As the city recovers from the slaying of a Philadelphia police sergeant, Solomon Jones -- a staffer for U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah who writes novels, as well as a Saturday column for the Daily News -- sent out the following press release:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

      EXPERT ON CRIMINALS HIDING IN PHILADELPHIA

PHILADELPHIA -- Solomon Jones, the critically acclaimed author of five urban mysteries, including Pipe Dream (Random House, 2001), and CREAM (St. Martins Press, 2006), is available for interviews on the tactics that criminals use to hide in Philadelphia.

The capture of Eric Floyd, 33, the final suspect in the tragic shooting death of Philadelphia police Sgt.
Stephen Liczbinski, is eerily similar to the plots in Jones’s novels, because the suspect was able to elude police in an abandoned house. 

“Philadelphia’s numerous vacant houses and factories, along with the sophisticated network of alleys, one way streets and accessible rooftops make it harder for police to do an already difficult job, and makes it easier for criminals who know the city to use its infrastructure to their advantage,” Jones says.

Each of Jones’s novels is set in Philadelphia, and his plots take place against the backdrop of the city’s crumbling infrastructure. In Pipe Dream, for example, the murder of a City Councilman takes place in an abandoned house, and in Ride Or Die, his characters hide for a time in an abandoned factory. In C.R.E.A.M., his characters employ the same method as the accused bank robbers in the crime that led to Sgt.
Liczbinski’s tragic shooting – they hide in Muslim garb.

Solomon Jones is the critically acclaimed author of Pipe Dream (Random House, 2001), The Bridge (St.
Martin’s Press, 2003), Ride Or Die (St. Martin’s Press, 2004), and CREAM (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), and the forthcoming novel, Payback (St. Martin’s Press, 2008).