Murder on Camac [Paperback]

Joseph R. G. DeMarco (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

... Marco Fontana certainly jumps off the page in similar fashion. DeMarco does an excellent job of making him a little gritty, a hero, and entrepeneur without going too over the top. All in all, if you re in for a fantastic gay adventure, Murder on Camac (which still makes us chuckle) will give you exactly the jolt you re looking for. --Edge Philadelphia

This fast-moving mystery, the first in a series, has interesting Philadelphia locations, wonderfully rendered dialogue, many colorful characters and, uniquely, lots of heart. Murder on Camac is highly recommended for libraries with large mystery collections. --GLBT-Roundtable of the American Library Association

Well-crafted and populated with interesting people, Murder on Camac, has just the right blend of strip club musk and Catholic intrigue to create a heady perfume just right for inhaling on a muggy Philadelphia night. Fill your lungs and don't exhale until you re sure who killed who. --Out in Print

Product Description

When author Helmut Brandt is killed in an apparent mugging, P.I. Marco Fontana is hired by Brandt's partner, who suspects this was premeditated murder.

Brandt's work on the death of Pope John Paul I angered people in and out of the Church and made him more than a few enemies. His death happens soon after Brandt claims to have incontrovertible new evidence implicating people never before suspected.

Fontana doesn't believe in coincidences and takes the case. A former Catholic himself, he knows that uncovering Brandt's killer means more than exposing a thirty-year old plot to kill the Pope: it could also ruin the people named in the documents Brandt is supposed to have. Of course, if Brandt's enemies have killed once over this information, they won't hesitate to murder a P.I. who gets too close to the truth.

Entering the arcane world of the Catholic Church, Fontana encounters forces determined to keep him from getting to the truth. Though he manages to gain access to the upper levels of the Archdiocesan hierarchy, Fontana realizes that the web of power and deceit is every bit as intricate, tangled, and deadly as he imagined.

As the owner of StripGuyz, a troupe of male strippers, Fontana is no stranger to the seamier parts of the Philadelphia gayborhood. But in this case, he finds that there is an even murkier side to life in the city of Brotherly Love.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Lethe Press (August 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590212134
• ISBN-13: 978-1590212134
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #894,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex, well-written, and very entertaining, September 23, 2009

By	B. D. Whitney "www.bookwenches.com" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on Camac (Paperback)

I admit it: I'm a sucker for a good mystery. Stick a story in my hands with a well-developed whodunit and personable characters, and I'll stay happily entertained for hours. Toss in a bit of a real-life mystery and conspiracy theory and add a PI who is intelligent, personable, and unique, and I'm hooked tight. And that is just where we are with Joseph R. G. DeMarco's novel Murder on Camac. So start clearing some room in your library, mystery and detective fiction aficionados, because Mr. DeMarco and his private dick hero Marco Fontana are going to warrant a space of their own on your shelves.

Murder on Camac is as well-written a PI novel as I have recently read. The mysteries presented in this novel are engrossing, the subplots are entertaining to say the least, and the characters are unique and realistically detailed to the point that I felt as if I truly got to know them over the course of the novel. This story is narrated in the first-person by Marco Fontana in the fashion of the hard-boiled detective novel. He progresses through his investigation step by step in a methodical fashion, but it never becomes routine or boring. There is so much going on in this novel - multiple suspects, plots, subplots, dead ends, and the characters' very complicated and colorful personal lives - that one might fear getting lost in the middle of the drama. But we don't. Mr. DeMarco has done an outstanding job keeping everything and everyone straight and tying up all the necessary loose ends.

I found the main character in Murder on Camac, Marco Fontana, to be charming in his own way. A determined and tenacious investigator, he has enough quirks and human foibles to make him a pretty irresistible character. He has a thoughtful and dry wit, an agile mind, and the roving eye of a romantic rogue. Fontana inspires both exasperation and adoration in others, and although he frankly admits to being a commitment-phobe, he also has a soft heart and a generous nature that can get him in trouble upon occasion.

Fontana's supporting cast is as well-developed and unique as he is. He is assisted in his investigation by his secretary Olga, whose dour personality and broken English light up the pages; his friend and sometimes-lover Luke, who runs a professional housekeeping company; and the beautiful and unflappable Anton, a stripper who manages Fontana's strip club business and dreams of a monogamous relationship with the commitment-shy PI.

It is difficult to do justice to this complex and involving novel in a short review. I was captivated by the plot and the characters, and the portion of the story that involved the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as well as the mystery of the death of Pope John Paul the First is both fascinating and realistically detailed. By the time I read the final page, not only had I been royally entertained, but I felt as if I had made a new group of friends in Fontana and his crew. Murder on Camac is just the first of many cases to come that involve Marco Fontana, and I look forward to adding them all to my library.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Philly flavor on first installment of new gay mystery series!, November 29, 2009

By	Bob Lind "camelwest" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Murder on Camac (Paperback)

When author Helmut Brandt is gunned down on a quiet street in Philadelphia, most of the residents of that "gayborhood" assume it was simply a mugging gone wrong. But Brandt's lover believes it was an intentional "hit" on his partner, due to his controversial writings that suggested a Catholic Church conspiracy in the death of Pope John Paul the First, and hires gay private investigator Marco Fontana to find the killer. His preliminary investigation uncovers some rather suspicious individuals connected with the Diocese, and a series of threats and ambushes tell him he is on the right track.

Fontana is not your typical P.I. Besides being openly gay, he also owns and operates "Strip Guyz," a troupe of male strippers that packs them in nightly at a local gay club. The troupe's manager, Anton, sometimes helps out on cases, along with Marco's no-nonsense Russian secretary Olga, and numerous close friends who bring their unique skills and connections to the mix.

Author DeMarco plans this to be the first in a series of Marco Fontana mysteries, and I think he's off to a great start. Though this was a bit lengthy, it is a well-written, suspenseful story that will satisfy even the most picky mystery fan. A bubbling Philly cheesesteak, and five stars out of five!

- Bob Lind, Echo Magazine

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Sexy Private Eye, August 2, 2009

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Murder on Camac (Paperback)

DeMarco, Joseph R.G. "Murder on Camac", Lethe Press, 2009.
One Sexy Private Eye
Amos Lassen
Get ready to read about one sexy private detective, Marco Fontana. Everyone seems to want him and no one will dare to cross him. His beat is the gay neighborhood of Philadelphia and aside from that he runs a group of male dancers, the StripGuyz. He is one tough cookie. Joseph DeMarco brings us Marco is his new book, "Murder on Camac' and I predict that this is one book that is going to be very popular. Marco is the kind of guy that we all love and hopefully we will be seeing more of him in future books.
Helmut Brandt, an author, is killed in what seems to have been a mugging and Brandt's partner hires Marco to investigate. The case appears to be one of premeditated murder. Brandt had written about the death of pope Paul I and this caused for some bad feelings by many and caused Brandt to have several enemies. Right before he was killed Brandt claimed to have some new evidence that implicated certain people in the death of the Pope. Marco was a former Catholic and when he takes the case he understands that finding the killer means exposing a 30 year old plot to kill the Pope. His investigation could also put the people named in Brandt's documents in grave danger. He realizes as well that if these people have killed once, they could also kill him as he investigates.
We enter the world of the Catholic Church and as Marco works he comes across those who are determined that he not uncover the truth. He does manage to gain access to the upper levels of the Church and it is there that he realizes that there is a huge web of power and deceit. Being aware of the seamier side of life from working with his dancers, Marco soon sees that it is not only the gay neighborhood that has a dark side but that the Catholic church of Philadelphia does as well.
This is a book that I could not put down as soon n as I started to read and managed to finish in one sitting. It is a thriller with a fascinating cast of characters that is wonderfully written.