Virgin Heat [Paperback]

Laurence Shames (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Meet Angelina Amaro, the star-crossed daughter of Mafia capo Paul Amaro. For ten long years virginal Angelina has been carrying a secret torch for the stool pigeon who betrayed her father to the cops in exchange for a spot in the Witness Protection Program. When she recognizes her beloved's hands mixing drinks in a relative's Key West vacation video, Angelina stops pining and starts planning her escape from her family and reunion with her man Sal, who now goes by the name of Ziggy Maxx. Naturally, the course of true love never did run smoothly, and it isn't long before Papa is on her trail with hilarious results.

Playing the Mafia for laughs is a novel idea, and it works quite well in Laurence Shames' fifth book, Virgin Heat. In Angelina, Mr. Shames has found a sympathetic heroine, and in his collection of undercover cops, cross-dressing mafiosi, vengeful hit men, and long-suffering wives, he has created a memorable cast of supporting characters. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Sal Martucci was an up-and-comer in Paul Amaro's New York City Mob. He was even in love with Amaro's 17-year-old daughter, Angelina. But then he got busted, finked on the elder Amaro, and entered the witness-protection program. Now he tends bar at various Key West hangouts and picks up a little extra cash as a bagman for a local loan shark. When Angelina sees a friend's Florida vacation video and catches a glimpse of the bartender in the background, she takes an unannounced trip to the Keys, where, with the help of Michael, a young gay man also looking for love, she trolls the bars looking for her long-ago Mr. Right. Daddy Amaro, recently out of prison, is frantic. Also in the mix are two deftly handled subplots involving a shipment of contraband destined for Cuba and Angelina's heretofore disregarded Uncle Louie and his newly discovered self-respect. Though the players all have connections to the criminal life, this is not a crime novel; it's a love story in which Angelina discovers the difference between the idea of love and the reality, and Sal realizes that he gave up a lot more than his identity when he turned the Feds on to Paul Amaro's Mob activities. This extraordinary novel clearly puts Shames in the company of Leonard and Hiaasen as a chronicler of southern Florida life. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.com (September 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595469132
• ISBN-13: 978-0595469130
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,084,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurence Shames has been a New York City taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman. Having failed to distinguish himself in any of those professions, he turned to writing full-time in 1976 and has not done an honest day's work since.

His basic laziness notwithstanding, Shames has published twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and essays. Best known for his critically acclaimed series of eight Key West novels, he has also authored non-fiction and enjoyed considerable though largely secret success as a collaborator and ghostwriter. Shames has penned four New York Times bestsellers. These have appeared on four different lists, under four different names, none of them his own. This might be a record.

Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, to chain-smoking parents of modest means but flamboyant emotions, Shames did not know Philip Roth, Paul Simon, Queen Latifa, Shaquille O'Neal, or any of the other really cool people who have come from his hometown. He graduated summa cum laude from NYU in 1972 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. As a side note, both his alma mater and honorary society have been extraordinarily adept at tracking his many address changes through the decades, in spite of the fact that he's never sent them one red cent, and never will.

It was on an Italian beach in the summer of 1970 that Shames first heard the sacred call of the writer's vocation. Lonely and poor, hungry and thirsty, he'd wandered into a seaside trattoria, where he noticed a couple tucking into a big platter of fritto misto. The man was nothing much to look at but the woman was really beautiful. She was perfectly tan and had a very fine-gauge gold chain looped around her bare tummy. The couple was sharing a liter of white wine; condensation beaded the carafe. Eye contact was made; the couple turned out to be Americans. The man wiped olive oil from his rather sensual lips and introduced himself as a writer. Shames knew in that moment that he would be one too.

He began writing stories and longer things he thought of as novels. He couldn't sell them.

By 1979 he'd somehow become a journalist and was soon publishing in top-shelf magazines like Playboy, Outside, Saturday Review, and Vanity Fair. (This transition entailed some lucky breaks, but is not as vivid a tale as the fritto misto bit, so we'll just sort of gloss over it.) In 1982, Shames was named Ethics columnist of Esquire, and also made a contributing editor to that magazine.

By 1986 he was writing non-fiction books. The critical, if not the commercial, success of these first established Shames' credentials as a collaborator/ghostwriter. His 1991 national bestseller, Boss of Bosses, written with two FBI agents, got him thinking about the Mafia. It also bought him a ticket out of New York and a sweet little house in Key West, where he finally got back to Plan A: writing novels. Given his then-current preoccupations, the novels naturally featured palm trees, high humidity, dogs in sunglasses, and New York mobsters blundering through a town where people were too laid back to be afraid of them. But this part of the story is best told with reference to the books themselves, so please stick around and explore them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious mob family muddles through a family crisis, December 23, 2002

By 

Grant Fair (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgin Heat (Large Print) (Library Binding)

How does a slightly dysfunctional mob family from New York deal with the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the adult daughter of the boss?

Fantastic (and almost unbelievable) as the various pieces of this quite entertaining tale might be, they fall into place with hilarious effect, and somehow seem to make perfect sense.

Though this novel is more story than plot, the story is told very well. Characterizations are keenly shaped. The dialogue is strong and carries the story well. Shames has an evocative eye for detail, too.

This book carried me along with sustained and increasing interest, many laughs, and a satisfying climax and denouement that left me with a smile for days.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Fell In Love With This Book, June 28, 2000

By 

SaraODell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgin Heat: A Novel (Paperback)

This is the rare crime novel that is truly funny, charming, and eccentric without being absurd.

The plot is neatly turned, the characters well-drawn, and the dialogue extraordinarily deft--I don't know if this is how Mafia people talk, but it's certainly how they should talk.

Unlike many humorous writers, Shames seems to treat his characters with true affection. I look forward to reading more by this writer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, But With Heart, April 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Virgin Heat: A Novel (Paperback)

I loved this book; the voice was original, the characters engaging, the language wonderful. It's satirical without being snide, and it is a great balancing act of humor and realism. He captures the crazy essence of Key West. I'll read more by this author in hopes he can keep up to this standard.