Johnny Careless: A Novel

by Kevin Wade

Overview

“A fast-moving classic crime novel” (John Sandford) crafted by the veteran screenwriter and showrunner for the acclaimed police procedural series Blue Bloods, Johnny Careless is Kevin Wade’s razor-sharp debut novel.

Police Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island’s North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective’s shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a “have-not” among the glittering “haves,” a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it.

When the corpse of Jeep’s childhood friend Johnny Chambliss—born into privilege and known as “Johnny Careless” for his reckless, golden-boy antics—surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. He is challenged by Johnny’s wealthy and secretive family and his beautiful, enigmatic ex-wife as he untangles a knotted mystery fraught with theft, corrupt local moguls, and decades-old secrets, all while grappling with his own deep-seated grief for his lost pal.

A fast-paced story, Johnny Careless “combines grit and wit in a way that conjures Donald Westlake or Robert Parker in full stride” (Carl Hiassen).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250355102
Publisher:	Celadon Books
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Series:	The Jeep Mullane Series , #1
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kevin Wade is a playwright, screenwriter, and television writer and producer whose credits include the stage plays Key Exchange, Mr. & Mrs., and Cruise Control, and the screenplays for Working Girl (seven Academy Award nominations), True Colors, Mr. Baseball, Junior, Meet Joe Black, and Maid in Manhattan. For television, he created the ABC television drama Cashmere Mafia and in 2010 joined the rookie CBS drama Blue Bloods as a writer. Starting with the second season and for the rest of the show’s fourteen year-run, Wade served as its showrunner, executive producer, and back-seat driver.

Editorial Reviews

"Wade’s gift for suspense is as well honed as one would expect from his film and TV credits—the real surprise is his character work, which goes deep enough that readers will find themselves thinking about Jeep and Johnny long after they’ve turned the final page. Haunting and heartbreaking, this is a winner."

—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A haunting debut novel that works through misunderstandings and violence to something that feels like redemption."

—Kirkus

"Riveting."

—Newsday

“Jeep Mullane is the kind of American hero cop we need now more than ever. This is a fast moving classic crime novel.”

—John Sandford, author of the Prey series

"Kevin Wade's cinematic prose carries you away at a sizzling pace that's unstoppable. Johnny Careless is fresh and wildly entertaining, the characters so real you expect them to walk through the door."

—Patricia Cornwell, New York Times bestselling author

"From page one, Kevin Wade stomps on the accelerator — smart, cool writing abetted by (mostly) smart, secret-bearing characters. Johnny Careless combines grit and wit in a way that conjures Donald Westlake or Robert Parker in full stride."

—Carl Hiaasen, New York Times bestselling author

“There are a lot of suspects in the murder of careless, care-free Johnny Chambliss. An ex-wife, an embittered coach, a humiliated father, a cabal led by the town mayor, a mysterious foreigner, a lurker who calls himself Angel, and a gang of vicious thieves are all cast in Wade’s ‘collision between the past and present.’ Sheriff Jeep Mullane probes this twisty, unpredictable case, his sharp-as-an-ice-pick investigative skills leading the reader through a nimble, engrossing, thoroughly entertaining novel.”

—Joe Ide, author of the IQ series

From the Publisher

2024-10-10
The premature death of his oldest friend sends a rookie Nassau County, Long Island, police chief down Memory Lane. It’s one bumpy trip.

When the body of John Payson Chambliss, the scion of wealthy blue-blood Pete Chambliss, washes up on the Bayville beach, everyone assumes he was accidentally struck by a boat—everyone but Chief Jeep Mullane, Johnny’s high-school lacrosse teammate, who’s struck by the unexplained scratches on Johnny’s back. As Jeep peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Johnny’s death, screenwriter Wade, best known for the TV seriesBlue Bloods, interleaves his account of Johnny’s funeral, Jeep’s awkward reunion with Johnny’s ex-wife, and his pursuit of a well-organized gang’s recent spate of big-ticket car thefts in the area with a measured series of flashbacks to key incidents spaced a year apart and marching toward the present. Jeep takes the rap for Johnny hitting a deer with the family car. Johnny gets it on with visitor Catalina Soto, and sends her money to raise the son she bears back in Santiago until Pete ends the payments by threatening to cut off Johnny’s trust fund. Jeep, attempting to live up to the model of his father, an NYPD officer whose tireless work at Ground Zero led to his early death, struggles to balance loyalty to his friends, his team, and the law. He takes up with a model who wants to stop her artist lover from adding nude photos of her to his professional portfolio without a release, a fling that ends very badly indeed. A colleague repaying a questionable favor sets Jeep on a promising trail to Johnny’s possible killer.

A haunting debut novel that works through misunderstandings and violence to something that feels like redemption.

Kirkus Reviews

As John Pirhalla demonstrates, the trick with narrating this Long Island-based mystery is to use the "Lawn Guyland" accent sparingly, and primarily for local color--for example, when a diner waitress wisecracks to a contentious customer. Pirhalla, an experienced architect of suspense, gives this audiobook considerable zing. Kevin Wade's lean writing style, low-key humor, snappy dialogue, shifting point of view, and depiction of moral ambiguity will invite comparisons to Robert Parker, Elmore Leonard, and Don Winslow. Even though this whodunit involves familiar tropes--the murder victim is a childhood friend of the investigating cop, the vic's ex-wife is the cop's former crush, and the vic's wealthy family has secrets--they're energized by fresh writing and a deft narration. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

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