Thursday, February 12, 2015

BLOOD ON THE COBBLESTONES



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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