Customer Reviews

Vengeance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

and it is difficult not to like him.

I'm a fan of Kaminsky's Abe Lieberman series, but I like Lew even better. Picture someone in midlife who drifts to Florida when his wife dies; and puts together a very simplistic lifestyle in one of Florida's wealthiest communities. You get a great look at Sarasota from the back of a Dairy Queen! You get a hero with a real sense of humor and a knack with people who is masquerading as a process server. You get a strong set of supporting characters, particularly in Flo, Sally, Ames and the fascinating Harvey, a computer research maven and Dr. Ann Horowitz, Lew's elderly psychiatrist.

In "Vengeance", the first time we get together with Lew (a Stanley Tucci lookalike), Kaminsky has woven together two different mysteries, one of which is exceedingly difficult to figure out. The characters are more carefully drawn and the romance is soft and believable. Fonesca is someone could very probably have met in your own lifetime, and his unassuming habits and thoughts are in sharp contrast to his quick wit and humor... A tidbit...

"I'm gay, Mr. Fonesca. I told you." "Why do they call it gay? Most of the homosexuals I've known are smiling on the outside and depressed on the inside", I said. "Like you?" "There is a distinct similarity", I said, sinking back into the chair.

A great and breezy read; makes you want Kaminsky to keep returning to Lew in the future!

Mysteries are seldom strong in characterization. Usually, the mechanics of the plot keep the author more than busy. Vengeance succeeds very well at both levels. This first entry into what could become a series holds great promise. Surprisingly, though, it is marred by more errors that should have been caught than any other novel I have read in years. I have accordinlgy graded down what otherwise would have been a rave review. Authors usually get a chance to catch errors in galley stage, so the profesional editors should probably not get all the blame here.

Lew Fonseca has integrity and persistence going for him, but little else. No one is going to mistake him for Nick Charles, Sam Spade, or Mike Hammer. He is licensed as a process server, and gets occasional jobs from attorneys to find people. Like a terrier, he gets to the bottom of where the missing people are. He is lucky to get paid $50 a day. He lives in his office. He gets leads for jobs at the Dairy Queen, where he eats most of his meals. He gets around by walking or riding a bike . . . unless he can charge a rental car to a client. He's depressed and has a hard time taking danger seriously. Perhaps he even has an unconscious death wish. He lost his wife three years before, and hasn't recovered yet. In this mystery, he is asked to find a runaway teenaged girl who is probably being sexually abused by her father. Separately, a local businessman asks him to find his missing wife. Normally, Lew has no work. Now he has too much. He puts his attention mostly on the runaway, and still can't keep up. And who is that mysterious man who's following him?

Lew Fonseca's buddies are as vivid in their uniqueness and appeal as he is. You'll enjoy thinking about them as examples of how the purpose of your life is more important than the resources you have. The book has a strong moral tone, without being preachy, that saves the book from being disgusting as various extreme forms of human depravity are exposed.

The mystery was hard for me to solve. Maybe you'll get it sooner than I did, but I was puzzled up until the last few pages. That made the book much more enjoyable for me.

A good lesson from this book is to consciously avoid judging people by their appearances and occupations. Everyone is different from what they seem. Try getting acquainted with someone you would normally not spend time with, and see how many of your assumptions about that person turn out to be wrong. That's a good way to overcome the Ugly Duckling stall!

The author has done a great job of developing the main character. I hope he'll continue with more Lew Fonesca mysteries! Let's hope, though, that he finds a different publisher. I cannot remember reading a more poorly edited book. The errors were so numerous they became a major distraction from a well-crafted story.

Three years six months and five days ago, Lew Fonesca's beloved spouse died when some unknown driver sideswiped her car, sending her crashing into a wall. Distraught, Lew immediately left Chicago to escape the memories. When his vehicle broke down in Sarasota, Florida, Lew decided to stay. He soon began working for a couple of attorneys, discreetly handling their investigative needs even though he has no license to practice professional sleuthing.

Real estate giant Carl Sebastian hires Lew's services to find his missing wife Melanie. Carl wants to only talk to her to see if he can persuade her to return home. However, the simple case turns complex when someone tails Lew and his clues seem to lead him to taking backwards steps. At the same time, Lew cannot refuse Beryl Tree's retainer to find her missing teen in danger from an abusive father and a nasty individual who bought the girl.

Perhaps it is time to declare award winning Stuart Kaminsky as the reigning monarch of excellent detective series with such notables as Inspector Rostnikov, Toby Peters, and Abe Lieberman. His newest player Lew Fonesca may be the best of the lot. Lovable Lew is still mourning his loss while counting every second away from his beloved. Yet, he cannot stop himself from helping the oppressed. VENGEANCE consists of two obvious story lines that Mr. Kaminsky's writing abilities turn into excellent tales along with Lew, a feat that makes this novel worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

After noticing that five people were sitting in four chairs in the high school office, I started looking for similar inconsistentcies. Are there editors or at least proofreaders at publishing companies these days? All the characters seemed to speak in the same voice and the old guy who's his friend seems way too much like the crazy old guy who lives in the swamp in Carl Hiasen's books. Get Toby Peters back to work.

A finely crafted new character, Lew Fonesca, a Sarasota, Florida process server with both brain and heart who finds people with a little help from his friends. Very enjoyable read, and a real page turner. But as far as I'm concerned none of Mr. Kaminsky's many fine title characters come close to my very favorite: Porfiry Rostnikov ("The Tub") and his quirky band of crack Moscow detectives. Mr. Kaminsky can keep on writing the others, and Fonesca is one of his better ones, but I PRAY that he brings Porfiry back. I really miss him.

I enjoyed "Vengeance," mostly because I liked the off-beat characters and the amusing dialogue. The Lew Fonseca character is very funny. Such characters as Lew's cut-rate therapist, the gun-toting sidekick, Lew's alcoholic but warm-hearted friend, Flo, and the computer hacker named Harvey are nicely portrayed. The plot is not particularly realistic or even all that interesting, but this book is worth reading for the droll and fairly strange people that Kaminsky has created.

There are some good things about this book: plot, characters and pace chief among them. However, the negatives made this book a disappointing read. I wanted to like it, I really did, but...

1) Poor editing. There are mistakes everywhere that were very distracting and made me feel like I was reading a cheap factory produced romance novel. I can deal with some, but it seemed like nobody proofed this. For example, early on Lew orders two burgers and a Coke from the DQ. Then, after a brief altercation, he orders a burger, a fish sandwich and a blizzard. It's like the author forgot that he had already ordered up his lunch. Another distracting line right out of the book was describing the occupants of an office complex and stated, "an accountant" twice... in the same line!

2) For being the luckiest guy in the world, Lew sure does walk around with a chip on his shoulder. I mean, he goes out looking for a girl and randomly finds some high school kids who just happen to know the girl and the school she attends. Then, sitting down next to a random trucker eating some breakfast, the trucker just happens to know "Dwight" the father of the girl that Lew inquires about because, you know, they are both truckers so obviously they know of each other. And then the principal of the school, after he states that the school has over 5000 kids, well, he just happened to have driven by the missing girl's address just the other night! Deus ex machina is found in almost any book and is often necessary to progress a plot line, but this was ridiculous! Once again, it made it feel like a cheap read.

This was my first book by this author, I picked it up at a FOTL sale. Unfortunately, I won't be picking up anymore of his books... there are just too many good ones out there, especially in this genre.

Kaminsky is a writer of whom I have read quite a bit of what he has written. I always enjoy picking up one of his Russian Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov 87th precinct Ed McBain knock off genre books. But like the 87th precinct work, they are nothing overly special. Kaminsky has written several books of a few other series' as well. They are pretty good, but again just a pleasant way to pass a few hours. What surprised me about Lew Fonesca (the protagonist here) is that I really got into this character and was enthralled by this series in a way that I had yet to be regarding Kaminsky's writing. The first Fonesca book that I read and was enraptured over was not Vengeance, it was Retribution. And now, that I have read Vengeance I just have this to say about the book. It is not very good, and it compares unfavorably to its sequel.

I would totally skip Vengeance and start right in on Retribution. Forget that Vengeance is even out there. You don't really need it to enjoy the rest of the series. One thing that I think takes both of these books down a couple of notches is the character Adele. If you have read these books you will know whom I am talking about. In Vengeance she runs away from home to take up a career as a whore and be abused by her estranged father. What the heck? Sounds kind of implausible. But in Retribution she then destroys manuscripts of a great writer and everyone sympathizes with her. Why? I really really loathe Adele in a way that I seldom do towards even the evildoers.

A very good story with a multitude of interesting characters. I am already impatiently waiting for the next Lewis Fonesca novel.