Customer Reviews

Eddie's World: A Novel of Crime

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

So, what could go wrong when a wannabe decides to wind down his criminal career with one last heist? You got it -- everything. Eddie Senta, a part-time street guy and part-time word processor, finally decides to go legit after one last job, a simple heist -- a piece of cake, right? Wrong. Murphy's Law comes into play and Eddie finds himself embroiled in a triple homicide, an FBI manhunt and the daunting task of trying to prove his innocence while hunting down a ruthless killer. Who can't relate to a guy like Eddie -- he's like Job [biblical reference], but with an attitude. Momma mia! The book's plot is intriguing and unfolds nicely and Stella really does have a knack for dialogue (I noticed this mentioned in several of the other reviews). All in all, I thought the book was very entertaining -- interesting characters (wannabes, cops, gangsters and killers) and great story development. Fun read.

Eddie's World is the story of a man (Eddie Senta) on the fringes of two worlds: one legit and the other Organized Crime. Pressure is added when his wife wants to start a family. When the opportunity presents itself for a quick score, Eddie decides to go for the gusto and that's when the trouble begins. The "quick score" ends up getting Eddie implicated in a triple murder and puts Eddie and his family in extreme danger. The plot unwinds primarily through the author's (Charlie Stella) use of dialogue, and that's what makes this a fun read. If you like the works of Higgins or Leonard, you'll love the real dialogue that Stella uses to move the story along and define his characters.

At the center of this story is Eddie Sante, word processor by day and burglar by night. With his friend Tommy he sets up a sure fire thing that will yield 15?000 dollars. maybe a lot of gold and, if something goes wrong, a carload of computers. Something goes wrong, of course. James Singleton gets to money and gold first, and the computers are too hot to handle.

This book does not really have a plot, but rather a convoluted story line. The not so bad guys get killed off first. Some of the really bad ones survive to the end. Eddie is connected to the Italian mafia. Singleton is being helped by the Russian mafia. The FBI and the Federal Witness Protection Program enter the fray, as do two local detectives. Those two actually do little detecting; they just watch events roll by them. The FBI does not do much, either. But, of course, they know everything. How does an author get out of this mess? By having all participants meet for the last glorious shootout. Whatever is not clear by then, gets killed in the last pages.

An amusing book, but not a brain puzzler.

First of all, if you're new to Charlie Stella, this is the place to start. His books overlaps loosely, and reading them out of order is going to cause you to read many spoilers you don't want.

Eddie's world shows a bit of roughness around the edges. As his works mature, he gets his timing down much better and becomes more adept at telling a fast paced story from multiple points of view.

That said, there is a lot to admire here. He sets up the dramatic tension between the protagonist and his wife quite well, and things just explode from there. The villains are amoral, the 'heroes' are ambiguous as hell, and the dilemmas they get themselves in are often tragi-comedic. As with later works, conflicts between various police agencies are rendered with a high sense of irony.

Stella will get a better ear for dialog as his career progresses, but his command of street patois is already ahead of the vast majority of his contemporaries. This is a very enjoyable read.

Kirkus Review
Eddie Senta's world is out of whack and, as he'll be the first to tell you, he's got no one to blame but himself. It's all a matter of choices, see, and some of his recent ones have been about as sensible as picking a minefield for a Sunday stroll. But he's bored. He's been bickering with his much younger wife, second-guessing his performance as a father, shadowboxing with the problems he used to bang away at. Though he's good at his day job, word-processing, it's become his idea of blah, and since his night job, cat burglary, has grown almost as routine, Eddie, at 40-something, finds himself in the throes of midlife crisis. But that's no excuse for unmitigated dumbness, which is what you'd have to call the decision to go for a quick score when he needs neither the money nor the inevitable aggravation an inner voice instantly predicts. And does that voice ever have it nailed. Before Eddie can say second-story, he's the leading suspect in a triple murder. The cops are after him, his wife is leaving him, his boyhood friend (and current accomplice) is dead. Eddie's one last chance to set his madly tilting world to rights is to identify and catch up to the real killer-even though the perp is both connected and protected in ways you wouldn't believe. Fresh, fast, and darkly funny. A sure-footed debut from a writer with a spare, no-nonsense prose style who can make you like characters you think you shouldn't.

Eddie's World is the real deal. I'm not sure what the guy who wrote something below this review was thinking (especially since he wrote it twice), but this book sizzled. Go see the "Starred Kirkus" it received from Kirkus Reviews ... It's as good as his other two, the last of which was named to Publishers Weekly top mystery of the year 2003 (Charlie Opera). Can't wait for the next one.

Charles Stella, with his very first novel, scores big. The best I've read in a long time, Stella's dialogue is fast and witty. If you like to laugh out loud, read this book! Stella is also the master of the "hook", making readers anxious to get to the next chapter. I look forward to reading anything Stella writes in the future. No doubt about it, this guy is going to be on the bestseller's list soon.

Mr. Stella's style develops in this interesting and moving crime novel. You have a feel for the characters and how gaming and gritty the top layer of the crime underworld can be. I could not put it down. A good read and I cannot wait for the sequel which is out by the time you read this. Eddie is a likable guy, a married man deciding to take one last shot for that lifetime payoff but gets caught-up in the quest when things can go so wrong and people are hurt. The rollers; (cops), apply pressure and the Russians have their own way of doing things. A ex-con bent on greed, treachery and betrayal, added to the mix with unpredictability will have you turning the page to see how the event takes place. A very good read.

Charlie Stella is one of the best writers going in the crime fiction world, and this, his debut, is a perfect example of that. Outstanding characters (even the bit parts are memorable), great, GREAT, dialogue, and a story that twists and turns to a blast of a climax. Great stuff.

Eddie's World has a psychological edge to it. No, he doesn't need
to do this robbery, but he is addicted to the adrenaline rush, which in his everyday life, is
absent. One cannot just apply his basic reasoning to this, it is beyond reasoning,
it is an irrational act. Eddie has a conscience about not doing well by his teenage
son and keeps him from having a child with his now wife. Eddie has several inconsistencies
which become even more confusing as he tries to resolve them. This novel is deeper than
the street language.