Wiseguys in Love - Softcover

Criscuolo, C. Clark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821748025 ISBN 13: 9780821748022

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1995

Synopsis

Madcap mayhem results when a would-be mobster whose mother hides his bullets and a girl from the Midwest become involved in a chain of events involving assassinations, kidnappings, and a great deal of very disorganized crime. Reprint.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A rollicking farce--and first novel--exploring the disorganized side of a New York City family of organized criminals. The trouble begins when Lisa Johnson's hateful boss, Smug magazine publisher Henry Foster Morgan, fires faithful, nearly retired Rosa Morelli from accounting, and Rosa demands that her nephew and godson Tony Macarelli kill ``that sonofabeech'' in revenge. Thick- necked, thick-witted Tony's boss Solly Soltano, ``New York's best- dressed don,'' arranges to have Tony take his prot‚g‚ Michael Bonello, a law-school dropout whom Tony's gotten some work with the family, along on the hit to pull the trigger as his formal initiation--but things naturally don't go according to plan. Paying a commiseration call on Mrs. Morelli, Lisa runs into Michael and Tony, who take her to Henry's office for his appointment book, then disagree about whether to kill her, and finally find themselves saddled with her when she escapes from the office, can't get either the police or Henry to take her warnings seriously, and runs over to the apartment where they've staked him out. Instead of killing Henry, Michael and Tony take Lisa to Brooklyn for another hit--a wayward family accountant whom Lisa, not squeamish Michael, ends up shooting--and from then on in it's only a matter of time before Lisa and Michael end up enjoying a romantic evening in a Plaza suite, and all the right guys finally get killed. Newcomer Criscuolo can't quite sustain the frantic plotting for his story's whole length, but it's a lot of fun watching him try. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal

Michael Bonello is a reluctant Mafia wiseguy who used to be a law student. Lisa Johnson is a Michigan native who is taken advantage of by her tyrannical boss and her cheating boyfriend. The two meet when Michael and his cousin Tony are assigned to kill Lisa's boss. Lisa is kidnapped by Michael and Tony, takes part in a mob hit, and finds herself falling in love with Michael. Yet Michael is desperate to escape the Mafia. Just as urgent to see him get out is his mother, Sophia. While Michael tries to create as many obstacles as he can think of to stop Tony from committing murder, Sophia hatches her own plan. This story reads like a script for a TV movie that we've all seen before. It's a bumpy first effort that does not engross the reader until halfway through the book. Criscuolo has a talent for comedy but needs to work on character development. Not recommended.
- Roberta Pessah, St. John's Univ., Jamaica, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0821748025
• ISBN 13: 9780821748022
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 284