Falco’s style tends toward reportorial, which gives the book a texture different from classic noir yet provides an...
Falco (The Family Corleone, 2012, etc.) dissects a New York City gangland war over Prohibition speak-easies and rumrunning.
In 1931, the Mafia didn't rule Big Apple crime. The illegal booze trade was controlled by a loose confederation called the Combine, made up of a variety of Irish mobsters and the tightfisted, ever angry Dutch Schultz's gang. Falco's plot is anchored by historical gangland figures such as Schultz and Vince Coll—the "Mad Dog" of legend—but it's Coll's fictional friend Loretto Jones who provides perspective. Coll was a soldier in Schultz's gang, which led to his brother’s death; in retribution, he wants to destroy the Combine, led by Owen Madden, another historical figure neatly fitted into the narrative. Coll’s first shot is the attempted assassination of a hot-tempered subcapo. His fusillade kills a child; politicos grab headlines offering big rewards; and the Combine wants blood. With Loretto nearby, witnessing the shooting, the police and the Combine think he was involved. The action moves from the mean streets of the Bronx to basement speak-easies and the fabled Cotton Club, showing Falco's grip on environments from cold-water tenements to greasy spoons. Mad Dog is the most striking character here, a charismatic psychopath. Loretto’s loyal to him, but he’s also tied to the Baronti family, which gives him refuge after he witnesses the shooting; he's also in love with Gina, their beautiful daughter. Loretto grows into a somewhat sympathetic protagonist, considering the mean streets of his youth, through outside influences and introspection. Coll is one-note, his only positive quality a twisted sense of loyal. Madden, Schultz, Luciano and the rest of the historical gang are straight out of newspaper columns yet subtly nuanced. There’s gunplay for action fans, some R-rated gore and PG-sex.
Falco’s style tends toward reportorial, which gives the book a texture different from classic noir yet provides an intriguing read for crime-fiction fans.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60953-111-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
PROFILES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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