by Nino Perrotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2016
An insightful look at the world of criminal investigation.
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A memoir of a law enforcement agent’s illustrious career, including his role in the investigation of Mafia crime boss John “Junior” Gotti.
Debut author Perrotta was born in 1967 in Mount Vernon, New York, the child of Italian immigrants. He was a rambunctious child—at 13 he stole his father’s revolver to intimidate some local toughs. His parents eventually purchased a deli—the consummation of the American dream—and working there provided the author valuable practice honing the observational skills central to his later investigative work. After graduating from Fordham University with a degree in political science and a philosophy minor, he received an Army commission as a second lieutenant. He trained in, among other things, military intelligence. Perrotta landed a job with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Detective Investigators Bureau and was eventually assigned as a special investigator to the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, where he participated in the pursuit of infamous organized crime boss John “Junior” Gotti. This chapter in the author’s life is the dramatic centerpiece of the narrative, and Perrotta chronicles his role in the investigation—including surveillance and wiretapping techniques—in microscopic detail. The author joined the Secret Service in 1995, investigating financial crimes like check forgery as well as providing protective services to high-level political figures. He was also sent on various missions to Italy and Bulgaria. Perrotta discusses the culture of the Secret Service like an anthropologist—the hierarchies that form within the agency, the kinds of watches worn and luggage used, and the tension between the investigative and protective details. The author writes in straightforward, clear, but also lively prose, delivering anecdotes with both precision and friendly informality. His career is a genuinely fascinating one—cinematically gripping—and much of the remembrance reads like a true-crime drama. The author covers so much ground in a single volume that the material following the Mafia investigation, while thrilling in its own right, seems anticlimactic in comparison to the battle with Gotti.
An insightful look at the world of criminal investigation.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4787-6125-9
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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