Worlds collide | Paradise City: A Novel of Suspense

Middle aged housewife who wouldn't be caught dead watching Matlock (or the Simpsons )strikes back and says | Paradise City: A Novel of Suspense | Lorenzo Carcaterra

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	• Paradise City: A Novel of Suspense Lorenzo Carcaterra Fawcett, 2005 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A violent, gritty tale of revenge and rough justice

You know Lorenzo Carcaterra's work. I mean, you know his work. Does the television show "Law & Order" mean anything to you? Carcaterra is a writer and producer for the program, which has been on for how many decades now? In addition to that, three of his novels --- APACHES, GANGSTER and STREET BOYS --- are in active development for feature film adaptation. He has co-scripted Beyond the Sea, which should be released soon. He's also...well you get the idea. He's everywhere. My favorite "everywhere" for the moment, however, is PARADISE CITY, Carcaterra's latest novel.

Carcaterra is a master at combining several different elements that are lethal enough individually into an explosive mix. PARADISE CITY is an example of Carcaterra at his best. His protagonist here is Giancarlo Lo Manto. Lo Manto, born in New York City, moved to Naples, Italy as a teenager. Now a policeman, Lo Manto wages a one-man war against the Italian Mafia. His vendetta is the result of a blood-oath he swore over the body of his late father, an honest-working man who paid for his integrity with a violent, senseless death on the streets of New York City.

Lo Manto is lured back to New York City due to the kidnapping of his beloved niece by the crime family of Mafia boss Pete Rossi. Lo Manto's police work in Naples has cut dramatically into Rossi's overseas operations, and Rossi accordingly wants --- and needs --- Lo Manto out of the way. Rossi sees some rough justice in bringing Lo Manto back to his birthplace to die. Lo Manto, however, has some very different plans. Fueled by the desire to rescue his niece and avenge his murdered father, Lo Manto begins a systematic rampage through the back streets and neighborhoods of New York City, leading to a violent, apocalyptic climax between good and evil.

PARADISE CITY is a violent, gritty tale of revenge and rough justice. Fans of the crime/police genre will see the relationship forming between Lo Manto and his NYPD babysitter, Detective Jennifer Fabini, before the two even meet. But Carcaterra handles the chemistry between the two so well that readers would be disappointed if they didn't hook up! PARADISE CITY also contains a subtle but very visible plug for "Law & Order." Hopefully, that august program will at some point return the favor. On the other hand, maybe that won't be necessary. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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Worlds collide

Lorenzo Carcaterra remains the don of crime-writing that's scraped directly from America's grittiest streets, and with "Paradise City," he extends his reach to Naples -- a city he last visited in "Street Boys." Now he pulls off the labyrinthine plot -- worthy of a scheming godfather or, at least, a producer of TV's "Law & Order" -- with his signature style: Plenty of action, plenty of love and plenty of paisan.

From "Apaches" to "Sleepers" to "Gangster," Carcaterra has laid claim to the urban-crime landscape like no writer since Mario Puzo. Carcaterra's storytelling is real and, occasionally, disturbing. But it isn't oversimplified law and disorder with a side of blood and guts ... his characters are authentic and tangible. He doesn't write like a lawyer who's trying to be gritty, or an ink-stained Hollywood wretch trying to maximize body count-per-frame. He writes like the guy he is: Somebody who's been immersed in the downside of a rough city and survived.

You want your crime-fiction straight from the hip and genuine? Carcaterra is your guy.

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Middle aged housewife who wouldn't be caught dead watching Matlock (or the Simpsons )strikes back and says

this is an enjoyable read. Not great but good enough to have me search out his other novels. The ending is a bit much and the romance is gratuitious. Not all that orginal in plot or character but well written withal and some page turning invloved. Must go now and gnaw on my bone

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Sometimes Revenge is Justice

While born in New York City, Giancarlo Lo Manto now is a cop in Naples, Italy. He ended up in Italy as a teenager after his father was killed by a don of the Camorra -- a known criminal organization. He made a promise to himself to get revenge for his father's death. He was working to stop illegal drug trafficking of drugs and other similar crimes with the intention to try and save families from the grief he himself had experienced.

Pete Rossi, who is the son of the man who had ordered his father's death, decides he wants to lure Lo Manto back to the city to die. He does it by having Lo Manto's niece Paula (an exchange student) turn up missing. Jennifer Fabini, a New York detective, is then assigned to help Lo Manto and realizes it puts her in the middle of something bigger than she expected. Lo Manto is a guy who always seems to know exactly what to do and has the right connections to get what he wants done.

A romance does end up developing between Jennifer and Lo Manto, but it's done in a way that I wondered why Carcaterra added it to the plot. Lorenzo Carcaterra is a producer and writer for the TV series Law & Order which makes sense of why some of the narrative reads like a TV script. It ends with an obvious showdown between Lo Manto and Rossi, but even though I saw it coming, was expecting it, was waiting for it I enjoyed it very much, probably because I like a good story about Revenge.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

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The most exciting achievement to date from the acclaimed author of Sleepers and Gangster, Paradise City is a riveting thriller of two cops and two countries, a stunning crime novel about the roots of revenge, honor, and evil.
As a fifteen-year-old, Giancarlo Lo Manto learned about injustice the hard way. His father was gunned down by the Camorra, the murderous clan run by Don Nicola Rossi. When his mother moved him from New York back to his family?s ancestral home in Naples, Gian found himself face-to-face with the source of the mob?s strength, the spring that spawned its deadly killers.
Today, twenty-three years later, he is a dogged detective on the Naples police force, homicide division, the most dangerous beat in Europe. He is the nemesis of all who export evil, the man who stops it before it spreads overseas. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. ?The strength of Naples reinforces the muscle of New York??and now the two worlds are about to collide.
In the highest towers of the most expensive streets of New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to America?permanently. When Gian learns that his teenage niece, Paula, has gone missing in Manhattan, he cancels a much-needed vacation to Capri, to paradise, joking that ?one island is just as good as the other.?
Gian?s homecoming will be anything but smooth. Someone must always watch his back, and Detective Jennifer Fabini gets the job. A gifted officer with her own personal demons, Jennifer thinks she?ll be dealing with a peasant from the old country. The handsome, reserved, unrelenting Gian is a revelation: an irritant and a temptation?especially for a woman who has sworn off cops as lovers. Together the two must solve a disappearance that appears to be a kidnapping . . . but turns out to be a deadly trap.
As they dash from the sun-struck villages of Italy to the darkest drug dens of New York, their journey links old-world honor and modern-day danger, and ends in a dizzying explosion of the present and the past. Paradise City is Lorenzo Carcaterra?s richest entertainment, a book that is at once a sensational crime novel and a provocative exploration of his trademark themes: violence and innocence, love and revenge.

From the Hardcover edition.

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