6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High-Octane Thriller, March 13, 2010
This review is from: Moonlight Falls (Paperback)
It takes serious balls to begin a book with your protagonist deliberately putting a bullet into his own head, but that's exactly how Vincent Zandri kicks off his high-octane new thriller Moonlight Falls. Richard "Dick" Moonlight, you see, is not your typical protagonist. In fact, he's seriously screwed up. As one character tells him, "You fell off the tree of f'd-up-weird and slammed every branch on the way down." F'd-up-weird notwithstanding, it's the fragment of .22 bullet left in his brain following his book opening suicide attempt that forces Moonlight's retirement from the Albany police department.
Unable to commit to a new job because the placement of the bullet fragment leaves him prone to untimely blackouts and seizures, not to mention serious lapses in judgment, Moonlight finds himself being called upon by his former partner to serve as an outside investigator on cases that need a discrete, but 'official', rubber stamping in order to close them... for a fee, of course.
This arrangement becomes a problem when he's called to the scene of the apparent suicide of Scarlet Montana, wife of his ex-boss Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. Unlike previous callouts, Moonlight can't bring himself to rubber stamp suicide as the cause of death, collect his under the table fee and be done with it. The sticking point? Not only was Moonlight having an affair with her, but he had been with her only hours before her death. What's more, given his spotty memory - not to mention the bloody, scratched up hands he doesn't remember acquiring - he honestly doesn't know if he could have killed her. But he's determined to find out what really happened to Scarlet, no matter what the consequences to himself may be.
What unfolds over the course of his investigation provides a non-stop, tension filled ride for the reader; one that includes a mysterious albino, Fugitive-esque pursuit by authorities, grave robbing, a police conspiracy, and a black market organ harvesting ring. There is so much going on that even the most accomplished reader of mysteries and thrillers will be hard pressed to figure out in advance what really happened, as Moonlight Falls delivers twists and swerves right up until the final chapter, even after having seemingly revealed the answer to the mystery.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moonlight Falls, March 18, 2010
This review is from: Moonlight Falls (Paperback)
If you like a down and dirty read, you can't go much lower than Vincent Zandri on the fiction shelf. Killers and cops play cat and mouse in this shocking quick-pace narrative. To part-time dick, "Richard" Moonlight, human decency is chump change - as rare as an albino man's left kidney. Zandri sets the bar low in gritty Albany, NY, delivering a sordid but altogether riveting page turner.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read for Mystery Lovers!, March 13, 2010
This review is from: Moonlight Falls (Paperback)
Did Scarlet Montana commit suicide or was she brutally murdered? This is the mystery that Richard Moonlight, ex-Albany Police Department Detective and budding massage therapist must solve, especially since he has been accused of her murder. To make matters worse, he was Scarlett's lover and was with her near the time of her death. He also has a self-inflicted bullet fragment in his brain that may dislodge at any moment and cause his own death. With Moonlight Falls, Vincent Zandri has crafted a fast-moving, tightly woven whodunit that will keep you guessing how Scarlet actually died up until the very last page. The characters, especially Moonlight, are finely drawn and eminently believable, and his picture-perfect descriptions of Albany will make you feel as if you're experiencing all of the action yourself. This is a must read for lovers of mysteries and thrillers. I would love to see a Moonlight series!
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