Sunburn (Paperback)

~ Kathryne Wick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Playing Boswell to a mafia don leads a small-time reporter into big-time trouble in Shames's third, and not up to par, Key West seriocomic thriller (after Florida Straits and Scavenger Reef). Godfather Vicente Delgatto, 76, has moved to Key West but is no more retired than Meyer Lansky was in Miami. Still, Vincente's bilious past is catching up to him, so he decides to write his autobiography, using as his ghostwriter Arty Magnus, a hack reporter for the Key West Sentinel. Though Vincente's half-Jewish younger son has urged him to write the book, his elder son, the full-Sicilian Gino Delgatto, hates the idea. When Gino, a money-mad egocentric and vulgarian, tries to muscle in on union vigorish in Miami and gets kidnapped by rival mobsters, he saves himself by spilling the secret about his father's book. Soon, ghostwriter Arty finds himself chased by mobsters who plan to kill him as a warning to Vincente to forget the book-and by the FBI, who want Arty's notes in order to nail the mob. Shames's ape-talking thugs and plaster-of-paris wiseguys are engaging on a sitcom level, but this tale, though sometimes quite funny, has neither the richness of word and depth of feeling of an Elmore Leonard nor the inspired wackiness of a Carl Hiaasen. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

While Vincent Delgatto, head of the Pugliese family and leader of the New York City Mafia, is vacationing in Florida with his illegitimate son, he looks for something useful to do. Artie Magnus, newspaper editor, needs a project to get him out of a dead-end job. The two come together to collaborate on a book about Delgatto's life and philosophy. The fly in the ointment is Gino Delgatto, the godfather's legitimate son. Gino, a punk and troublemaker, breezes into Key West with a plan guaranteed to upset the balance of power between the ruling families of organized crime. Third-time novelist Shames (e.g., Scavenger Reef, S. & S., 1994) has a good ear for dialect and an even better sense for using a minimum of description to create real people and believable situations. Recommended for all fiction collections.
Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: IUniverse (September 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595006388
• ISBN-13: 978-0595006380
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #972,189 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sort of a man's equivalent to a Stephanie Plum book..., July 20, 2003

By	lazza (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Janet Evanovich writes an extraordinary successful series of funny crime stories starring Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter who happens to be a babe. While they should have universal appeal it seems that the publishers target them to women (..guys don't like buying pink covered books). However I can now say I found the male equivalent to Evanovich's novels: Laurence Shames novels. They are also funny, well-written stories with quirky yet likeable characters.

So what does Shames give us with 'Sunburn'? Beyond the formulaic breezy comedic crime novel with a Key West setting he delivers .. shock!.. some rather dramatic and moving stuff (, without taking it all too seriously). We have an aging crime figure who wants to dictate his life story to a sympathetic journalist. Unfortunately both the FBI and others within the Mafia have an unhealthy interest in what is being written, and an especially stupid son makes matters much, much worse. Without divulging spoilers, I simply want to say the author has structured and paced the novel beautifully. The last fifty pages are especially good, exciting.

Bottom line: much better than his introductory 'Florida Straits', 'Sunburn' has made me a fan of Laurence Shames.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the reprint, January 29, 2006

By	Charles J. Marr (Cambridge Springs, Pa USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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The copy I read is a reprint of the original, unavailable for a number of years. My experience with Lawrence Shames has been the much more comic novels; although, Bert the Shirt - the retired mafioso who died is an important part of the action here. His trip to New Yaak after more than ten years of tropical warmth will strike maky Floridians as the equivalen of a descent into hell. One whom I know has no shoes with toes so people cannot make her visit during winter. Perhaps Bert is as close as Shames comes to the humor of his later books. This is a more serious but not heavy handed analysis of the biographer's art.
Arty, a newspaperman and friend of the "Godfather's" illegitimate son is tempted into assisting with an autobiography. In it the old man will tell all. But the rub is that he tells the philosophy of his life: discrimination, self protection, racisim, authority, omerta, the need for something of one's own. Arty is getting nowhere, but becomes everyone's target. Meanwhile he becomes closer to the family and "the family."Everyone else, Vincente's other son, the mafia, the FBI all think the book is a naming of names and the chaos that results reaches the point of murder. Still there is a resolution of sorts: not a happy ending but at least ajust ending. It is a very different book from Welcome to Paradise , for example, but still an enjoyable discovery. Shames would probably do better if he left out his attempts to spell out New York accents. But aside from that, a good Key West read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gilligan's Island with an Edge, September 4, 2001

By	"booshkindoggin" (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews

RE: RECORDED BOOKS AUDIO VERSION. Among the quirky Key West characters are a reluctant & reflective Mafia Don, his pal "retired" heavy Bert the Shirt, a ditzy gun-moll with a heart of gold, a neurotic Jewish newspaper editor and the Shirt's aging chihuahua, Don Giovanni. They're all artfully blended in a stew of humor and suspense where its hard to tell the white hats from the black. Well worth a read.
One question: why am I the first friggin' guy to, whaddayacallit, review, this book, Knowwhaddamean?