{"product_id":"9780984881062","title":"Softening Flatbush","description":"I, Max Royster, fat, broke, divorced, thrown off the NYPD for mental illness. Now in Flatbush, Brooklyn, I find new love, new murder and new career. Can I keep my love? Crack the case? Can I inspire and change private security? And maybe regain my NYPD shield?\u003cp\u003eI, Max Royster, ex-NYPD cop, cashiered \"for mental disease or defect\", am changing.\u003cbr\u003e I want to marry and stay in one place. \u003cbr\u003e Cooper, my new love, lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that used to be the borough's jewel. The Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson played ball there.\u003cbr\u003e Back then, nobody in Flatbush locked their doors.\u003cbr\u003e Sixty years later, street crime plagues the area.\u003cbr\u003e As an ex-street cop, I watched robberies and shootings increase and criminals savage the neighborhood.\u003cbr\u003e Someone kills a local black comedian.\u003cbr\u003e Cooper and her friends want to clean up the neighborhood and improve Flatbush's image. That way, they can 'flip' their homes and triple their profits\u003cbr\u003e I call her friends \"Flippers,\" a term that does not amuse them.\u003cbr\u003e She challenges me to run a guard agency that suffers from guards ducking work and taking bribes.\u003cbr\u003e Somehow, I think I can inspire the guards by instructing them tricks I learned as a cop. I can transform them from unhappy minimum wage-earners to passionate, hardworking crime fighters.\u003cbr\u003e If I succeed and make Flatbush safe for Cooper and her friends, we will buy a home there and enjoy a happy marriage. \u003cbr\u003e My new employees and I fight to take back the Flatbush streets. I give them better training, uniforms and weapons. The guards buff their new badges with pride. \u003cbr\u003e My boyhood friends, out-of-work actresses, barflies and story-tellers, join us in our quest.\u003cbr\u003e But some guards refuse to let go of old vices. Others turn vigilante and bully innocents. \u003cbr\u003e Curbing their zeal, I try to teach them to uphold civil rights as I hunt the suspect in the comedian's murder.\u003cbr\u003e Then, under cover of night, good and evil clash at the Lefferts Historic House. Facing disgrace and prison, I must decide what matters most in life to me.\u003cbr\u003e Come walk with me on that razor edge between brutality and staying alive as Cooper and I, my Flippers and my guards give everything to try Softening Flatbush.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Frank Hickey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50076028109040,"sku":"9780984881062","price":10.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780984881062_p0.jpg?v=1784737867","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780984881062","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}