If you’ve been reading my reviews for any length of time, you will recall that Mr. Giammatteo’s debut novel, Murder Takes Time, won the 2012 Seeley James Award for Best Indie Debut. It was a deserving book, but what separates career writers from flash-in-the-pans is the ability to keep writing great stories.
Mr. Giammatteo has written another great story.
Pals Frank & Nicky are back and still living up to their childhood oath of friendship and honor. Frank goes home for a funeral and ends up beating up his brother-in-law, who is later found dead. The local cop thinks Frank is the killer. As he leaves town, Frank asks Nicky to clear his good name and find the real killer. In this strange and clever twist of events, you have a reformed mob hit man playing detective to clear the name of his friend, the homicide detective.
Woven into that story is a straightforward serial killer story. But Mr. Giammatteo doesn’t hand you a standard killer from central casting. He presents the creepiest killer you’ve ever read about. He makes you want to get in the book and kill him yourself. In fact, he’s so well drawn that you’ll start to question the author’s sanity.
The story is laid out in a format that follows four points-of-view. If you’re a fan of James Patterson, the format will be familiar except that the characters have much more depth and the dialogue is a good deal more realistic.
It is Mr. Giammatteo’s characters that bring his stories to life. He doesn’t trim the dialogue or the background down to maintain pace, he fleshes out the characters through the idle banter of everyday life and the observations of everyday places. In this passage, a character walks into the neighborhood bar:
I opened the door and walked in, the smoke overpowering me as soon as I entered. The fire marshal might have something to say about that, with the no-smoking ordinance and all, but I saw him slumped over a chair in the corner.
What makes this book a great read is the pace. Mr. Giammatteo starts you with familiar events, a death in the family, obnoxious relatives, combative friends, then he eases you into their personal lives and struggles. He even injects a little humor, as found in this exchange between father and teenage daughter:
“Are you ignoring me, Dad?”
“I would never ignore you, sweetheart. I’m just allowing time for your wisdom to sink in.”
With the patience of a seasoned writer, he then turns up the heat on the characters, adding roadblocks and challenges and dangers and time elements. When you reach the conclusion, you are fully engaged with the characters and the pressures they face to solve problems. It is this understanding that heightens your sense of danger and creates the thrilling ending you didn’t expect.
To his credit, he wraps up with a completely unexpected ending involving the neighborhood kid that reminded me of how I became a parent. The heartwarming ending will make you sign up for the author’s next book right away.
Bottom Line: a MUST READ for anyone who loves mysteries and thrillers.
Peace, Seeley
Sock Puppet NOTE: MY REVIEWS ARE MY REACTIONS TO THE BOOKS I READ. I have no relationship, financial or familial, with the author. I do not expect, but would not refuse, any cash, gifts, or reciprocal reviews. Just sayin.
