on the ladder than just the street detectives. In working on the IA investigation, each time that he speaks to a street worker he receives more info about the dead prostitute. Devine hooks up with a local journalist, Quinn, whom he promises a good story in the end if they work together. Devine sets up his superiors in various uncompromising circumstances which makes for a good story for Quinn, and more evidence for Internal Affairs. Ultimately, Devine ends up testifying at the Grand Jury against many of his fellow officers and becomes the star witness during the eventual trial. Obviously, his career crumbles and he’s ostracized, but that isn’t the worst of his problems. As a bonus, he winds up being convicted of the murder of the dead prostitute and finds himself on death row. Obviously, a payback for what he’d done to his fellow officers and the department. ‘Part I’ of the book reads as if I were watching the movie, Serpico, only from the dirty cop’s point of view. It’s a gritty tale that I truly enjoyed before moving on to ‘Part 2’. ‘Part II’ jumps ahead 40 years to 2022. We find Devine’s children grown and their father still sitting in prison on death row for the murder of the prostitute. His daughter, Sheila, is now a documentary filmmaker and has become associated with an organization that works with people who have been wrongly convicted. His son, Michael, is now a prosecuting attorney. Sheila finds herself working on her father’s story and she seeks out Quinn, the journalist, who’s still alive. He puts her onto the trail of the mistress that her father had been seeing all those years ago. He also tells her what he knew of the murdered prostitute whom he’d met before she was killed. Sheila begins to visit her father in prison regularly. She finds out that his old mistress has also been making frequent visits. Sheila convinces her brother to pull their dad’s old case file, and he does. Between the two, they put the pieces together and believe that their father was, in fact, innocent of the crime. Her next move is to interview anyone who’s still alive who knew her father and the case including former cops, prosecutors, and streetwalkers. Sheila also visits the dead hooker’s old apartment and between this visit and her contacts, she discovers key pieces of evidence from the 1982 murder. Sheila is ultimately connected to a person who may have witnessed what occurred on the night of the murder, and information that was purposely left out of the investigative reports. Ultimately, both Sheila and Michael will be stalked and threatened the closer they get to the truth about their father and the murder. I won’t give up the ending only to say that the reader will not be disappointed. As expected, there are twists and circumstances that will satisfy and surprise. In ‘Part 2’ Sheila, and to a lesser extent her brother, wind up being the detectives, just as their father was in 1982. Overall, Public Morals is an enjoyable, gritty detective story. The author has an eye for detail and knows how to make the reader feel as if they’re standing right beside Devine and Sheila as the story unfolds and the action take place. As a retired law enforcement officer myself, I believe that anyone who enjoys the genre of mystery and detective novels will not be disappointed with this read. Highly recommended!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great protagonist
Tom Coffey takes us back to the 'Drop Dead' era of New York City and offers us a memorable main player in Sheila Devine. This is the start of a series and I expect to read more about this great character.

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and seedy; yet wholesome.
Public Morals is dark and seedy story that somehow was also wholesome. It is about corruption, revenge, helplessness, opportunism, parental damage, and inherent love. I could not fathom putting this book down because I needed to see the other side of the this decades long rabbit hole. The writing was raw and primal and soiled that it made you have to look to see if you got any of it on you when you crawled out. Sheila is such a powerful and rewarding character. You were right there in everything she was going through. Her torment, pain and fear was yours. Devine, well, he was completely someone you would loved to hate but sometimes he would make you dance a little to long on the side of love with him. I recommend this sordid, painful, redeeming novel to everyone. Must read!