Post Script: The American – Nadia Dalbuono

 

The American

Nadia Dalbuono

Scribe

ISBN: 9781925106749

 

Description:

The second Leone Scarmacio thriller.

 

As autumn sets in, the queues outside the soup kitchens of Rome are lengthening and the people are taking to the piazzas, increasingly frustrated by the deepening economic crisis.

 

Detective Leone Scamarcio is called to an apparent suicide on the Ponte Sant Angelo, a stone’s throw from Vatican City. A man is hanging from the bridge, his expensive suit suggesting yet another businessman fallen on hard times. But Scamarcio is immediately troubled by similarities with the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, dubbed ‘God’s Banker’ because of his work for the Vatican Bank.

 

Scamarcio’s instincts are soon proved correct when a cardinal with links to the bank is killed. And when US Intelligence warn Scamarcio to drop his investigation, he knows that the stakes are far higher than he first realised.

 

Ignoring their threats, Scarmarcio pushes on, but his progress is being monitored by some of the world’s most powerful men, who will stop at nothing to make sure their dirty work stays under cover. In breathtaking developments that link 9/11, America’s dirty wars, Vatican corruption, the Mafia, and Italy’s violence against its own people, Scarmacio has to deal with responsibilities far above his pay grade.

 

 

My View:

A complex, intriguing and engaging tale of corruption, manipulation, politics and greed – the perfect book to make you think about the global village we live in.

 

What I love about this novel? Many things, including the complexity of the narrative – written with intelligence, the plot is so plausible, you can imagine something like this has actually happened/ is happening. The sub plot- regarding the Mafia and how a basically good man can be corrupted /exploited is interesting to observe. The characters – are empathetic and realistic – reasonable individuals placed in difficult situations and did I mention the settings – so visual, I could easily imagine myself sitting in a café in a little side street in a small town or city in Italy drinking my espresso, watching the world go by.

 

This great thriller will engage and intrigue, unfortunately we now have to wait till the next book is released to find out what happens next to Scarmarcio.

 

This Movie Trailer Is Chilling.

I am a big Johnny Depp fan – are you? I have seen most of his films and loved the series that started his career – 21 Jump Street. Up until today my favourite film that he has starred in was Donnie Brasco but that favourite has just been usurped by  The movie “Black Mass” – and that is based only on viewing  the trailer – it is superb –  spine chilling. What do you think? Oscar contender here I think.

Post Script: World Gone By – Denis Lehane

World Gone By

Dennis Lehane

Little, Brown Book Group UK

Little, Brown

Hachette

 

Description:

Joe Coughlin is untouchable. Once one of America’s most feared and prominent gangsters, he now moves effortlessly between the social elite, politicians, police and the mob. He has everything he could possibly want; money, power, a beautiful mistress, and anonymity.

 

But in a town that runs on corruption, vengeance and greed, success can’t protect Joe from the dark truth of his past — and ultimately, the wages of a lifetime of sin will finally be paid in full . . .

 

Chilling, heart-breaking and gripping, this is the most complex and powerful novel to date from Dennis Lehane, writer on The Wire and author of modern classics such as Shutter Island, Gone, Baby, Gone and The Given Day.

 

 

 

My View:

When I selected this book to read I knew nothing about the book or the author aside from the authors incredible reputation as a prolific and fantastic writer of crime fiction. I knew I had to check this author out. And I was not disappointed in this read at all.

 

This book was everything that the book bloggers grapevine purported it to be – well paced, exciting and it had an interesting well executed plot and characters that were fully drawn – and should I use the expression it also had a touch of the romantic? Not in the plunging necklines and bare chested stereotypical book cover romance story line but romance as in the reader is drawn to the character of Joe Coughlin, gangster, murderer and villain and yet we end up with a rose coloured glasses notion of this criminal; as the good guy who is a bad guy. We are empathetic to his cause (but maybe not his method of dealing with his problems). We admire his warm and loving relationship with his son and his best friend (and mafia boss) and despite the fact that Joe is a criminal through and through and would terminate in the most deadly manner anyone he perceives as trouble we like him. Is it how he dresses, his manners that he can display in elite company he chooses to sometime keep or that he can mediate and calm down the most difficult situation? Yet despite his positive qualities, Joe Coughlin is still a gangster and it is a brutal world he lives in, and yet we still think of him fondly. I think it is admirable that Dennis Lehane is able to sway our opinion with a few strokes of a key board 🙂

 

This is the 3^rd book in the Joe Coughlin series yet not reading the earlier book did not detract from my enjoyment of this book.