THE WANDERING MAN
A Charlie Doherty Thriller
By Terrence McCauley
Woldpack Publishing
272 pgs
Charlie Doherty’s best pal growing up on the streets of New York was Andy Carmichael. Carmichael entered the police academy while Charlie enlisted in the army and went off to fight in the First World War. Upon his return to civilian, Carmichael had risen in the ranks of the NYPD and encouraged Charlie to sign up. Now it’s 1927 and Carmichael is not only the Chief of Police, but he’s helped Charlie climb through the ranks and made him a detective. That’s a stretch, because all Charlie really is the Chief’s “black hand,” the nickname of boss’ gopher who does his menial errands without asking questions.
But when Charlie witnesses a fellow detective gunned down in public in downtown Manhattan, everything changes. As if failing to chase down the audacious killer wasn’t bad enough, Charlie later learns from Carmichael that the slain officer was hunting a twisted serial killer who, for the past twenty years, had been targeting young boys from the various boroughs; all reported missing by their parents and their bodies never found. Carmichael and his top cops kept the case out of the public eye aware its discovery would severely damage the department and create panic among the city’s millions of residents.
Sensing Charlie’s frustration at not having captured the brazen psycho, Carmichael assigns him the task of picking up the hunt where the slain cop had left off. Initially, Charlie is confounded, well aware he has no real experience in crime solving; but as he begins to pore over the files collected by the dead detective, he begins to see threads left unpursued. While methodically going over those old records and witness accounts, a pattern emerges, and Detective Charlie Doherty becomes obsessed with catching the twisted figure known only as the Wandering Man.
Terrence McCauley is one of the finest new crime writers in the business today. His narrative style is clean, straightforward and succinctly paced. There isn’t a dull moment in this entire, gripping tale of an average guy challenged to be more than average.
