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Shot to Pieces
Shot to Piecesis the story of NYPD 1st Grade Detective Padraig Joseph Durr, tasked with solving a grisly gang related homicide in Brooklyn. When Paddy catches the squeal, he is also on the verge of an emotional and psychological breakdown. Because of his penchant for self-destruction, fueled by a childhood of abuse and sexual exploitation, he suffers from an ingrained sense of worthlessness and fear of abandonment. Durr has brought his entire life to the brink of ruin. The book begins on the mean streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Paddy Durr is a gifted and respected detective. He is intelligent, capable and committed. But he is his own worst enemy. With the help of his partners, Durr goes about the arduous task of investigating a complex homicide that no one else seems to want solved. He encounters nothing but difficulty and interference in his search for the truth. Flashing back, we see the highlights and low-lights of his almost thirty-year, incredibly violent and tumultuous police career. We get an intimate glimpse of the demons haunting him. Though a survivor, Paddy Durr is a bullet magnet that lives perpetually under a black cloud. He has seen and experienced things that torture him. If that weren't enough, Durr is turned on by his own Department and thrown to the wolves at the behest of a corrupt and morally bankrupt Mayor. For a summer seemingly spent in hell, Durr becomes Public Enemy Number One. Waiting in the wings is the United States Attorney, seeking to prosecute him for being too effective at his job. Interwoven through all of this is the love story of Durr and his wife Mairead. Their need for each other is unquenchable, but the years of violent misfortune, Paddy's fragile psyche and the poor decisions that these have engendered, combine as forces that grow far beyond either of their control. Paddy's emotional dysfunction and his ultimate betrayal have driven a wedge between them. But it is Paddy's self-destructive tendencies that have brought them to the edge of the abyss. Their love, as strong as it is, might not be enough to save them. Can Durr hold it together enough to solve his case? Can he repair his broken psyche and save his marriage and personal life? Or, will he implode, irrevocably destroying his career, his family and himself? Published 2016 by Lulu.
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Michael O'Keefe is a retired 1st Grade Detective from the NYPD. For twenty-four years, he worked in the toughest neighborhoods in New York, investigating Homicides and other violent crime. He was born and raised on the mean streets described in his fiction. His characters and settings are drawn from the people he encountered there—on both sides of the law.
