Dopplegangster

November 9, 2009
This gleeful, clever sequel to 2006’s Disappearing Nightly
teams up actress and singing waitress Esther Diamond with the magic-savvy but utterly unworldly Max the Magician and his slobbering canine familiar, Nelli, to discover how and why New York’s mobsters are being magically duplicated. Complicating matters is Esther’s suspicious would-be boyfriend, handsome Irish-Cuban police detective Connor Lopez, who would prefer a straightforward investigation involving neither Esther nor magic. Resnick introduces a colorful cast of gangsters and their associates, including a thrice-bereaved mob widow and an attractive young priest, as she spins a witty, fast-paced mystery around her convincingly self-absorbed chorus-girl heroine. Sexy interludes raise the tension between Lopez and Esther as she juggles magical assailants, her perennially distracted agent, her meddling mother, and wiseguys both friendly and threatening in a well-crafted, rollicking mystery.

Starred review from January 15, 2010
Esther Diamond ("Disappearing Nightly") is having a difficult week. The Off-Broadway show she's acting in is closing, and she just witnessed a murder at her waitressing job at a Mafia hangout in Little Italy. Before "Chubby" Charlie Chiccante died, he told Esther that he had seen his "doppio", a perfect double and a portent of death. Soon, dppelgangers are plaguing New York's mobsters, their hangers-on, and their enemies, and Esther, lured in by her friendships with the local wiseguys and her budding relationship with a cop in the organized crime unit, finds herself in over her head. Fortunately, her friends Max, a 350-plus-year-old sorcerer, and Lucky Battistuzzi, an aging hit man, can help her stop the person behind the dppelgangers. VERDICT Fans of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series will appreciate this series' lively heroine and the appealing combination of humor, mystery, and romance.

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