title: The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide
author:  Dick Lehr 
description: Starred Review. Mired in the racial conflicts of a divided city, Lehr, coauthor of the bestselling <I>Black Mass</I>, details one of the most controversial cases in the annals of the Boston Police Department, involving a brutal assault on a black plainclothes officer by his fellow cops and the resulting 1998 civil rights trial against the police force. Not only does Lehr paint the racial and political turbulence of Boston at the time, but he explores the cultural backgrounds of the black officer, Michael Cox; his attacker and fellow officer, Kenny Conley; and Robert Smut Brown, a drug dealer involved in the killing that started it all. Cox, who responded to the murder and chased after the car carrying the suspects, was beaten very severely by his overzealous colleagues, waited for an administrative apology and got only a coverup by the department. What followed was a sensational trial with all of the key ingredients of police brutality and a solid blue code of silence, with no winners. Jolting, nightmarish and potent, this true cop yarn bests any bogus reality show or overblown tabloid tale with its hard-boiled spin. 8 pages of b&amp;w photos; 1 map. <I>(July)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  The GIVEN DAY
  
  Dennis Lehane
  
  *
  
  
  
  
  
  C A S T O F C H A R A C T E R S
  
  Steve Coyle--Danny Coughlin's patrol partner.
  
  Claude Mesplede--alderman of the Sixth Ward.
  
  Patrick Donnegan--boss of the Sixth Ward.
  
  Isaiah and Yvette Giddreaux--heads of Boston chapter of the NAACP.
  
  "Old" Byron Jackson--head of the bellmen's union, Hotel Tulsa.
  
  Deacon Skinner Broscious--gangster, Tulsa Dandy and Smoke--enforcers for
  Deacon Broscious.
  
  Clarence Jessup "Jessie" Tell--numbers runner, Luther's friend.
  
  Tulsa Clayton Tomes--houseman, friend of Luther's, Boston.
  
  Mrs. DiMassi--Danny Coughlin's landlady.
  
  Frederico and Tessa Abruzze--Danny's neighbors.
  
  Louis Fraina--head of the Lettish Workingman's Society.
  
  Mark Denton--Boston Police Department patrolman, union organizer.
  
  Rayme Finch--agent, Bureau of Investigation.
  
  John Hoover--lawyer, Department of Justice.
  
  Samuel Gompers--president of the American Federation of Labor.
  
  Andrew J. Peters--mayor of Boston Calvin Coolidge--governor of Mas