Another surprisingly good read in the Lieberman series. I see an improvement from the first book, which is probably normal. I find Lieberman to be a very interesting character - he uses his brain instead of his gun in most cases, he's very even-tempered most of the time, even around the criminals. He often shows them respect that they don't expect, and seems to want to help them if possible, even when they are considering killing him. But if needed, he can be pretty scary. Once, he needed information from a criminal, and pointed his gun at the guy, then pulled the trigger when he didn't get what he needed. The gun didn't fire, but he pointed it away from the guy and tried again, and it fired. He commented about how it was unreliable sometimes, but the guy became more cooperative. He also faces armed shooters without his gun sometimes.

He's a family man, has a brother that owns a Jewish deli that always makes me hungry for bagels and pastrami sandwiches, among other things. He sometimes hangs out there where a group of 6retired men, called The Alter Cockers, comment and advise him on both his professional and personal life. They are not all Jewish; there's one Chinese man, whose daughter often comes in for lunch and never orders the same thing twice.

The story was pretty good - a cop who shoots his wife, her lover, and one or two others, then holds up on the roof of the building which he fortified and rigged with explosives; he then demands to see first a news team, then another cop at a certain time that he believes played some part in his wife's unfaithfulness. But aside from the main story, there's a lot going on, mostly unrelated things like friends and family matters, or partially related people. There's humor and philosophy mixed in that makes for a fun read, in my opinion. ( )