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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Ghost Father, August 15, 2006
Johnny "Dane" Danetello and Vinny Monticelli, best friends growing up on the wrong side of the law, jacking cars and scamming mooks in Brooklyn's Italian neighborhoods. But Vinny is connected - very connected - son of the local mob boss destined to take the reins from his ailing and increasingly ineffective pop. Dane drives a cab, but when Vinny's 15-year old sister dies in his cab, Dane ends up in prison with a mob contract on his head.
So with that backdrop, Tom Piccirilli spins an authentic drama of tough guys, bad guys, and made guys shooting it out in a convincing Brooklyn setting, flush with fast action, sharp dialogue and unforgettable characters, none more so than Dane's pink-haired, cannoli-eating grandma. But the hook that separates "Headstone City" from the pack is an unlikely supernatural twist: in a car heist gone bad, young Dane and Vinny are catapulted through the windshield of the stolen car. However, in addition to heads full of divots, staples, and metal plates, the boys find themselves with some bizarre side effects: Dane is visited by the dead, while Vinny on occasions gets a preview of paths into the future. Sounds wacky, for sure, but this goodfella's-to-ghost busters gore fest works, thanks to Piccirilli's clever plotting, black humor, and engaging cast.
As brutal as it is offbeat, "Headstone City" is 100% original, and definitely worth a read. And the prolific but largely unheralded Tom Piccirilli is a name that deserves a following.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Action-packed but thought-provoking, March 2, 2006
Few authors are as capable of writing H/DF/M with such a deeply human, literary flavor. His work is always highly atmospheric, with a pervasive sense of melancholy but infused with wonderful humor and wit. You never know from one chapter to the next whether you'll be shocked, chilled, disturbed, or swept up in action. Rarely have I read a book that so often could make me laugh aloud on one page and chill my blood the next.
Taking a break from his fierce southern gothic settings (NOVEMBER MOURNS, A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN) HEADSTONE CITY is a Brooklyn-based noir novel with elements of dark fantasy, the supernatural, mob story, and treatise on the search for identity.
Ex-con and cab driver Johnny "Dane" Danetello returns to his neighborhood, called "Headstone City" thanks to the nearby cemetery. Plagued with an overwhelming apathy and seemingly always in the wrong place at the wrong time, Dane tries to work up the energy to figure out why he's being pursued by the FBI, why a beautiful actress seems to be so interested in him, and what to do now that his former best friend Vinny Monticelli has placed a contract on his head. Along the way Dane--who's had the ability to see ghosts and take "night rides" in his cab with the souls of the living--tries to make peace with his guilt over the death of Vinny's younger sister, who died in Dane's cab of a drug overdose.
Family and personal history always play a major part in Piccirilli's fiction. Here we see how Dane's life has been shaped by the murder of his police officer father, the cruel death by cancer of his mother, his unrequited love of the beautiful Angelina Monticelli, his years stealing cars with Vinny, and the wisdom he gleans from the dead.
In my opinion, Piccirilli's novels are hamstrung by genre labels. He's so much better than that, giving us readable, enjoyable, smart, fun, provocative, literate fiction that carries us along through his tremendous imagination and narrative skills. Highly recommended.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Multi-layered and fiercely original, June 19, 2006
It's easy to admire Tom Piccirilli's versatility. Even though his novels often share certain themes, there is not one very much like another. Even more amazing is how he begins Headstone City in much the same way as his previous novel, November Mourns -- with a man returning home after some time spent in jail to find a task set before him -- yet decorates this simple plot device with a completely different motivation, setting, and cast of characters.
When his friend Vinny Monticelli's sister, Angelica, had a bad reaction to some recreational drugs, Johnny "Dane" Danetello attempted to drive her to the hospital in his cab, hitting a police officer on the way. Angelica died despite his efforts, and the killing of the police officer, especially considering Dane's already lengthy record, got him sent up for five years, and Vinny subsequently put a contract on his now ex-best friend.
Now Dane is back in town, talking to ghosts and trying settle an old score.
Author Tom Piccirilli's literary sense in Headstone City is phenomenal. Within the confines of the noir genre, he references Shakespeare, gangsters, and Old Hollywood, with room enough left for a subplot involving ghosts, dreams, and alternate realities (and don't worry -- he didn't leave out the "ill children" of his previous two novels, the aforementioned November Mourns and its predecessor, A Choir of Ill Children). And in the midst of all the darkness, there is still room for nostalgia (I got nostalgic myself upon reading the passage about "my mother's old forty-fives. With the little plastic thing in the middle so they'd fit on the record player").
Headstone City is by far the most purely enjoyable of the Piccirilli novels I've read. This could be his ticket to mainstream success, if given the proper promotion. It would most certainly make a terrific movie; the characters, setting, and plot cry out for a cinematic treatment. But the most impressive part is how it can be enjoyed on multiple layers: You can be completely entertained by the surface mafiosi-revenge-noir tale, or look deeper and find even more satisfaction by viewing "Dane" as a Hamlet-type (revenging his father's death while besieged by spirits).
Some readers have complained that Dane is a "passive protagonist" and I happen to disagree, believing that he is simply waiting for the right moment to act (much like Hamlet, who doesn't kill Claudius when he has the chance because Claudius is praying and would go to heaven -- Hamlet wants him not only dead, but damned, too -- so he waits, and that leads to his downfall). But, in any case, even when Dane isn't seemingly doing anything toward his end, so much is happening to him that it keeps the story moving smoothly. The supporting characters like Glory Bishop and Grandma Lucia provided at least half of my enjoyment of the book. Headstone City soars either way. It is truly a textbook example of how to combine an age-old plot with a well-worn genre and still manage to produce a novel that is completely cohesive and fiercely original.
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