Lt. Joe Dante Books In Order

Publication Order of Lt. Joe Dante Books

The Lt. Joe Dante series is a series of suspense, mystery, and detective fiction books written by one of the highly reputed authors from The United States named Christopher Newman. This series is comprised of a total of 9 books, that were released between the years 1986 and 1997. In each and every novel of the series, author Newman as described the chief protagonist as Joe Dante. He is depicted as a maverick cop living in the New York City. The series begins with the publication of the 1986 novel titled Midtown South. Author Newman has shown in this book that the rich, the evil, as well as the poor in the New York City take on a couple of cops from the NYPD. Throughout the course of the novel, author Newman has described a gripping story that goes on to rip the whole city wide apart. After the success of the debut book, the series is followed up with the second one titled Sixth Precint. The Fawcett publishers released this book in the year 1987. In the plot of the book, it is shown that a rich art collector gets killed with the use of a kitchen knife. After killing him, the killer slashes all his precious paintings to bits. In another case, a rich and famous neurosurgeon is charged with a malpractice suit. He fears that this suit could ruin his license to practice, his marriage, as well as his torrid relationship with a cokehead. Now comes the brilliant detective named Lt. Joe Dante, who was formerly working in Midtown South. He gets assigned to go to sixth precinct. He begins his investigation to track down the killer in the first case. However, when he is half way through with the investigation, he gets baffled by an even more shocking murder. This forces him to question everyone and everything that he knows.

Author Newman published the next book in the series under the title of Knock Off. The plot story of the book shows that the designer of a trend setting new sportswear company known as Close Apparel is discovered bludgeoned to death in his own office. Post his death, it is found that many important items are missing from the offices of the sportswear company. Initially, it is suspected that a piracy ring has caused the damage and the killing of the designer. The company personnel fear that the missing items could be misused if they land in the wrong hands and could cost them a plenty. When Detective Joe Dante is handed over the case, he starts the investigation by going over the information that was lost with the missing files from the office. After doing the thorough investigation, Joe Dante comes to the conclusion that the cheap off the rack knock offs are not worth killing and there is something else in the case that he is not able to see. And this missing link could help him get closer towards catching the killer and solving the case. While Dante is still working on the case, an arrogant agent from the United States Treasury department shows up and tries to take over the case, which was originally assigned to Joe Dante. Later, Dante learns that a beautiful and young model is the latest target set for death by the killer. He knows that there is a lot more online for him than the latest fall line and he seems determined to go to any extent in order to prevent the killing of another innocent victim.

One of the most interesting and successful books written in the series by the bestselling author Newman is titled as ‘Dead End Game’. This book was released by the publishers at Berkley in the year 1994. This book served as the first one in the series published in a hardcover edition. Similar to all the other novels in the series, this one too features a gritty plot full of thrill, suspense, and murder, and once again features Joe Dante as an NYPD detective. The beginning of the story shows that a star pitcher from the Kansas City Royals named Willie Cintron is discovered dead because of an overdose of heroin. His dead body is found on the day when the final game was about to be played in the League Championship. It appears that because of the death of William, the New York Yankees are not only ones to get benefitted. The suspicions begin to grow when a popular sports columnist from New York cries about foul play. The initial reports showed that William Cintron had committed suicide. But, Joe Dante and his partner named Jumbo Richardson do not seem to be convinced. They carry out a separate investigation and come to know that the list of suspects involved in the death of William is long. Later, it is revealed that all the suspects are interconnected and each one of them have profitted after William’s death. The plot that follows in the novel continue to appear extremely compelling and intriguing.

One of the other popular books published in the series is titled as ‘Hit and Run’. It was released by the Dell publishers in the year 1997. The intriguing plot of this book shows that a man gets killed outside a posh hotel in Manhattan after getting hit by a speeding car. Immediately, Joe Dante gets plunged into the investigation of yet another complex case. It later found that the victim used to on the executive level in a big corporate company. As Joe and his team go ahead with the investigation, they learn about a billion dollar deal related to the stock market and the involvement of a financier from the Wall Street, whose tracks seemed to have gone missing. Joe keeps on trying to put together the puzzled pieces of ambition, sex, high tech fraud, and money. And the hunt for the evidences in the hit and run case takes him from the high finance pinnacle of Manhattan to its mean streets. The man Joe Dante is chasing seems to have a motive for murder worth 38 million dollars. He also seems cunning enough to get away with it. But, Joe too seems equally determined to catch him and put him behind bars. This novel became very much successful all across the world and eventually, helped author Newman achieve new heights in his already successful writing career.