An engrossing, solidly entertaining organized-crime story with a few twists.
In this suspenseful crime novel, tensions rise between the Albanian and Italian mafias on the streets of New York.
Two powerful criminal organizations—the Albanian Marku family and the Italian Miceli family—maintain an uneasy coexistence in the neighborhood along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Aided by its fearsome reputation, the Albanian mob has been making inroads into rackets previously controlled by the Micelis, who, after a loss in recent decades of traditional values like loyalty and silence, have been decimated by the FBI. The groups are headed by Ilir Marku and Carmine Miceli, a pair of old-fashioned patriarchs—Godfather-type figures guided by honor, tradition, and caution. But when Ilir Marku’s son is killed in a rooftop drug deal gone bad, reports that an Italian man may be responsible threaten to ignite a war between the two families. It could be the start of a blood feud the Albanians call gjakmarrja: a pursuit of vengeance that can lead to the targeting of a whole family’s worth of male relatives. Gino Ranno, a real estate developer and family friend of the suspected shooter, tries to save the suspect’s life by working his extensive criminal connections. Accustomed to being around gangsters but unprepared for the level of violence he must face, Gino is closest to being the novel’s protagonist, although Romano adeptly juggles an assortment of other major characters as well. Carlo Del Greco, the veteran detective working the case (in the pay of the Markus), finds himself playing a double game as he tries to solve the murder case while also reporting to benefactors who have little interest in the finer, lawful points of the criminal justice system. The prose sometimes dips into cliché, but Romano keeps the pacing tight. He also displays a keen ear for dialogue and a sharp eye for small details, whether in the fast-paced violence and confusion of a street gunfight or at a Bronx safe house decked out in plastic-covered living room furniture, ornate chandeliers, and prisonlike iron bars on the windows and doors.
An engrossing, solidly entertaining organized-crime story with a few twists.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-1467923033
Page Count: 332
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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