Customer Reviews

A Creative Kind of Killer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fortune Fanelli is a divorced private investigator with sole custody of two children that his career-driven ex wife doesn't want. He's a good guy and a good father. So when a girl his daughter's age gets murdered across the street from his home, and the killer displays her body as a work of art, Fortune has more than a stranger's retainer motivating him to catch the killer.

Scoppettone has a good ear for sound and expertly captures the ethnic flavor of SoHo inhabitants. I felt like I was in the story and much to the irritation of my partner, couldn't put it down. Lots of plot twists and a dash of romance. It was a fun and intelligent escape with a delightful (subtle) sense of humor woven throughout.

To the other reviewer who seemed annoyed because the book was first published under a male pseudonym, and couldn't seem to understand why a female writer would do that, I can only say it's called sexism in publishing. Yes,it is alive and well. Aurore Dupin (writing as George Sand) knew women were not taken seriously and hoped to break out of that mold. She accomplished becoming published but first had to offer her writing under a man's name. In 1984 Scoppettone won the Shamus Award for this novel, but the award was given to Mr.Jack Early. It shouldn't take a private detective to figure out the plot of that story.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to more Kindle releases of Scoppettone's novels.

I loved this book when it first came out and I'm delighted
that Sandra brought it back under her real name. If you
want a good story, well-written and original, then
A CREATIVE KIND OF KILLER is for you. Enjoy!

And under Sandra Scoppettone's real name. This is such a strong entrance into the Jack Early books. What's especially good about it is the dialogue. There is never a false note throughout. I loved the setting and the plot as well. It is so nice to have these books available to us again.

I loved the setting of this book as well as the excellent scenery descriptions. The concept was one that had lots of promise, but I felt like the mystery was not tight enough; it meandered more like an early draft rather than a final edit. The tone of the book felt that way too, like globbing pages of a romance novel and a harboiled mystery, mixing them up, and hoping it blends evenly. For me, the batter was a bit lumpy. I felt a nice connection with the main character, Fortune...but it actually took me a while to realize that Fortune was, in fact, a man. I write male characters sometimes too, so I definitely know how challenging it is to create a natural male voice; in this book's case, I felt to the end that Fortune would have been best played by a lesbian rather than a heterosexual male. I found Fortune more believable that way. That said, I hope there are more Fortune novels, particularly ones that explore his Italian heritage as I felt very drawn in by the pieces the author shared in this one.

I just read this - it was good but why a female author would try to hide behind a male name as an author in this day and age is very curious. Especially since her/his writing style is definitely female, dwelling on details a man would never even consider, forcing me to constantly remind myself to look at the story from the male point of view, as she pretends to be. That part of her writing was a bad idea,makes no sense. But the book was a good murder mystery. Glad she switched later in her career to come out as a woman.