A Murder Gravesend

Hal Silver is a retired civil servant, biding his time hanging around the neighborhoods of southern Brooklyn and supplementing his meager income with an occasional off-the-cuff inquiry. But things turn serious when he stumbles upon the murder of a local Pizzeria owner and to protect his client from a murder charge he ends up being used as a front man by the local detective force. This turns out to be not exactly his cup of seltzer as conducting risky investigations wasn't what he thought he'd be doing with his rapidly declining years. Bumbling his the way to the solution, Silver cozies up with smooth talking gangsters, less than stellar representatives of the law enforcement community, strangely non-bereaved family members, ex-wives, present girlfriends and other assorted characters that ring with the authenticity of a Brooklyn egg cream. When he finally closes in on the killer, Hal meets face to face with the kind of danger he has so studiously spent his life avoiding.