Customer Reviews

Headstone City

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Johnny Danetello was waiting in Headstone City in Brooklyn. But he wasn't sure what he was waiting for exactly. He had just been released from prison for running over a police officer while trying to save Angie, the youngest daughter of the Don of the Monticelli Crime Family, from a lethal drug overdose.

The Monti family blamed him for her death and had put a bounty on his head. When he got out he expected to get hit on his first day of freedom but nothing happened.

The old Don was dying and his two sons, Roberto and Vincent were locked in a power struggle. Roberto wanted Danetello dead but didn't have the clout or money to hire anyone except incompetent thugs.

Vincent certainly blamed Danetello for his sister's death but Vinny and Dane shared a strange bond. As teenagers they had almost been killed in a car accident. When they had finally recovered, they discovered that Vinny could step forward into possible futures and choose which one he liked best and Dane could talk to the dead.

Dane didn't know how the conflict within the Monticelli Family would play out but the dead were telling him that it would happen soon and he would be the instrument of its resolution.

Part mob crime story, part eerie supernatural tale, Headstone City delivers an evocative and colorful backdrop. This is Brooklyn as only someone who has lived there could write and since the location is the title, clearly this is an important aspect of the book.

The characterizations are richly nuanced and believable and the language successfully treads a tricky line between gritty crime and soaring eloquence. But Danetello's main struggle appears to be not with the mob or with the dead who haunt him but with his own ennui and pacing is a serious challenge when the main character seems incapable of action.

Piccirilli keeps it moving by bombarding Danetello with a host of odd and amusing characters, both living and dead. But in the end he is only partly successful and there are times when the story is pulled down into Dane's self-absorbed meanderings.

This is certainly not a fluff piece that can be easily digested. Kind of like how if you tune in to the Sopranos or Lost in the middle of it all - well - you'll get the gist but not the depth.

Tom's book demands that you pay attention. And that's a good, and rare, selling point in this day and age of novels as thinly disguised screenplays.

Stories are made on the strnegth of their characters. Now, I may be biased because I grew up on the east coast with lots of similar people, but in the end, I feel this book is a really worthy read.

The great thing about it is this: say there were no ghosts in the book, well, it'd be just as great. On the flipside, if it were all about ghosts, the same applies. The fact that both worlds are melded so well is testament to a very unique writer with a very unique take on the world.

Tom Piccirilli is one of my favorite dark fantasy crafstmen, who always uses a great deal of black humor to heighen his impresive atmosphere. I'm a major fan of his recent novels A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN and NOVEMBER MOURNS, and HEADSTONE CITY is another excellent piece of horror-crime thriller fiction. Like Gary Braunbeck he is a first-rate explorer of the traumas and terrors of personal history. This is emotionally charged, extremely powerful work that crosses the boundaries of genre and really shows something about the truth of the human condition. He is also the ONLY author whose work I can reread almost immediately after finishing, because there are so many intricate layers of story and character that can be found. Laugh-out-loud funny (wait until you meet Grandma and her shotgun), chilling, and illuminating, HEADSTONE CITY might be Piccirilli's best yet.

Piccirilli's latest novel is a terrific fusion of crime thriller and dark fantasy tale, as a mobster with psychic powers goes after his childhood friend, cab driver Johnny 'Dane' Danetello. This book has it all: action, humor, chills, horror, searing dialogue, and a dark but fun atmosphere that will keep you turning pages. Yet another winner from Piccirilli, who's probably my favorite fantasist currently working in the field. You can never be sure what kind of a story he'll turn out next, but you know it'll be a daring grabber.

On this year's Stoker Award ballot for Superior Achievement in a novel, Headstone City is absolutely one of the best books I read in 2006. Neo-noir with a hip gothic feel, the characters are hardened gangsters, criminals and killers, but you know, the good kind. The kind you root for even when you know the kind of redemption they're looking for just isn't really there to be found. Quick and hard-hitting this is action you can stop and think about, violence with real feeling. A great, great achievement worthy of recognition.

(Review originally published by HorrorWorld website, 2006)

Right out of the gate, Headstone City reaffirms Tom Piccirilli's vast talent - as if you needed it reaffirmed. It starts: "They came after Dane in the showers while he had soap in his eyes." Just the right amount of information, action, and even humor in one memorable beginning. The twisted humor blooms as Dane casually engages his would-be killers in a discussion while he stands naked and wet, awaiting their assault.

Piccirilli's touch is so sure-handed, you don't doubt for a minute the cinematic scene taking place during Johnny (Dane) Danatelli's last day in the slam after serving two years for running over a cop. Unfortunately, his new freedom has a price - the Monticelli family has put out a contract on him because the lovely, teenaged Angelina Monticelli died in his cab after an ill-advised drug buy. Dane loved her and her older sister, too, and was Vinny Monticelli's best friend, but all that changed and he became a marked man. Rather than making him morose, it appears to have made him reckless. And why not? Dane talks to the dead. His mother. People whacked by colorful mafiosi. Angelina herself. His own murdered father, and sundry others all come to visit and chat. It's so a guy can barely sleep.

Dane lives with his tough old grandmother, who dyes her hair and requests an endless supply of cannoli, biscotti, sfogliatelle, and other baked goods - and who's oiled his .38 for him. Dane knows he may get whacked going back home, many tell him so, but he has scores to settle himself.

Vinny and Dane shared a special bond as kids, and an accident that almost killed them instead left them strange burdens. The dead came looking for Dane, while Vinny began to "see" multiple futures. As Dane ambles back into Headstone City, both the living and the dead warn him off. With a limo-driving job, a beautiful B-actress making a play for him, and a sly federal agent applying pressure, Dane finds himself at the center of what may be a mob war.

Told in a dead-on New York patois, this relentlessly poetic noir comes across like The Sopranos and The Sixth Sense pulsed in a blender. (The) Dane's interaction with the shades of the departed is a deft combination of humor and tragedy, as he soft-shoes Hamlet-like across the stage, a prince in search of a vengeance yet to be determined. This is Tom Piccirilli (A Choir of Ill Children, November Mourns) at the top of his game, showcasing his comfort with the hardboiled tradition, yet transcending its limitations. Headstone City masterfully captures the iambic rhythm of New York's streets, the city's sinner-saints, and its victims, then uncoiling a powerful final sting.

--W.D. Gagliani, author of Savage Nights

Previous reviewers and the Amazon blurb do a good job of synopsizing, so I'll just give you my two bits. I wasn't sure about this book because it seemed like it might be a little too postmodern/artsy for me, but I ended up liking it pretty well.

First off, kudos to Piccirilli for taking two story premises that are usually hackneyed (Mafia-related crime fiction and a guy who sees and talks with dead people) and combining them into a totally original story. It was a little slow in some parts, but the author does succeed in building tension and the payoff is worth it. The narrative becomes a little confusing at times -- primarily thanks to nonlinear time/flashbacks that are not overtly offset from the "present" narrative -- but if you read attentively you can follow what's going on without much issue. The dialogue is pretty good, and the writing style a unique spin on hardboiled, with an abundance of what I assume are deliberate fragments. (I wondered while reading -- if you tallied them in the book, would frags would outnumber full sentences?)

Still the book was a little too postmodern/artsy to be completely my cup of joe, hence four rather than five stars, but keeping my own tastes in mind, the fact that I still liked it as much as I did shows that Piccirilli did a good job objectively speaking. If you read crime or horror fiction (not that this book is really "scary" though) and are interested in an unconventional book that combines both with a very literary style, you'll dig HEADSTONE CITY.