ALPHAVILLE 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side

The preface states that while some court transcripts and affidavits were used as source material, most of this book represents the recollections of the author, Manhattan Detective Sergeant Mike Codella, who tells of his battle to rid New York’s Lower East Side of some very bad characters. With accurate accents and superb timing, Keith Szarabajka narrates this disturbing, bloody account of the way things were in the early ‘80s in “Alphabet City,” an area filled with boarded-up, burned-out tenements, which was a haven for heroin dealers and addicts and the fiefdom of “Davie Blue Eyes,” a murderous drug kingpin. Some characters are composites, and some of the names have been changed, but all sound uncomfortably real, thanks to Szarabajka’s spot-on performance. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]