Customer Reviews

Devil's Food: A Loretta Kovacs thriller

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

 

 

Wow, I thought with the 5 star reviews that I would love this book. I was wrong-I hated it. I am not hard to please when it comes to fiction and will generally overlook many flaws in a book. However, the main characters in this book are just horrible, terrible people! You have a slightly overweight woman who is not just caustic and mean to the people she deals with-she is caustic and mean in her own personal thoughts also.
I believe the author wants us to feel sorry for her because she has a weight problem. However, it is hard to do so when she complains about every possible avenue of help she tries for the problem. Previously, she went to a weight camp and all she did was fight and complain that she didn't get results when she refused to do anything they asked her to. This lady even pauses in the middle of a fight to eat an eclair! Really?!? Loretta-people don't hate you because you are overweight, they hate you because you are a terrible human being who whines and complains and actually keeps thinking of sleeping with a man who's wife is dying of cancer!
And Marvelli isn't much better-he is thinking the same thing! I really like to cheer for the heroes in the books I read but I was hoping both of them would get offed about half way through. The only character that had any humanity was the probation violator they were hunting for. And she didn't have much!
I did finish the book-I kept hoping it would get better. It did not. After freshly burying the wife he professes to love, Marvelli is looking at Loretta as a possible substitute. Are people really that cold? If they are, I really don't want them as the hero in a book I am reading.
That said; the book was well edited and the author wrote with an easy to read, flowing style. The two stars are for his writing style but, unfortunately, not for the content.

It's wacky! It's wild! It makes you hungry! It makes you laugh out loud! And it even tugs at your heart strings!

Join in the fun as chunky Loretta(one tough mama with 'tude) and greaseball Frankie(sexy, sensitive, vulnerable, and Italian!) race to a fat farm to bring back a parole violating gal.

What makes this such a great hilarious book is the characters. All oddballs.

And kudos to the author for dealing straightforwardly with such issues as obesity and dying.

It's a fast read and romp. Pick it up. You won't be disappointed. After all, who can not break into squeals of laughter when the the female lead refers to her partner as a "slaphappy chipmunk."

Though I can see how some readers may feel uncomfortable about reading the passages about Frank's sorrow over his dying wife, I'll have to say that Tony Bruno is a warm kind human to be abel to deal with this issue of dying family members with taste and heart. The rest of the novel is just too good to describe, without at least doing it severe injustice. Just grab yourself a copy of this baby and enjoy! Mamma Mia!

Two things especially work to make Devil's Food standout in the genre mastered by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. They are the novel's food oriented humor and its food obsessed heroine. No chapter is complete without food references, which range from catalogs of high cholesterol munchies to satirical jabs at the tiny, tasteless portions served to the hungry dieters at a fat farm. Anthony Bruno, the author, is especially good at caricature. He manages the difficult feat of making believable and hilarious such characters as the hunted, calculating parole violator, her sidekick motorcycle hit man, and her unctious, hypocrital boss, the head of the fat farm. This book would be a ten were it not for the teary, dreary sub-plot stuff about the heroine's partner and his dying wife

New Jersey parole officer Loretta Kovacs is in the dumps. Her career is spiraling downward as fast as her personal life has collapsed. Her seemingly last opportunity to jump-start her career is with the "Jump Squad", a law enforcement group that goes after parole violators. Her partner is Frank Marvelli, a veteran of the squad. Their first case is to locate Martha Lee Spooner, an embezzler, working a scam at a Florida fat farm. This seems to be a simple collar. However, in Loretta's current world, there is no such word as simple. A hit man and the IRS become involved in the case. Loretta goes undercover, enjoying the sauna as much as anyone can who knows their job is on the line. If she and her partner fail to bring in Martha Lee, they may find themselves seeking employment elsewhere. DEVIL'S FOOD is an exciting ride full of several twists and turns that Disney might want to consider adopting it for his amusement parks. Loretta is a great character because her problems are our problems. The story line is fast paced and the dialogue is classic Joisey. Do we hear the clamor of a continual series? Fans will plead with Anthony Bruno to start one starring Frank and Loretta. Harriet Klausner

I don't know how many weight watchers points this book is, but I'll pay however many I need! This was a fun mystery with tasty scenery. I look forward to reading the rest of them.

This was just delightful. It was predictable but so enjoyable, I bought the authors other 2 books. The pace was good, it was fun and funny and a quick read.

Everything we read doesn't have to be cerebral; this wasn't but it was fun.