It's 1948. We're on Staten Island where no one who is anyone would ever set foot. We're with Sam Russo, a neglected graduate of the Staten Island Home for Children. Self-named and self-styled, Russo's not long back from World War II where his unit fought on the Pacific Front with the very last of America's mounted troops. A dreamer with the gift of gab, Russo is now a young private eye who'd like to follow in the hard-boiled footsteps of Bogart's Philip Marlowe or Bogart's Sam Spade-if only he was hard-boiled. In this, his first serious case, it's a dream come true. Sam has two loves:...