Lady Gold - Tapa dura

Angela Amato is a former NYPD detective who left the force and became a Legal Aid attorney. Her reasons for going over to the other side are shared by Gerry Conte, the detective in LadyGold who is assigned to baby-sit a young mobster-turned-informant who is being kept "on ice" while he is telling what he knows and can learn. Conte goes with him on "dates" and spends time chatting with him - a useful way of coaxing information out. She also has the courage to worm her way into the confidence of his Mafioso uncle Tony. And as time goes on, the feeling between the goldshield detective who hates what the mobsters do to the reputation of honest Italian-Americans and the young wiseguy who thinks he can go through life without paying for his actions edges into an odd and moving love story.

Joe Sharkey is a columnist for the New York Times.