Meet Ernie Lijoi, aka Eddie Panone, street lowlife. Lijoi is an undercover cop posing as Panone, and over the course of six months brings down one of New England's largest cocaine rings. Street Business is based on a real cop and a real case.
Office Ernest Lijoi works transit, riding the trains and busses of Boston, looking for gangbangers and gropers. He is invited to go undercover for a few weeks to work on low level drug dealers. His tough Brooklyn background gives him the smarts and attitude that take him from the lowest street life to the very top of a major New England drug operation. He brings it down, resulting in dozens of arrests and six murders. Street Business is a fictionaized version of real events and Ernie Lijoi was a real cop.
Excerpt
Now Lijoi stood at the desk and waited for what Murphy had to say. As he stood there he asked himself what this could be about and whether he had done anything that could have gotten him into trouble. He thought about his recent arrests and wondered if any of them had involved someone with connections at the police department.
Murphy was reviewing a folder in front of him. “You arrest a guy at North Quincy station a couple weeks ago? Guy had some pills?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Quincy detective took the guy.”
“Well, you made a good impression on him. He liked your attitude. He thinks you got street smarts.” Murphy stared at Lijoi for a moment and saw what the Quincy detective had seen; a cocky Italian kid from Brooklyn. Ernie was in his early thirties but he looked ten years younger. His profile on a police report would have read: white male, dark skin, curly black hair, five feet eight inches tall, 185 pounds, scar across his face, nose and eyebrows. He looked like what he was, a former street fighter. His gaze said he was one step ahead of you.
“Would you be interested in working undercover? Quincy needs somebody to work deep undercover for a narcotics investigation. Thirty days. It’s a dangerous job. Very dangerous.”
Professional Reviews
Midwest Book Review
"Street Business is an enthralling story of real life action heroes"
Book review from Regis Schilken/blogcritics.org
Book review from Regis Schilken/blogcritics.org
"I would highly recommend Street Business to readers seeking an exciting story where they will get more than a glimpse into the rat hole of the drug business. Lijoi has been there. The time he spent as a deep undercover investigator is reality. The rat-like characters he describes in the book, the disturbing lives they lead, the language they use, the killing they do, are all believable...a downright, out and out nerve wracking story."
A touching, loving and spirtual insight of the dying process, filled with peace, smiles and starting on their journey, taking me with them as far as I could go, returning back with something I didn't have before. Will be out early in 2010..on Kindle
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