Brooklyn Murders

By SAM ROBERTS

THIS story of police corruption begins in an unusual way,” the anonymous narrator of “Triple Homicide” explains. “It begins with a murder.”

“Triple Homicide” (St. Martin’s, $24.95) was written by an unusual author as well: Charles J. Hynes, whose day job since 1990 has been as the Brooklyn district attorney. He has skillfully produced — dare I say it? — a surprisingly readable, staccato crime novel paced like a “Law & Order” spinoff. This gritty story reverberates with largely authentic voices from the city’s underbelly, as recounted to the prosecutor-narrator by a mythical muse named Morty.

In a novel brimming with police corruption and cynicism, Mr. Hynes, in an author’s note, inoculates himself against charges of cop-bashing by graciously dedicating his book to the officers “whose courage, integrity and strength have made New York City safe for the people they selflessly protect.” In addition, he credits contemporary colleagues like Commissioner Raymond Kelly with aggressively pursuing rogues within the department.

Literary license also allows an author to indulge in some wishful thinking — in this case, the fictional prosecutor had convicted politicians on charges of selling judgeships. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has been unable to prove such charges, although Mr. Hynes has successfully prosecuted on other grounds, among others, the former Brooklyn Democratic leader and two State Supreme Court justices.

If some of the characters in the novel seem to be cartoonish or to perpetuate ethnic stereotypes, remember that Brooklyn is, after all, a borough of larger-than-life figures. Mr. Hynes’s tormented protagonists are painfully real.

Apart from the occasional memoir (not to mention novels by Linda Fairstein, the prolific former sex crimes prosecutor in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau), New York’s prosecutors have contributed relatively little to the recent fictional crime canon.

For some of them, crime writing can be perilous. In 2001, an assistant plugging his first novel was demoted after indiscreetly claiming that Brooklyn was the best place to be a homicide prosecutor because “we’ve got more dead bodies per square inch.” Mr. Hynes attributed that demotion to other lapses, but he clearly took umbrage at the remark since he doubtless deserved credit for helping to reduce the borough’s homicide rate.

In “Triple Homicide,” the murders are committed in Brooklyn but the bodies are conveniently dumped on Long Island, outside the jurisdiction of the Kings County district attorney. Moreover, Mr. Hynes prudently places most of the book’s crime and corruption in the bad old days, before his office helped turn things around.