Damaged Goods

A frantic mother races to rescue her child from a brain-damaged killer in this sixth Stanley Moodrow crime novel. "Solomita has Elmore Leonard's flair for letting you view the world through his character's eyes, no matter how narrow or how bloodshot".--The New York Times Book Review.From Publishers WeeklyMountainous Stanley Moodrow, hero of five N.Y.C. crime thrillers (A Piece of the Action, etc.), makes a welcome return?as does Solomita's gritty sensibility, missing from his recent, and weaker, non-Moodrow novels (Last Chance for Glory, etc.). Both the series and ex-cop Moodrow (turning 60 and recovering from a prostate infection) make concessions to age here. Moodrow takes on a partner, young Guinevere Gadd, whose computer skills complement his street smarts. Pitted against the pair is a typically ferocious Solomita villain: crazed killer Jilly Sappone, a minor mafioso who, upon his unexpected release from prison, kidnaps his four-year-old daughter in order to avenge himself against his estranged wife. Hired to find the little girl, Moodrow and Gadd fail tragically, pushing them onto their own path of vengeance?against not only Sappone but also the feds who sprang him to further another case. The action here is fast and gives rise to a piercing urban melancholy. Solomita's characters seem etched in silverpoint as he once again peers into dark corners of both the city and the soul. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalJilly Sappone truly is "damaged goods." The gunshot that wrecked his brain years before also made him into a vicious killer. Released from prison by family connections, he takes revenge on everyone responsible for his prison term. Beginning with his ex-wife, Ann, Jilly and his brainless psychotic partner, Jackson-Davis, commence a spree of kidnapping and violent murders. Ex-cop Stanley Moodrow, featured in Solomita's A Twist of the Knife (Putnam, 1988), is hired, as is detective cum-computer-whiz Ginny Gadd, to track down Jilly. The trail to Jilly's eventual capture is a convincing albeit violent one, since ex-taxi driver Solomita (Last Chance for Glory, LJ 6/15/94) is a master at capturing on paper the flavor of streetwise cops and robbers and their victims. His characters are rarely classy but real, like Moodrow, a "dinosaur" up against today's high-tech society, who indeed does get his man, despite his old-fashioned ways. A nice buy for Solomita fans.?Alice DiNizo, Raritan P.L., N.J.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.