Daniel Friedman

The King of Chicago is the story of a father-son relationship as real and hugely loving as that in Philip Roth's Patrimony. At its heart is a young son who tries furiously to heal his father from a violent childhood inside a Chicago orphanage. The orphanage, the Marks Nathan Home, still stands today on the West Side of Chicago, marked by a tarnished, barely legible plaque. Once home to 14,000 Jewish orphans, it is now just another barely remembered...

"The year is 1807, and Byron is living large as a student at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He has successfully skirted the college's rule against keeping dogs in the dorm by rooming with a rather large bear named "the Professor." When a young woman is found murdered in a local boarding house, Byron can't pass up the opportunity to prove his immeasurable genius by solving the case. In a time where there are no police investigators, only expensive...

Death-camp survivor Buck is 87, abrasive, and has trouble remembering. But his cop's watchfulness is intact, and he keeps his .357 Magnum close by. When he learns that the sadistic guard who brutalized him is likely still alive and the possessor of much stolen Nazi gold, Buck and his chatterbox grandson go on a quest. But who are these people who suddenly come out of the woodwork--a loan shark, a scholar, a pretty Israeli soldier? And why does everyone...