β Scribed by Barbara Seranella
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Starred Review. At the start of Seranella's outstanding eighth Miranda "Munch" Mancini mystery (after 2004's Unwilling Accomplice), the Los Angeles auto mechanic is enjoying a domestic stability that she never thought possible after her sordid existence as a drug addict and prostitute. Indeed, the challenge Seranella faces as her heroine moves further away from her lurid past is to keep the sense of conflict alive. She certainly accomplishes this when Munch's fiancΓ©, detective Enrique "Rico" ChacΓ³n, is shot dead by his fellow cops in a drug bust gone wrong. We learn that there had been a bounty put on Munch's head by the newly reformed Satan's Pride Motorcycle gang (whom Munch had helped take down years back) and that Rico's death may have resulted from his attempts to protect her. To compound matters, the police department is withholding ChacΓ³n's pension from his family, claiming that he was corrupt. Determined to clear his name and to get revenge, Munch sets out on a dangerous investigation of her own. This is character-driven crime fiction at its finest by one of the genre's most accomplished stylists. (Jan.)
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Starred Review Prison inmates often have the image of the Virgin Mary tattooed on their backs to help ward off would-be assaulters. Narcs put ballpoint pen refills, rather than actual pens, in their pockets to look more street, less cop. Details like these fill Seranella's Munch Mancini thrillers, spiking their authenticity. Mancini herself has crawled up from the streets. As an ex-abuse victim, ex-prostitute, ex-biker old lady, ex-drug addict, she is both forever conscious of how lucky she is to be one of the few to escape and how unlucky the many others are who never do; this perspective, plus street smarts, enables her to go undercover convincingly. At this novel's start, Mancini works as an auto mechanic in Santa Monica, has a nine-year-old daughter, and is involved in a relationship with an undercover narcotics detective. Her newfound, straight-world happiness is blasted to pieces, however, when her boyfriend is shot to death in a drug raid. A detective friend on the LAPD enlists Mancini's aid--investigators into the shooting suspect that her boyfriend was killed by dirty cops. Mancini's contact wants her to work as a CI, confidential informant, to ferret out the truth and expose the remaining corrupt cops. Mancini excels at undercover work in a way that cops not born to the street and its incessant game playing can't begin to match. Her descent into the L.A. coke trade is both fascinating and terrifying to witness. An absolutely first-rate heroine in a compelling story. Connie Fletcher
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