Johnny Porno [Paperback]

Charlie Stella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2010

It s the summer of 1973. Disco is King and the New York mob is at the peak of its power. John Albano, an out-of-work construction worker with child support and rent payments he can t keep up with, is driving for a local car service when his quick hands and honorable nature place him in the middle of a perfect storm of danger. He s just trying to make ends meet with a weekend stint counting heads and collecting the take at illegal screenings of the recently banned porno film, Deep Throat, for Mafioso Eddie Vento. But a devious ex-wife, her more devious ex-husband, the wiseguys behind the film (including one obnoxious wannabe with a frenzied beef for Albano), the Fleetwood Eldorado used in the opening scene of the porno film and a host of cops (both good and bad including the deranged one Albano punched out) snowball into an often humorous, sometimes violent, action-packed trip back to the year Willie Mays hit his last home run. This is the world of Johnny Porno.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in New York City in 1973, Stella's vibrant seventh crime novel catches the cadence and daily grind of organized crime grunts. John Albano, who lost his carpenter job and his union card because he punched out his foreman, now collects cash receipts for the mob from illicit screenings of Deep Throat, the mob-produced pornographic film that reputedly would earn more than $600 million. Still struggling to pay his bills as well as child support for his beloved son, Albano considers getting more involved with the Mafia, despite his qualms. Stella (Mafiya) tosses an eclectic cast of characters into the mix, including Albano's remarried ex-wife and police investigators looking into the mobster Albano reports to, Eddie Vento. Though implausible subplots at times threaten to overwhelm the main plot, admirers of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins will be happy. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Don’t be fooled by the title—it’s just a gangster moniker. Elmore Leonard fans are going to love Stella’s entirely original contribution to the slice-of-criminal-life genre, down-and-dirty division. After the release of Deep Throat, the low-budget porn flick starring Linda Lovelace that captured the hearts and genitals of a nation, as well as making a substantial amount of cash, the Mob suddenly realizes that the legal situation in 1973 makes “fuck movies” viable and highly marketable to the masses. It’s no longer necessary to show them in rented warehouses. So enter entertainment purveyor and bagman John Albano, soon rechristened “Johnny Porno,” and a cast of gangsters all recruiting “talent” and following the money. This is the seventh novel from Stella (Mafiya, 2008), who has made the underside of the New York underworld his home. --Elliott Swanson

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Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Stark House Press (April 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193358629X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933586298
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Manhattan and brought up in Canarsie in Brooklyn. I attended public and catholic schools in Canarsie until going to Minot, North Dakota on a football scholarship. I was hooked as a reader/writer of modern crime fiction after Dave Gresham (my mentor and English teacher) read the opening lines from the George V. Higgins classic, The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

I have worked as a paperboy, watermelon loader, soda-jerk, dishwasher, McDonalds cook, hallway buffer, porter, security guard, UPS laborer, sheetrock carrier, hallway buffer, porter and bouncer, as well as a union window cleaner on 50-story scaffolds and a word processing operator/supervisor/manager.

My favorite crime authors include George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, Ken Bruen, Daniel Woodrell, George Pelecanos, Craig McDonald, Vicki Hendricks and Rick Marinick.

My novels are considered hardboiled and are dialogue driven. I write about small time operators and their dreams. While I do not condone (or agree) with what some of my characters might say during the course of a novel, I defend their right to be idiots and bigots. If you are looking for politically correct crime novels, skip mine.

Three of my novels are now available on kindle (Eddie's World, my 1st novel), Charlie Opera (my third novel) and Mafiya (my 6th novel). Jimmy Bench-Press (my 2nd novel) and Cheapskates (my 4th novel) will be available on kindle shortly.

I have lived in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island in New York and Perth Amboy in New Jersey. I currently reside in Joisey (once again). I have three children (all grown now), a wonderful tomata (wife--the Principessa Ann Marie) and the most fierce bichon-friese in the world--Rigoletto.

I am an American-Italian and never confuse the two. I was born in America and will never be apologetic about that.

I treasure the time I spend with Ann Marie and Rigoletto like you can't believe.

You can also find short stories of mine in the following anthologies/crime fiction collections:

Plots with Guns Anthology, edited by Anthony Neil Smith: Young Tommy Burns (Dennis McMillan)* Available now.

Dublin Noir, edited by Ken Bruen: Tainted Goods (Akashic Books, March 2006)

Hardboiled Brooklyn, edited by Reed Farrel Coleman: Waiting for Gallo (Bleakhouse, May 2006)

Baltimore Noir, edited by Laura Lippman: Ode to the Orioles (Akashic Books, May 2006)

The Adventure of the Missing Detective: And 25 of the Years Finest Crime and Mystery Stories! (edited by Ed Gorman & Martin Greenburg): Father Diodorus (Carroll & Graf)* Available now.

Bloodlines: An Anthology of Horse Racing, edited by Maggie Estepp & Jason Starr: The Cynical Breed (Vintage, Fall 2006)

Reviews of my work can be found on my web page at www.charliestella.com

Feel free to write me at any time at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everybody Loses, May 24, 2010

By 

Sam Sattler (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Johnny Porno (Paperback)

Frankly, I do not usually pay much attention to book blurbs because of how writers generally trade them among themselves, their special way of exchanging rather painless favors. But to Charlie Stella's credit, most of the blurbs on the cover of "Johnny Porno" come not from authors, but from newspaper and magazine critics. And then there's this one from Ken Bruen, a man who has written several of my favorite hardcore crime novels, "Stella is a winner, a true artist." Despite my misgivings about the honesty of book blurbs, when a talent like Ken Bruen offers that kind of praise, I do tend to listen - and, in this case, I am happy that I did.

"Johnny Porno" is set in 1973, a year during which Richard Nixon is still hoping to survive the Watergate break-in, the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes abortion, the Viet Nam War officially ends and the state of New York bans the screening of perhaps the most famous pornographic film of all time, "Deep Throat." It is also the year that John Albano, a hotheaded carpenter, is stripped of his union card after he argues with the wrong man on a job site, making it near impossible for Albano to pay child support to his ex-wife.

John Albano loves his son and sincerely wants to provide for him but, since losing his high paying union job, he simply cannot meet his obligations to the boy. So when a New York mobster offers him the job of gathering cash receipts from the illegal showings of "Deep Throat," Albano jumps at the chance to earn some extra money. Albano's quick fists, and his even quicker temper, first bring him to the attention of the mob boss, but that same inability to control himself will soon have him in trouble with Eddie Vento, the man who hired him. Unfortunately for him, John Albano has a special talent for making deadly enemies, and his life is about to get complicated.

Charlie Stella has filled "Johnny Porno" with a wide variety of characters. There are mob enforcers, hit men, crooked cops, good cops, vindictive ex-wives, fragile FBI men, drug addicts, police informants, wannabe porn stars (and those who live like porn stars already), good girls, con men, good guys, cute kids, loyal mothers - and Johnny Porno, a man who hates the nickname he is stuck with and just wants a little respect for his efforts to do right by his son. This is a gritty, complicated story and it is not for the faint-of-heart or the easily offended. If books were rated in the manner of Hollywood movies, "Johnny Porno" would have earned at least an "R" rating for itself. But if you enjoy Soprano-style fiction, you will not want to miss this one.

As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, (Stella) "May just be the best crime writer you've never read."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sheer pleasure to watch the plot unfold, April 30, 2010

By 

Katharine Horsley "Kate" (Lancaster, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Johnny Porno (Paperback)

As a huge fan of Charlie Stella, I've been eagerly awaiting his seventh novel. My high expectations were richly rewarded with this crime drama set in the 1970s, when the New York mob takes charge of distributing now-legendary porno movie 'Deepthroat', starring Linda Lovelace.

The novel's title comes from the nickname of the main character, John Albano, an ill-starred mob runner who earns the moniker 'Johnny Porno' from his job of driving round Long Island, collecting money at Deepthroat screenings. His concerns about the work he does are outweighed by his fears of getting whacked if he quits. On top of this nightmare, there's Johnny's ex-wife Nancy and her tangled love life, detectives investigating Johnny's boss Eddie Vento and trying to shut down screenings of Deepthroat, and a corrupt cop on the take.

Like his other novels - Eddie's World: A Novel of Crime, Jimmy Bench-Press: A Novel of Crime, Charlie Opera: A Novel of Crime, Cheapskates, Shakedown: a novel of crime, Mafiya - Johnny Porno is skillfully paced and tightly plotted. The scenes jump off the page and the dialogue is simultaneously realistic and laugh-out-loud funny. Stella is a master of using conversations between characters to give you an immediate sense of their relationships and who they are. His writing is both shrewd and heartfelt.

The first scene between John Albano and George Berg mixes 'Goodfellas' style wisecracks with acute observation:

"I got nothing to do with this cr__ outside of hauling it back and forth weekends," John said. "I never even seen the damn movie."

"You like magic acts you should," Berg said. "See it, I mean. The star, Linda Lovelace, she has some humble t__s and all, a crooked tooth of two, but she can swallow a telephone pole. It's something every man should get to see before he dies, know what he's missed."

I loved the idea of this 'humble'-looking broad becoming so notorious and unintentionally causing all this trouble. I also loved the characters and was hooked from there on in. It's sheer pleasure to watch the plot unfold, as Stella deftly intertwines the tribulations of the main characters with a dynamic Nixon era backdrop.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master of Street Dialogue is at it again, June 7, 2010

By 

Daniel Scali (New York, NY U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Johnny Porno (Paperback)

I have been following Charlie Stella for years, both his blogs and books. 'Johnny Porno' doesn't disappoint loyal fans like myself. It's not the kind of book you want to showcase on the morning subway ride, both because of the title and the scary mugshot of the author on the back, but it's another page turner from a former knockaround guy. Charlie Stella has always had a knack for incredible dialogue, but what makes this book stand out from his others is the backstory of the mafia's connection to the highest grossing movie of all-time, "Deep Throat." New Yorkers, like myself, will appreciate all of the historical references to the city and see just how much things have changed since the 1970's.

I give this five out of five cement shoes!

~Daniel Scali