The Payback Game

A decorated New York City detective in the prime of his life suddenly dies of a heart attack. Or so it seems. But a star columnist for the Daily News isn’t buying it. No way, no how. Using information supplied by a street snitch, the investigative reporter believes that the cop was killed by a hitman who used a shot of potassium chloride to simulate a heart attack. When the reporter starts nosing around, he himself is killed by an assassin who disappears without a trace. Months later, when the dead reporter’s murder goes stone cold, a retired legendary columnist hires rogue private investigator, Frank Boff, to hunt down the killer. Boff and his sidekick, boxer Danny Cullen, team up once again, and this time they find themselves up against a ruthless biker gang, bent cops, and a criminal mastermind who’ll stop at nothing to launch a multi-million dollar criminal operation in Brooklyn. Lied to, shot at, and constantly under threat, Boff and Cullen cut through layers of deceit and misdirection to zero in on the mastermind with one intention only: to seek and destroy. Review"Nathan Gottlieb's The Payback Game is not only a terrific mystery story, but it's so loaded with twists and turns and compelling characters that it's nearly impossible to put the book down. Private eye Frank Boff, a former legendary DEA agent continues to defy all genre expectations. He's a delightful and iconic investigator with a wicked sense of humor and a morally-challenged idea of what constitutes justice in a world riddled with corruption. I defy you to find a more original and appealing private eye." --Harvey Araton, New York Times "A New York City cop is killed by an assassin who disguises the murder as a heart attack. Two weeks later, a star investigative columnist for the NY Daily News, who is digging into the case, is brutally murdered himself. Months later, the two cases have cold and nobody can crack them. Well, nobody except Frank Boff. In this fourth installment of Nathan Gottlieb's acclaimed mystery series, Boff, the former DEA agent turned high-profile private investigator, is hired to hunt down yet another killer. This time, he and his sidekick, boxer Danny Cullen, find themselves tangling with Hells Angels bikers, rogue cops, and a secret and sinister operation that is about to explode in the New York underworld. If The Payback Game doesn't keep you turning pages at warp speed, you don't have a pulse." --Kevin Kernan, NY PostAbout the AuthorA former reporter for The {Newark} Star-Ledger, Nathan Gottlieb is the author of The Hurting Game, the first Frank Boff Mystery, and its three sequels, The Punishing Game, The Killer Sex Game, and The Payback Game. Gottlieb lives in New York, where he writes for HBO's boxing website and is working on the fifth book in his series, The Death Dealing Game. For more about the Frank Boff Mystery Series and Nathan Gottlieb visit his website at nathangottlieb.com.