Serpents in the Cold

November 3, 2014
O’Malley (This Magnificent Desolation) teams with debut novelist Purdy on this gritty mystery set in early 1950s Boston. Dante Cooper, a recent widower battling a heroin addiction, suffers another emotional blow when he learns that his sister-in-law, Sheila Anderson, has been murdered. Her naked body was left overnight on Tenean Beach in Dorchester, where she lived. Sheila appears to be the latest victim of a serial killer known as the Butcher. With the help of his friend Cal O’Brien, a former cop who has recurring nightmares from his tour of duty in WWII, the single-minded Dante scours Boston, from the seedy Boston Common to the shady South End, in search of clues. O’Malley and Purdy bring postwar Boston to life, making neighborhoods feel as distinct as separate countries. While the authors don’t offer much suspense, they have delivered a love-letter to a Boston that’s long gone. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment.

In 1951, Boston is suffering a winter so cold that the frozen body of a murdered woman won't be buried until spring. Narrator Jim Frangione has listeners buckle their seat belts as he drives a shadowy route with Dante Cooper, an ex-heroin addict, and his ex-cop friend, Cal O'Brien, who independently set out to solve the murder of Dante's sister-in-law. This turns out to be unpopular as it brings to light the involvement of the Church, Irish mobsters, and crooked politicians. Frangione's dynamic performance illuminates the dark underbelly of Boston as he delivers a mystery packed with gangsters, loan sharks, drug dealers, crooked cops, and a psychopath known as the Butcher. Frangione's ability to transition effortlessly between colorful characters with various Boston accents highlights their temperaments and classes, making this post-WWII era sound authentic. As narrator, Frangione never loses the listener in the violent exploits of the perilous journey. B.J.P. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

November 15, 2014
A dark thriller in which two misfits take on the corrupt Boston political system with revenge as their mantra.Boston, 1951: a ready-built noir setting. It's gray and winter-cold, and men spend their time in grimy bars where drugs and violence rule. O'Malley and Purdy write cinematically, building the bleakness of the city and its denizens around Scollay Square into the fabric of the fiction, with the city itself becoming a primary character. "The radiators pinged and rattled, and the lower sections of the windows that looked out on the avenue were filmed with steam. From the windows they could see the vacant expanse that Scollay Square was becoming." Cal O'Brien and Dante Cooper are childhood friends, each with his own poisonous issues. Cal has returned from World War II France with a limp and a drinking problem, killing the pain and the recurring dreams of death with booze. Dante is a junkie, spun out of control after he watched his wife overdose. Secrets and broken people populate these winter streets. Dante's sister-in-law, Sheila, is found brutally murdered, assumed to be another victim of the Butcher who's been stalking women in Boston and torturing them in an abandoned trailer. But when Dante and Cal take on the task of hunting the killer as a family matter, the facts veer abruptly to big money and an old neighborhood pal now running for Senate. Congressman and candidate Michael Foley had an affair with Sheila, and his brother Blackie, a punk gangster in the old neighborhood, cleans up the messes Michael makes along the path to election. When Blackie goes too far and murders Cal's wife because he's getting close to the truth, the hunt for a killer becomes all-out war. This is a bone-crunching, gut-wrenching novel that captures the atmosphere of a city in decay and its inhabitants. It delivers noir fiction like we always want it to be.

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November 1, 2014
The Great Brinks Robbery in 1950 Boston was the biggest heist in U.S history, and while that case was eventually solved, this novel reimagines it, adding in the additional intrigue of a serial killer working the same neighborhood. The action takes place in historic Scollay Square on the eve of its destruction, and Boston politics and the frigid winter also play major parts in the story. Cal is an ex-cop and a veteran, trying to make a living in private security, but business is slow. His best friend, Dante, is a heroin addict who lost his wife to the drug, and he still hasn't recovered. Then Dante's sister-in-law Sheila is murdered, adding another victim to the serial killer known as the Butcher. Cal and Dante decide to help the police catch her killer, but they really don't have the skill set for the task, so they turn to old-fashioned vigilante justice. Very short chapters ensure the pacing stays brisk, and history buffs will enjoy all the description and atmosphere of old Boston. Sure to appeal to Dennis Lehane fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)