Overview

"Payback - Tales of Love, Hate and Revenge, the second book of the Passaic River Trilogy, is a drama so intense that it would be improbable anywhere but 1946 Newark. Across the country millions were dealing with the loss of loved ones, and horrible memories were being buried for the greater good. But not in Newark. Two mutilated bodies were pulled from the putrid Passaic River, and the sawed-off arm of a third man was found neatly wrapped and tied at the city dump. The three victims were members of the German-American Bund, Hitler lovers who had to pay the price for supporting a murderous madman. Someone was sending a message that only revenge could clear the mind and free the soul. It didn't take long for Police Lieutenant Nick Cisco and his partner, Sergeant Kevin McClosky, two veteran homicide cops [first introduced to readers in ""Father Divine's Bikes"" the first book of the Trilogy], to realize they were in over their heads as they grappled with ambition, greed, racial tension, international intrigue, and a powerful church on the take. The three murders could not have come at a worse time for Cisco. His wife, Connie, had left him, and his close-knit Catholic family had disowned him because of his affair with his lover, Grace. To add to the chaos, Cisco learned that he could have another homicide on his plate. Father Terry Nolan cornered Cisco at the city morgue and demanded his help. The senior counsel for M.L. Kraus, manufacturer of the poisonous gas Zyklon B, and his German wife were severely beating a Catholic orphan they were seeking to adopt. The Archdiocese had weighed Kraus' huge cash contributions against a helpless girl's plight and did nothing. Kraus, facing a host of war crime indictments in Germany, was fighting for its massive pre-war chemical holdings in New Jersey. A federal court in Newark would soon decide Kraus' fate. The outcome of the case would have a bearing not only on the company's future, but Europe's as well. Watching it all from the banks of the Passaic River was the dark specter of a murderous madman seeking further revenge."

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9781087800332

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Reviews

Payback, Steve Bassett's new book, is even better than the award-winning Father Divine's Bikes. Bassett is agile and spry, moving quickly from one scene to the next and he has a way of distilling the essence of a character in just a phrase or two: a tall blonde, blue-eyed Prussian lawyer with the rare ability to combine vapidity and arrogance without a hint of apology. These are characters that suck you in and hold your attention because you know what makes them tick. BY Christine White, Author Uniquely Felt This novel is so beautifully written, with subplots that introduce exciting characters, strong political themes, family dynamics, and the internal crisis going on in the life of one of the key characters. Steve Bassett creates characters that readers can easily identify with and weaves reality into the writing. By Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorites The message behind the murders in Payback is clear. Add in some racial tension, corporate greed, sexual dalliances, a marriage on the ropes, child abuse, gangsters, mind control, a mysterious madman, and a corrupt church - and you end up with an INTENSE drama that will keep you reading well into the night. By Sheri Hoyt for Reader Views Payback: Tales of Love, Hate and Revenge by Steve Bassett is one of the most intense action thrillers I have ever read. Set in 1940s Newark, the story takes us on a tension-filled journey of murder and revenge, from the atrocities of Nazi Germany to a putrid, rotten river in Newark. By Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorites. Action-packed, intense and very well developed, the story had me hooked from the opening scene....I enjoyed the pace and I especially enjoyed the development of the story. It is a riveting story that gives you everything you crave from crime fiction. By Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite As demonstrated in his first book, Steve Bassett knows how to write. He also knows how to weave all the elements of a good story into a great book. I loved these characters. I loved many of them because they are rare. That is, they are rarely written about. By Ray Simmons for Readers Favorite

"Payback, Steve Bassett's new book, is even better than the award-winning Father Divine's Bikes. Bassett is agile and spry, moving quickly from one scene to the next and he has a way of distilling the essence of a character in just a phrase or two: ""a tall blonde, blue-eyed Prussian lawyer with the rare ability to combine vapidity and arrogance without a hint of apology."" These are characters that suck you in and hold your attention because you know what makes them tick. BY Christine White, Author Uniquely Felt This novel is so beautifully written, with subplots that introduce exciting characters, strong political themes, family dynamics, and the internal crisis going on in the life of one of the key characters. Steve Bassett creates characters that readers can easily identify with and weaves reality into the writing. By Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorites The message behind the murders in Payback is clear. Add in some racial tension, corporate greed, sexual dalliances, a marriage on the ropes, child abuse, gangsters, mind control, a mysterious madman, and a corrupt church - and you end up with an INTENSE drama that will keep you reading well into the night. By Sheri Hoyt for Reader Views Payback: Tales of Love, Hate and Revenge by Steve Bassett is one of the most intense action thrillers I have ever read. Set in 1940s Newark, the story takes us on a tension-filled journey of murder and revenge, from the atrocities of Nazi Germany to a putrid, rotten river in Newark. By Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorites. Action-packed, intense and very well developed, the story had me hooked from the opening scene....I enjoyed the pace and I especially enjoyed the development of the story. It is a riveting story that gives you everything you crave from crime fiction. By Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite As demonstrated in his first book, Steve Bassett knows how to write. He also knows how to weave all the elements of a good story into a great book. I loved these characters. I loved many of them because they are rare. That is, they are rarely written about. By Ray Simmons for Readers Favorite"

Author Information

"Steve Bassett was born, raised and educated in New Jersey, and although far removed during a career as a multiple award-winning journalist, he has always been proud of the sobriquet Jersey Guy. He has been legally blind for almost a decade but hasn't let this slow him down. Polish on his mother's side and Montenegrin on his father's, with grandparents who spoke little or no English, his early outlook was ethnic and suspicious. As a natural iconoclast, he joined the dwindling number of itinerant newsmen roaming the countryside in search of, well just about everything. Sadly, their breed has vanished into the digital ether. Bassett's targets were not selected simply by sticking pins in a map. There had to be a sense of the bizarre. First there was The Long Branch Daily Record on the New Jersey shore. Mobsters loved the place. It was one of their favorite watering holes. A mafia soldier was gunned down not far from the paper. Great fun for a cub reporter. Curiosity got the better of him with his next choice the Pekin Daily Times located in central Illinois. Now a respected newspaper, it had once been the official voice of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920's. Pekin had saved its bacon during the Depression by tacitly approving two time-honored money makers, prostitution and gambling, earning an eight-page spread in Life. Next it was the Salt Lake Tribune. The Pulitzer Prize winner was then, and still is, considered one of the best dailies west of the Rockies. Bassett's coverage of the invective laden contract talks between the United Mine Workers and the three copper mining giants led to his recruitment by the Associated Press. Bassett's series for the AP in Phoenix uncovered the widespread abuses inherent in the Government's Barcero program for Mexican contract workers. The series exposed working and housing conditions that transformed workers into virtual slave laborers forced to buy at company stores, live in squalid housing and pay illegally collected unemployment taxes that went into the pocket of their bosses. The series led to Bassett's promotion and transfer to the San Francisco bureau where as an Urban Affairs investigative reporter he covered the Black Panthers, anti-war protests, the radical takeover and closure of San Francisco State University, the deadly ""People's Park"" demonstrations at U.C. Berkeley, and the Patty Hearst kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Bassett's five-part series on the Wah Ching gained national attention by exposing the Chinese youth gang as the violent instrument of Chinatown's criminal bosses. Then came CBS television news in Los Angeles, where he rose through the ranks to become producer of KNXT's Evening News, the highest rated late-night news program in the nation's second-largest media market. After a four-year stint with KFMB-TV, the CBS station in San Diego, he returned to Los Angeles as the Executive Producer of Metromedia's KNXT's award-winning news program, Metro News. AWARDS: - Three Emmy Awards for his investigative documentaries. - The prestigious Medallion Award presented by the California Bar Association for ""Distinguished Reporting on the Administration of Justice."" - Honored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as Executive Producer for Metro News, the top independent news program in 1979. Bassett currently resides in Placitas, New Mexico with his wife Darlene Chandler Bassett. Contact Steve on his website: stevebassettworld.com."

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