Wednesday, 23 October 2013

For Nothing - An Upstate New York Mafia Tale



After reading Godfather many years back, this was the first time I read a hardcore crime fiction. Hence, the experience was really alien to me yet adventurous and terrific the same time.

The opening scene of the story being the murder of Jack Benton was quite frightful for a starting. I should say the story was detailed about the real mafia and the danger from the very first page of the book. Each and every movement of the victim and the way he was dying was described with every minute detail I almost felt that I’m watching a crime movie in slow motion.

The character build up was excellent. The assassin, both Raffael Rontego and the best friend of the deceased, Alex Vaughan were given equal importance in the story. The plot didn’t hesitate to give evil and the good their fair shares. The battle between the mafia and the cops was electrifying and adventurous. Needless to say that the story was quite a thriller and a real page turnover.

I was impressed by the style of storytelling in the book. Episodes of two main characters Raffael and Alex, belonging to two different aspects of life was merged well without interrupting the flow of the story. Starting the investigation from cigarette butts, the story was fast paced and yet was on hold of good suspense.

Using one name at a time and other later (ex: Raffael in one paragraph and Rontego in another) was little disturbing for me. It somewhat confuses the reader or disturbs the flow of the story. Also I found the use of profanity a little offensive. True that the story was set upon Mafia and crime, yet my view point is that it would have been better to use asterisk or something rather than the whole word if it was really necessary.


The last episode where Alex would recall a memory of Jack was quite heart touching. The climax was good. Taking time to lead the readers to a comfortable and peaceful climax and suddenly ending it with a little suspense is brilliant. Anyone who enjoys crime fiction would certainly love this book.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...