Mobtown [Mass Market Paperback]

Jack Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1900

ack Kelly packs a punch in his latest novel set in the deceptively quiet neighborhoods of 1950s Rochester, New York. Ike Van Savage's latest case starts out simple enough: a threatening husband and a beleaguered wife. But before he knows it, he's pulled into a serpentine mystery that involves the town's most notorious gangster, a dead heiress, and one too many 'accidents.' Mobtown seethes with undercurrents of passion, drips with moody detail, and brims with proof that Jack Kelly deserves an honored place among writers of suspense and detective fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1959 Rochester, N.Y., this excursion into noir from the author of Line of Sight owes much to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, though it captures little of their panache. As divorced ex-cop-turned-PI Dwight "Ike" Van Savage (an attempt to evoke both Eisenhower and Doc Savage?) trails philandering Eddie Gill, a husband and father of four involved with a 16-year-old girl, Ike's thoughts turn to his own 10-year-old daughter: "I didn't want to think of her growing up in a world of Eddie Gills." True to the classic tradition, Ike's soon in over his head: a young woman named Sandy Mink turns up in the morgue with her throat cut; Gill is the prime suspect because Sandy knew he was running guns for local mafioso Joe Petrone. But that's just the beginning. Many dead bodies later, Ike confronts the killer in a pyrotechnic finish, yet the mystery itself, with all its attendant twists and sanguinary episodes, doesn't satisfy as it should. An unwelcome sense of vu hangs over the proceedings, while the period details, despite numerous, desultory topical references (What My Line?, The Seven Year Itch, the Patterson-Johansson heavyweight fight, George "Superman" Reeves's suicide), fail to convince. In addition, the plot is so diffuse that things occasionally come unglued, and decent tough-guy Ike remains no more than a crude sketch. Kelly's medium-boiled style has been likened to James M. Cain's hard-hitting prose, but it's clear, based on this outing, that he's not yet in that league. (Jan. 9)Forecast: With plugs from such big names as Donald Westlake, Joe Gores and George P. Pelecanos, as well as the movie release late in 2001 of Protection, for which Kelly wrote the screenplay from an earlier novel, Mobtown may well garner plenty of publicity and sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Here, Kelly (Line of Sight) manages once more to breathe new and wonderfully sleazy life into the hard-boiled mystery format. The year is the politically incorrect 1959, and the unlikely place is Rochester, NY. Private detective Ike Van Savage's business is booming. He's on a domestic case, shadowing a married man who's squiring a 16-year-old around town, and following a prominent mobster whose wife reports that he is trying to kill her. Before Ike can make much progress on either case, he is fired by both of his employers. Still, the aftermath of the investigations that he had only just begun manages to be explosive enough to blow away (both literally and figuratively) the facade of easy respectability behind which Rochester has retired. While the book doesn't break any new ground, its mastery of the hard-boiled mix of marshmallow heart and existential angst is exact, right down to similes that stand out "like a bride in a slaughterhouse." Recommended wherever the genre is in demand; fans won't be disappointed. Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (January 1, 1900)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786889810
• ISBN-13: 978-0786889815
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,719,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Kelly is the author of five novels and numerous works of nonfiction. He was raised in upstate New York on the shore of Lake Ontario, spent many years in New York City and currently lives in the Hudson Valley. With a wide following among crime-fiction devotees, Kelly has brought a precise and fluid style to the genre. His writing was called "adrenaline in words" by the New York Times. Kelly's novels combine ear-perfect dialog and suspenseful plotting with flat-out action. While pursuing a successful career as a professional writer, the author has volunteered as an EMT, driven a cab in New York, lived in Europe and Central America, and swum the English Channel (twice). His watchword: "The veneer is thin, brother."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob." Seneca, March 15, 2010

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mobtown: A Novel (Hardcover)

The time is 1959, Ike Van Savage, P.I. is hired by Vicky Petrone, wife of the mobster, Joe Petrone. Vicky tells Ike that her husband intends to kill her. Her reason is that he knows she's no longer in love with him and she knows that Joe's first two wives died under questionable circumstances.

In this noir story, Rochester, New York is described as a town run by the mob. We learn a great deal about the city at that time, the politics, the parties by the lake and the manner in which the police seem to look the other way when the mob is at work.

Ike is involved in a number of related cases. Paddy Doyle, a slum landlord, who owns buildings downtown, refuses to sell his buildings to the mob. He sees one of his buildings after another, go up in smoke. Paddy asks Ike's help in bringing the arsonist to justice before he, Paddy, is forced to do it himself.

While working for Paddy Doyle, Ike is asked to investigate business owner Eddie Gill. His wife is suspicious and wants Eddie followed. Ike confirms her suspicions as he sees Eddie with a sixteen-year-old girl who worked for him. Eddie takes the girl to a night club and a motel.

Ike's investigation of these cases takes him around the city and his descriptions are vivid and timely. I particularly enjoyed the sequence when Ike was at a dance club where Stagger Lee was playing and words from the song melted in with the action.

I enjoy this kind of story with good action and knowing that I'm experiencing the events without a psychological approach to the character's actions.

The dialogue is excellent and reminds me of the great Raymond Chandler's P.I. Philip Marlow. Neither P.I. takes a back seat to threats and they get the job done at all costs. It's easy to visualize what is happening when the reader is given words like this, "We looked at each other, she tightened her eyes, and I knew she was talking the truth. Whatever it was between us was roaring down the tracks and it knocked my bitterness out of the way like so much horse feathers."

Yeah, baby!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid period mystery, March 21, 2002

By 

David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mobtown: A Novel (Hardcover)

Rochester is a town known more for Kodak than crime, but even in Western New York, 1959 the rackets are going strong. Joe Petrone is the local wiseguy and, according to wife #3, he has about as much loyalty to his betrotheds as did King Henry VIII. He's making noises like he's tired of her, and she wants Private Eye Dwight Van Savage to make sure she doesn't "accidentally" drive off a cliff or fall asleep in the bathtub.

"Ike" Van Savage makes for a good character because he's ordinary enough to earn the reader's trust and sympathy, just noble enough to keep going despite the odds stacked against him, and just dangerous enough to keep things interesting. Beyond all that, he seemed to be a good guy and a loving father. His scenes with his nine-year old daughter are both sweet and realistic, without being cloying. Ike may be hard-boiled on his surface, but his interior is warmer than Marlowe's every was.

Author Jack Kelly has not only created a likeable protagonist, but he has placed him in a fruitful setting as well. It's nice to read something a little off the beaten path, and Rochester seems like as good a place as easy to have a shot and a beer, and get beaten over the head. His evocation of 1950s America is excellent, with all the details down pat, from the cars and the clothes, to the smells in the air.

Highly recommended...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Give Me a Break, January 26, 2003

By 

Brian Evankovich "Brian E." (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mobtown (Mass Market Paperback)

Is it too much to ask for one of today's writers to hammer out a decent private eye novel? Kelly's MOBTOWN has a decent premise, starts out fine, but quickly becomes just another story about a divorced ex-cop private eye who smokes pot when he's depressed and moans about not being able to help people. I skimmed the whole last third of the book, tired of the same old garbage today's mystery writers have been turning out over the last 20 years. And unless you were around in 1959, when the story takes place, you'll be lost with all the pop-culture references. I loved the sequence where our hero Ike Van Savage made a promise to his daughter to be on time for her birthday and - SHOCKER! - was tied up by the cops for several hours answering questions about a murder and missed the party. How original. And the identity of one of the killers will be obvious, especially if you've read a lot in this genre. Go read Max Allan Collins instead if you want a period mystery, or any of the old-time pulp writers who knew how to tell this kind of story.