a 1979 NYC thriller Novel Book one
New York, 1979. The city was broke, angry, and hungry. The streets belonged to crews who collected what they wanted and punished whoever said no.
Diego De LaCruz was nineteen and already living two lives. By night, he drove the graveyard shift in a yellow Checker cab, watching shadows in his mirrors and counting fares to cover rent, college tuition, and dojo fees. By day, he trained Okinawan Goju-Ryu in an East Village dojo under an Okinawan Sensei, learning discipline the old way—through pain, repetition, and restraint.
Diego believed in rules. Not the ones politicians talked about—the ones that kept a man honest when nobody was watching.
Then one night, Diego discovered a dead man in his back seat, and his life stopped being his own. The police were no help, as he would have been implicated if he went to them. The streets were worse. Somewhere behind it was an organization that knew how to make problems disappear—starting with him.
Diego’s search for the truth drags him through Chinatown, the South Bronx, and the waterfront, where every answer costs him and every delay gives his enemies time to close in. With no safety net and nowhere to hide, Diego has to decide what matters more: staying clean or staying alive.
The Night Driver is a hard-edged 1979 NYC thriller about a young man pushed past the edge—and the code he refuses to surrender.
Diego De LaCruz a 1979 NYC thriller Novel Book two Broken Protocol
After surviving the events that should have killed him, Diego learns a hard truth: the streets don’t forgive, and organizations don’t retreat. They adapt.
What began as a fight for survival becomes something far more dangerous. The forces behind the violence are no longer improvising—they are executing a plan. And Diego, whether he wants it or not, is now part of that plan.
As the city tightens around him, Diego is forced beyond the boundaries he once believed in. Old rules fail. Trusted lines collapse. Every move now carries consequences not just for him, but for the people standing beside him—especially Sakura, whose loyalty and resolve prove as lethal as any weapon.
From back-room meetings and waterfront strongholds to rain-soaked streets where mistakes are paid for in blood, Diego confronts an enemy that doesn’t make threats—it enforces outcomes. The closer he gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that this fight was never about one man, one night, or one mistake.
It is about control.
Broken Protocol is a relentless 1979 New York thriller about escalation, loyalty under fire, and the moment when survival is no longer enough. Diego De LaCruz has crossed the line. There is no going back.