BLOOD ON THE COBBLESTONES
By Robert Ricci
Create Space Independent Pub.
126 pages
One of the things that we’ve always loved about good mystery
writers is there ability to convey the settings in which their stories are
set. Robert Parker was extremely deft at
this with his Boston
based Spencer novels. Now we have a new
writer, inspired by the old classic pulp crime thrillers, who is taking us down
those same familiar Bean Town Streets.
Jenna Coyne is a recent college graduate doing her best to
get by while having to put up with an amorous, married boss, who won’t leave
her alone. When she finally has no
recourse but to verbally rebuff his uncouth advances, she worries about being
fired. Or how much should she fight to
keep was is really an awful job? Then,
upon returning to her quaint, comfortable apartment, she is attacked by two
black drug dealers who have mistaken her for the girlfriend of their white
pusher who lives across the hall.
Apparently Kyle, the opportunistic pusher, owes them a great deal of
money and they plan on getting it by threatening his girlfriend. Lucky for Jenna she has a bat-wielding
Hispanic friend named Edna who lives nearby with her daughter, Marta; Jenna’s
former college roommate.
Edna soundly whacks the two hoodlums and chases them
off. In the aftermath, Jenna confronts
both Kyle and later his actual girlfriend, Vicky Robinson. Jenna is none too happy with having been
accosted for someone else. Still she
believes there is more to mix-up than Kyle is letting on and she befriends the
mixed-up, drug-addicted Vicky. As this
relationship takes hold, Vicky confides in her that Kyle worked for her father,
an abusive loser who makes a living reposing cars. Eventually the two girls stumble upon a stash
of hidden cash worth forty thousand dollars and from that point onwards things
turn very, very ugly.
Ricci’s storytelling style is crisp and flawless. Most of his principle characters in this book
are female and he writes them extremely well.
They are fun, intelligent and above all believable. Whereas Jenna’s tenacity and ultimate courage
rises logically to the surface as the book speeds to a brutal finale that is
nothing less than savage. We believe
“Blood On The Cobblestones,” is Robert Ricci’s first book and such is one hell
of an impressive debut. We can’t wait to
see what he offers up next.
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