An Unacceptable Death (Munch Mancini Novels) [Hardcover]

Barbara Seranella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005 | Series: Munch Mancini Novels

One thing about Miranda Mancini that has never changed is the name everyone knows her by---Munch. But the child abused by her father and sent into prostitution, the young girl who stole money because she couldn't do without her drugs, the woman who spent awful months in prison---that person no longer exists. Instead, Munch Mancini is the surrogate "mother" of a friend's loving little girl, a woman who can top any male car mechanic's talents with a tool, and the unbelievably happy fiancée of police detective Enrique "Rico" Chacón. It's an ordinary life and it's exactly what she wants.

Everything changes when an early-morning call from homicide detective Mace St. John, the nearest thing Munch has to a father, brings unbelievably terrible news. Rico is dead, having been shot during a drug bust. Munch learns that Rico was shot by one of his fellow officers---and not by accident. This news energizes Munch in a way she wouldn't have believed possible. She knows in her head and her heart that Rico could not have been on the wrong side of the drug bust.

The police department insists that Rico was working with the drug dealers. But a pair of special officers with Narcotics have other ideas. They ask Munch to go undercover and mix with the suspected dealers. They are certain it will prove that Rico was innocent. Munch agrees. She could easily end up dead herself---but if she can clear Rico's name, she will have what she wants. That's Munch Mancini.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of Seranella's outstanding eighth Miranda "Munch" Mancini mystery (after 2004's Unwilling Accomplice), the Los Angeles auto mechanic is enjoying a domestic stability that she never thought possible after her sordid existence as a drug addict and prostitute. Indeed, the challenge Seranella faces as her heroine moves further away from her lurid past is to keep the sense of conflict alive. She certainly accomplishes this when Munch's fiancé, detective Enrique "Rico" Chacón, is shot dead by his fellow cops in a drug bust gone wrong. We learn that there had been a bounty put on Munch's head by the newly reformed Satan's Pride Motorcycle gang (whom Munch had helped take down years back) and that Rico's death may have resulted from his attempts to protect her. To compound matters, the police department is withholding Chacón's pension from his family, claiming that he was corrupt. Determined to clear his name and to get revenge, Munch sets out on a dangerous investigation of her own. This is character-driven crime fiction at its finest by one of the genre's most accomplished stylists. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Prison inmates often have the image of the Virgin Mary tattooed on their backs to help ward off would-be assaulters. Narcs put ballpoint pen refills, rather than actual pens, in their pockets to look more street, less cop. Details like these fill Seranella's Munch Mancini thrillers, spiking their authenticity. Mancini herself has crawled up from the streets. As an ex-abuse victim, ex-prostitute, ex-biker old lady, ex-drug addict, she is both forever conscious of how lucky she is to be one of the few to escape and how unlucky the many others are who never do; this perspective, plus street smarts, enables her to go undercover convincingly. At this novel's start, Mancini works as an auto mechanic in Santa Monica, has a nine-year-old daughter, and is involved in a relationship with an undercover narcotics detective. Her newfound, straight-world happiness is blasted to pieces, however, when her boyfriend is shot to death in a drug raid. A detective friend on the LAPD enlists Mancini's aid--investigators into the shooting suspect that her boyfriend was killed by dirty cops. Mancini's contact wants her to work as a CI, confidential informant, to ferret out the truth and expose the remaining corrupt cops. Mancini excels at undercover work in a way that cops not born to the street and its incessant game playing can't begin to match. Her descent into the L.A. coke trade is both fascinating and terrifying to witness. An absolutely first-rate heroine in a compelling story. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312347987
• ISBN-13: 978-0312347987
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #708,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Series remains excellent read, April 26, 2006

By 

ellen "ellen in atlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Unacceptable Death (Munch Mancini Novels) (Hardcover)

The time is 1986 - Ronald Reagan is President - Munch Mancini, the series heroine, continues to lead a clean life with her adopted daughter, and steady job as a mechanic. She happily is planning her wedding to Rico, her cop fiance, when she receives word that Rico was killed under questionable circumstances. Munch, seeking to clear Rico's name of any doubt that he was a clean officer, gets caught in a 'sting' with DEA with drug lords. Munch retains her integrity, having learned hard lessons in the past. This book comes to terms with the loss Munch and her daughter Asia feel and the process as the reason for Rico's death is solved. Very moving yet not saccharin. The series has maintained its integrity and is true to reality and characters.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coke, anyone?, August 2, 2008

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: An Unacceptable Death (Munch Mancini Novels) (Hardcover)

People can and do change. No one knows this better than author Barbara Seranella, who worked for 20 years as a car machanic. Unless it's protagonist Munch Mancini, former heavy drug user who is now straight. She spent the first 25 years of her life on the wrong side of the law, and now she seems destined to be manipulated into helping them. An Unacceptable Death begins on a very sad note, as Munch's cop/fiance Rico is shot to death. Some people on the force are trying to get her to believe that he was a bad cop, a dealer.

This is the first Seranella novel I've sampled, and I've been most pleasantly surprised by its quality. She's a smart, talented writer who approaches crime from a different perspective, that of someone who once fell to rock bottom but now is doing the best she can to raise her adopted little girl. Munch is no PI, but she does know her way around the seamier side of LA, and her instincts are trustworthy.

Discovering what happened to fiance Rico, and why, is Munch's objective, for she knows in her bones that he was not a crooked cop. But the other players in this deadly game are interested only in forwarding their own agendas. The question remains largely unanswered until the novel's end. Seranella takes her readers along on Munch's emotional and dangerous quest, deftly avoiding the maudlin as the truth comes gradually to light.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done!!, April 2, 2006

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Unacceptable Death (Munch Mancini Novels) (Hardcover)

I hate when authors kill off the major love interest. But I do appreciate when the author does it well and the protagonist's reaction is convincing. Seranella has created great characters in Munch, her daughter Ellen, with excellent and realistic interaction between the two, and Munch's friend Ellen. I particularly liked that even the villains had balance as characters. The story is well balanced well sorrow, humor, determination and tension. For me, this was one of the better books in the series.