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Title: Mobtown by Jack Kelly ISBN: 0-7868-8981-0 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good start, disappointing finish.
Comment: I really wanted to like this book and I did at first. The author, Jack Kelly, does an admirable job in recreating a very specific time and place. The place is Rochester, a sleepy town in western New York where the Genessee River meets Lake Ontario. The home of Kodak, white hots and Luke Easter. The time is the summer of 1959. Fallout shelters, Gunsmoke and saddle shoes are all the rage.
The story is narrated by the main character, Ike Van Savage, private eye. In much the style of Philip Marlowe, Van Savage advances the story while at the same time making wry, sometimes comic, observations about human foibles and failings. Unlike many other "hard boiled" detectives found in the crime genre, Van Savage has an inner life. Kelly allows the reader to explore Ike's fears and self doubts as well as his personal relationships, even giving a fair amount of page time to Gloria, his 10 year old daughter.
Early in the novel, Van Savage is hired by Vicky Petrone, the beautiful wife of a local crime boss who has reason to believe her husband wants to kill her. As the investigation unfolds, Van Savage learns there may be a connection between this case and two other cases he has on his plate. One a series of arsons, the other an adultery investigation. Eventually, Ike and the reader both learn in piecemeal fashion that Vicky has a very interesting past that she had failed to voluntarily reveal.
So far so good.
My problem with this otherwise appealing book centers around the way in which the various plot elements are ultimately tied together and resolved. Let me just say that in trying to jolt the reader with a surprise ending, Kelly sacrifices the believability he has worked so hard to cultivate. The "mastermind" who is finally brought to justice is someone who in the real world would lack the means, motivation and street smarts required to carry out the complex web of crime described in these pages.
Jack Kelly is obviously a talented writer. A less contrived, more convincing plot, would have made Mobtown a great crime novel.
Rating: 4
Summary: This guy knows his way around . . .
Comment:
This was my first Jack Kelly book, but it won't be my last. I grew up in a very small town in east Texas, spent some time in Dallas, but mainly never really saw any 'bad guys.' So, I like to read 'tough guy' stories about the underbelly of life. My insulated upbringing might also explain my fascination with THE GODFATHER and THE SOPRANOS.
No matter MY background...this story, set in the late 1950's in Rochester, New York, about a rough-around-the-edges private eye is a great read.
Ike Van Savage, a Korean vet with a new divorce and a 10 year old daughter, doesn't turn away any clients. He need to pay the bills. So when the wife of a particularly oily character asks her to tail her husband, he accepts. This assignment is a no brainer. Eddie Gill is cheating on his wife with a cute young thing. The young girl comes to Ike's office while he's out....next thing he knows, she ends up dead.
Enter Vicky Petrone, trophy wife of one of Rochester's most noted mobsters. She thinks her husband is out to kill her. HE ends up dead.
A pattern is developing here....hang out with Ike Savage and you'll end up on the wrong side of the dirt.
The way Kelly ties all the story lines together is plausible, although I had a hard time following the 'spoiled, rich kid' angle that's introduced to further interest in Joe Petrone.
Kelly has said he plans to "carry the series throughout the 1960s" because he's "interested to see Ike's reaction to the social changes of the decade."
I'll be reading whatever Kelly writes. And, I'll be waiting to see who Hollywood casts in the movie adaptations!
Enjoy!
Rating: 2
Summary: Just Okay
Comment: I agree with the other reviewers who found this book lacking. I too skimmed the last third, tired of the wandering plot and ponderous cultural references to 1959...by then the author had established that the weather was hot about 5 times too many, the villians entered and left like players in a British stage farce and I found it hard to believe that the hero was still able to physically function. The 'pulp fiction' angle wore out its welcome when it stopped leading anywhere plotwise.
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Title: Line of Sight by Jack Kelly ISBN: 0786889802 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh ISBN: 1841953830 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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