Jeff Lawenda

White Hat, Black Hat Jeff Lawenda

Normalcy is shattered when a family living a nearly idyllic existence undergoes a sudden, devastating event. How the impact of that tragedy evolves and alters the life of each family member is the novel's path.



The family that readers will come to know and deeply care for consists of Jake Landau, a decorated NYPD narcotics detective, his wife Norma, a high school English teacher, and Sandy and Jimmy - their two sons. Jake lives two lives: one with his loving family and the other on the mean streets, confronting drug lords and dealers.

White Hat, Black Hat - based upon the short story "Honor Thy Father" - is a literary detective and family drama. This novel will affect readers with its passages of warmth, love, tragedy, sorrow, tension, and action . . . and with its exploration of good and evil. Are some of us white hats and others black hats? Or are we gray hats? Can an inherently good person commit an evil act? If so, what does the journey to that end look like - externally and internally?

With New York City as backdrop and character, the novel spans fifty-eight years, from the innocent mid-fifties to 2013. Much of the storyline occurs during the crime-ridden mid-seventies when the city was financially broke, the Son of Sam serial killer was instilling dread into its inhabitants, and the infamous Blackout of '77 destroyed total neighborhoods. During those years, we witness gritty and sometimes violent police work, family dynamics, and the fall of the big city now considered one of the world's finest.