Reviewing the Independents
Betty Webb -- Mystery Scene Winter Issue #108, 02/01/2009
Forget about the groundhog's prediction. Just warm yourself with the following cache of crime capers, fem-jeps, suspense novels, cozies, and blood-drenched noirs.
To maximize your pleasure, begin your midwinter read-a-thon with Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed, by Marc Blatte (Schaffner Press. $24.95). In this dark, witty, and often brilliant novel, Pashko Gazivoda, an Albanian immigrant employed as a nightclub bouncer, is found murdered near a trendy lower Manhattan hot spot. When his cousin Vooko, also a bouncer, vows revenge, the mayhem begins. As Vooko rampages his way through Manhattan, the body count skyrockets. Confronting Vooko's rage are Proof Positive, a rising hip-hop group; Black Sallie Blue Eyes, a homicide detective carrying a torch for his ex-wife; Lady Panther, a female wrestler; and a fleet of "big money maggots." No angels inhabit this grimly funny book, just a series of flawed human beings, some a little less wicked than others. Author Blatte makes a smart choice by telling his story through various characters' points of view, thus serving up a savory goulash of homicidal thoughts and crackling dialogue, ranging from Vooko's hilarious malapropisms and Proof Positive's gangsta riffs, to the sublime musings on the finer points of contemporary music production by a heard-it-all-before recording engineer. Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is such shocking good fun that you won't even feel guilty about laughing at all the carnage.
To maximize your pleasure, begin your midwinter read-a-thon with Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed, by Marc Blatte (Schaffner Press. $24.95). In this dark, witty, and often brilliant novel, Pashko Gazivoda, an Albanian immigrant employed as a nightclub bouncer, is found murdered near a trendy lower Manhattan hot spot. When his cousin Vooko, also a bouncer, vows revenge, the mayhem begins. As Vooko rampages his way through Manhattan, the body count skyrockets. Confronting Vooko's rage are Proof Positive, a rising hip-hop group; Black Sallie Blue Eyes, a homicide detective carrying a torch for his ex-wife; Lady Panther, a female wrestler; and a fleet of "big money maggots." No angels inhabit this grimly funny book, just a series of flawed human beings, some a little less wicked than others. Author Blatte makes a smart choice by telling his story through various characters' points of view, thus serving up a savory goulash of homicidal thoughts and crackling dialogue, ranging from Vooko's hilarious malapropisms and Proof Positive's gangsta riffs, to the sublime musings on the finer points of contemporary music production by a heard-it-all-before recording engineer. Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is such shocking good fun that you won't even feel guilty about laughing at all the carnage.
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