@JimGiammatteo #Review "Murder Takes Time" by Giacomo Giammatteo

Murder Takes Time review
Author: Giacomo Giammatteo
4 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: people who like crime thrillers, stories about the mob
Trigger Warnings: murder, torture, child endangerment, domestic violence (against children), rape

My Thoughts: I'm actually quite happy that I read A Bullet for Carlos, which features Frankie Donovan as a minor character, before I read this one. Otherwise I think all the subtext and information about his childhood and friends we learn about in this book would have overwhelmed his character in the other book. As it is, reading this book afterward gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with Frankie before much is revealed about him, and that just worked really well for me. It might not be what the author intended, but I figured I'd share my thoughts on that.

There was a huge information error toward the end of the book, the chapter titled “Rattus Rattus”. The problem here is that Rattus rattus (the second is not capitalized) is the roof or black rat. The common sewer or grey or wharf rat that most people think of as “rats” are Rattus norvegicus. They are also the type that has been domesticated as pets. R. Rattus are easily run off by R. Norvegicus, who are larger and more aggressive and territorial; however, their territories tend to be different. Anyone who knows anything about rodents will be aware of this. I've shared my home with both these kinds of rats and can tell you they are very different.

Of course, this is a small and fairly minor thing. Overall this is a really interesting book, although sometimes a bit hard to read due to some of the things that happen. The kids growing up surrounded by the mob was sometimes funny but more often terrifying, and what happens to Nicky is really not fair. This author knows how to write very engaging characters, and characters that are very colorful. If you enjoy crime thrillers, especially relating to the mob, you should enjoy this book.

Series Information: Friendship and Honor series
Book 1: Murder Takes Time
Book 2: Murder Has Consequences

Disclosure: I won this book in a giveaway. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: A string of brutal murders has bodies piling up in Brooklyn, and Detective Frankie Donovan knows what is going on. Clues left at the crime scenes point to someone from the old neighborhood, and that isn't good.

Frankie has taken two oaths in his life—the one he took to uphold the law when he became a cop, and the one he took with his two best friends when they were eight years old and inseparable. Those relationships have forced Frankie to make many tough decisions, but now he faces the toughest one of his life; he has five murders to solve and one of those two friends is responsible. If Frankie lets him go, he breaks the oath he took as a cop and risks losing his job. But if he tries to bring him in, he breaks the oath he kept for twenty-five years—and risks losing his life.

In the neighborhood where Frankie Donovan grew up, you never broke an oath.

Book Review: "Moonlight Rises" by Vincent Zandri

Moonlight Rises review
Author: Vincent Zandri
3 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Suspense Thriller
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of thrillers

Disclosure: I received this book through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis from the back of the book: Dick Moonlight was dead. or so he thought. Thanks to a trio of Obama-masked thugs in a dark downtown Albany alley, he feels his free and floating spirit moving toward the Pearly Gates before getting pulled back into his pummeled body. Then the real trouble starts. Moonlight’s brain may have worked better before it had a bullet in it, but he knows he’s still in danger. The clues point to his latest client, Peter Czech, a handicapped nuclear engineer who the thugs believe gave Moonlight a secret box – and they’re willing to get it any deadly way they can. Only Moonlight can’t remember any box – but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have it. He just better figure out where it is before he winds up dead for good this time.

My Thoughts: This is a fast-paced story, enjoyable enough in a potato chip way, but nothing ultimately terribly impressive. The main character, Dick Moonlight, is a former cop, occasional private eye, and owns a bar that was given to him in lieu of payment for a job. He also has a fragment of a bullet in his brain that causes him to have occasional short-term memory loss and difficulties with things like blacking out and losing his balance, as well as being in danger of a stroke. Ultimately we don’t learn much about him, though, or his much-more-interesting friend Georgie. I think if Zandri had taken the time to develop the characters a bit more, this would have been a much better book. As it was, it was average. While I read it pretty much straight through, for me it was like an action movie, a dime-a-dozen story with nothing much to differentiate itself from any other genre book.

So, if you like suspense thriller-type books, if you like action movies, you will probably enjoy this book, but if you’re looking for intricate plots and character development, you can keep moving along. Story is continued in Blue Moonlight,
which I will be reading next.

Book review: "Morgue Drawer for Rent" by Jutta Profijt

Morgue Drawer for Rent review
Author: Jutta Profijt
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Thriller/Suspense w/ paranormal elements (ghost)
Reading Level: Adult
Book Available December 2012
Recommended for: Fans of mysteries/thrillers/suspense who don’t mind a touch of supernatural and a whole lot of humor

Disclosure: I received a free paperback ARC/uncorrected proof from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis from the Back of the book: Life was peaceful for coroner Martin Gänswein – until the unfortunate day he met Pascha, the foulmouthed ghost whose body once inhabited morgue drawer number four. Now an unwilling participant in solving the murders of those who pass through his morgue, Martin wishes more than ever that he could turn off his talent for communicating with the dead. Unfortunately for him, such things are easier said than done, and when organs begin to disappear from corpses buried in the local cemetery, Martin and Pascha are pulled into their most dangerous case yet.

My Thoughts: This is the third book in this highly entertaining series. I have read the first two books in this series, “Morgue Drawer Four” and “Morgue Drawer Next Door” and those reviews can be found here (first book read in March, 2012) and here (second book read in June, 2012) (where HTML formatting and linking are supported – if you cannot see the formatting or links, please go to my blog, Now is Gone, as that is where this can best be viewed). I have to say that I’ve loved this series so far and am very excited that they continue to translate and release this wonderful stories into the US.

Like previous books in this series, I spent a lot of time whilst reading the book laughing, snorting, and otherwise expressing amusement. Pascha continues to amuse with his attitude, asides, and hilarious voice. His mention of the fact that only posers would spell poser poseur, for instance, had me rolling. As did his attitude toward the temporary displacement of the forensic staff: “And of course it would be kind of a hassle if he realized only after he was back at the office that he’d accidentally stuck someone’s eyeball into his pocket, because then he’d have to get back into his car or take the train over and return the eyeball to its rightful owner.” And his opinion on dramadies: “...definitely dramadies [are out], too. To me, if the writer can’t make up his mind if he’s doing drama or comedy, then he should switch to making paper airplanes until he know what he wants.” Not to mention his descriptions of Philip “Piggy Bank” Forch as “loafering” from place to place – reading it frequently led to gales of laughter.

I can certainly relate to having a boss that is more concerned with how to save a few pennies than in making the work environment a bearable one, and Forch is a particularly egregious bureaucrat.

The main problem in this book is the theft of body parts, and even whole bodies, from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Cologne, where Martin and his coworkers try to do their job through the obstructive maneuvering of Piggy Bank Forch. A side plot involving Birgit and Martin looking for a new apartment, and Pascha falling in love, keep the pace moving along without bogging down.

I would recommend reading this as a series; while you could read each individual book as a standalone, you get more of the story, more of the personality, and just more by reading it as part of the series. I believe the fourth book in this series is slated to be translated into English and released sometime in 2013, but I don’t know for certain. I do know that I’ll be watching for it, and will definitely be grabbing it first chance I get. If you enjoy your thrillers with a touch of the supernatural and a whole lot of humor, you won’t want to miss these books.

Book Review: "Bitter Drink" by F.G. Haghenbeck

Bitter Drink review
Author: F.G. Haghenbeck
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Crime Noir Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I received a free paperback galley from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Beatnik detective Sunny Pascal is an expert at two things: cocktails and finding trouble. And when the filming of John Huston's The Night of the Iguana hits a few snags with its sexed-up, star-studded cast in a Puerto Vallarta paradise, producer Ray Stark brings Sunny in to chill out the set. But matters get tipsy when someone's found deader than dead, shot down by a gun belonging to one of the cast members.

Now Sunny's got to keep his Hollywood stars out of jail long enough for him to solve the case. But the trouble doesn’t stop with murder. The Mexican mafia and local newspapers wage a tension war against the hedonistic Americans, and if John Huston has anything to say about it, Sunny's got to be the one to keep the show on the road. Only Sunny will be doing it his way: with a martini in one hand and a Colt in the other. 

My Thoughts: This book; what to say about this book. Well, you could definitely make a drinking game out of it! Start each chapter with the described cocktail and song and, as you read along, set specific events to take an extra drink. Every time someone is killed or attacked, take a drink; everytime Sgt. Quintero says mis huevos (literally “my eggs”, but colloquially: “balls”), take a drink, etc. You wouldn’t get much reading done in any given day, but you sure would have fun doing it!

Speaking of Sgt. Quintero, he made me think: “Sadsack Gonzales, the saddest mouse in all of Mexico.” I loved his deadpan nature – “Sergeant Quintero explained everything so halfheartedly a mannequin could have done better” – and all his interactions with Sunny Pascal were just priceless. The author said that much of this book is based upon real events and actual conversations, but leaves it up to the reader to find out which actually happened and which came from his own imagination. I thought that was fascinating.

He has a real gift for description, as this description of John Huston proves: “He wasn’t as tall as he looked in photographs, just slightly shorter than a palm tree. His voice wasn’t that deep either, only a notch lower than a lawn mower. He puffed on a cigar the size of a rolling pin, perfuming the entire set. His face, underneath the Panama hat jammed down over his ears, radiated power – a god looking down upon mere mortals. He embodied the kind of power possessed by those who run the movie business. And that’s the only power that counts here.”

This book is a love-letter to Raymond Chandler and Paco Ignacio Taibo II; a feast of noir. It’s also a love-letter to Puerto Vallarta, a place I would have loved to have seen during the time of The Night of the Iguana, before it was taken over by tourists. If this sounds like your sort of book, you really won’t want to miss this – a fun, fast, and furious read. Recommended.