Customer Reviews

No Offense Intended

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

 

 

It doesn't have quite the shock impact of No Human Involved because Munch is a reformed character from the beginning. On the other hand the climactic action scene and dialogue are more plausible. Some wonderful writing about auto mechanics and descriptions like an abandoned building where " a morning glory vine flush with large purple blooms had taken over the Center's back fence and formed a web between two palm trees" Her relationships with children and religion add an extra dimension.

I fell in love with Munch Mancini in No Human Involved, and I love her still. Aside from the fact that Seranella writes with harrowing accuracy about drug addiction, her tinkerings with various engines--both human and mechanical--are never less than bang-on. This is a truly fine series.

In NO OFFENSE INTENDED, author Barbara Seranella continues the perils of her misfit heroine, "Munch" Mancini, a recovering drug addict and ex-hooker in 1977 Los Angeles. Munch still works as an ace mechanic at Happy Jack's Auto Repair, a job she initially landed in Seranella's first novel, NO HUMAN INVOLVED, also reviewed by me ( 5 stars) on this website.

Munch just can't seem to stay out of hot water. Or, rather, it seems to find her. One day, she is visited at work by a friend from her low-life days, one Sleaze John. That same afternoon, he's shot dead, apparently by a sniper, while driving along the freeway. This murder, and two others, propels Munch into new difficulties with the local law, represented by LAPD Homicide Detective Jigsaw Blackstone, and the FBI. It also gets Munch her first-ever plane ride into the "friendly skies". (From the fact alone that she seems to enjoy the experience, the reader knows it isn't 2001!)

In NO HUMAN INVOLVED, the LAPD's lead player, Detective Mace St. John, lived in a renovated 1927 Pullman car. In this thriller, Blackstone inhabits a renovated brewery. (I'm impressed, but don't any of LA's Finest reside in normal houses like us regular citizens?) This notable eccentricity aside, NO OFFENSE INTENDED doesn't measure up, in my opinion, to Seranella's first offering. Even though she remains a sympathetic character, Munch has lost some of the antisocial edginess that made her so endearing the first time around. Moreover, the latest storyline hasn't the same sort of humorous elements or ending plot twist that so impressed me in the previous. However, I do plan on reading Seranella's third novel in the Mancini series, UNWANTED COMPANY, and hope for the author's return to unqualified excellence, and Mancini's re-acquisition of a bad attitude.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I plan to get the first one to see how it all started. The character is very interesting, overall I found the mystery to be somewhat weak, but the character developement and the pace of the story still made it a very enjoyable and worthwhile read. I would definately recomend it.

In 1977 California, Jonathan "Sleaze John" Garillo visits his former lover Munch Mancini at Happy Jack's auto repair shop where she works as a mechanic. Munch is not happy to see Sleaze as he is a reminder of her past life as an addict and felon which she tries to forget with hard work. Still, she agrees to pick up Sleaze's infant child Asia and take the baby to her aunt's home.

On the way to retrieving the lass from her sitter, Munch notices Sleaze's abandoned truck on the highway. He has simply vanished. A drug smuggling gang abducted Sleaze's six-month old daughter. Forced to rescue Asia, Munch reluctantly allies herself with homicide detective Jigsaw Blackstone and Sheriff Tom Moody as the search for the truth that ties Sleaze with a drug smuggling gang.

In her second outing (see NO HUMAN INVOLVED), Munch remains a likable amateur sleuth that will enchant readers with her past and her efforts to overcome her personal history. The story line of NO OFFENSE INTENDED is fun to read and will excite fans of the sub-genre. However, as with the first novel, Barbara Seranella clearly enjoys her lead character as she dedicates the tale to her unique protagonist, who proves that reading is a worthy enterprise.

Harriet Klausner

This is Munch Mancini's second adventure back in the dark ages of the 1970s, complete with parole, a case worker from hell, a sleazy ex-lover; an abandoned baby; a car seat full of dope, survivalist welfare moms & three murders. I've taken a shine to this newly clean & sober sleuth with oil under her fingernails & an ironic budding feminism. A crazy dip back into a wilder decade of sex, drugs & rock'n'roll with enough temptations & redemptions to awaken a saint. Well plotted & written...

Since I grew up in the area where this story takes place, I've met a few people that might be like Munch. This is a really well written story with characters you can root for. Well done.

I loved the entire Munch Mancini series, laughed and cried. Could see the real struggle someone goes through when walking away from a bad life. I was sorry to hear that Barbara Seranella passed away. She will be missed.

Munch in trouble? Never! Well, actually, always. This second book is as real as the first, and very cool. I like the fact that alchoholism and addiction are dealt with realisticly, and prostitution isn't given the warm and fuzzy treatment... so many people seem to think it's cool or something these days. And unlike some characters who've never done a bad thing in their lives, Munch has reason to be in cruddy situations. But she's trying, and working hard at it.

So basicaly the same good stuff as the first, only a bit further along in the story.