Always Say Goodbye

The title says it all. This time Lew returns to Chicago, the place where his wife was killed. The storyline moves away from the typical Lew Fonesca novels. In this one, he and his family are personally involved. Stuart Kaminsky is one of my favorite authors, and I recommend anything written by him.

I am a huge fan of Stuart M Kaminsky's. From his Russian mysteries to these Lew Fonesca stories, he never fails to deliver a fun and thought provoking book.

When a hit-and-run driver kills Lewis Fonesca's beloved wife, Catherine, he flees to Sarasota, Florida to wallow in his misery. "He wanted each day to be a dark blanket that no one pulled back to let in the light." Lew has a bare bones existence in two nondescript rooms behind a Dairy Queen and ekes out a minimal living as a process server. However, in spite of his desire to isolate himself, Lew makes friends, seeks counseling, and even helps people with their personal problems. One day, he decides to visit Chicago to find out who ran Catherine down and why. He says goodbye to his buddies, Ames McKinney and Flo Zink, his girlfriend, Sally Porovsky, and his eighty-two year-old therapist, Ann Horowitz. Lew knows that a man must always say goodbye to those he cares about, because each time he sees them may be the last. During his stay in Chicago, Lew reunites with his sister, Angela Massaccio, and her husband, Franco, a macho tow-truck driver who helps Lew hunt for Catherine's killer. Before long, two strangers tail them and someone takes a shot at them; later, Lew and Franco find the body of a murder victim and witness a shocking act of self-destruction. Along the way, they meet some unusual characters, including John Pappas, a wealthy agoraphobic with an aggressive mother and a weakness for Greek pastry, John's overly obedient sons, Dimi and Stavros, and Milt Holiger, who works for the Cook County State Attorney's Office. Milt's connections allow him to gather vital information that help Lew in his quest. "Always Say Goodbye" has an offbeat and unpredictable plot, plenty of black humor, and a thought-provoking exploration of grief, depression, and family relationships. Kaminsky's unadorned writing style is remarkly effective, and the story is all the more touching because it is so understated. Lew is a refreshingly unconventional sleuth: a balding forty-two year old whose well-worn Chicago Cubs baseball cap attests to his love of the hapless team. He and the Cubs have a great deal in common: good luck rarely seems to follow them. However, Lew is not merely an ineffectual nebbish. He has many admirable traits, including keen intelligence, intuition, courage, and compassion. Most readers will root for him to throw off the black cloud of grief and guilt that has enveloped him for so long. Fortunately, with the closure that he acquires at the end of the story, along with the help of his patient and understanding therapist, there is a good chance that someday soon, Lew Fonesca will smile again.

I had written a lengthy discourse on the fertile imagination of Stuart Kaminsky only to realize that I wouldn't read it and neither would you. So let me just say that Mr. Kaminsky is a genius who has flown under the radar of most readers for far too long. Everything about this book is a joy. It's funny, touching, depressing, exciting, exceptionally well paced and full of those sneaky little commentaries on life that make a Kaminsky book a Kaminsky book. Fans will be smiling from the first page, new readers soon after and everyone will have to pause for a moment contemplating humanity after closing the book for the last time. (And a special note for true Kaminsky fans: his website says that TWO new Rostnikovs are on their way, the first, PEOPLE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS, is due in early 2008!)

If award-winning mystery novelist Stuart M. Kaminsky chose a profession other than writing, there is no doubt that he would become a juggler. In that profession Kaminsky could take advantage of the talent he exhibits as an author, currently maintaining at least four ongoing mystery series with main characters as individual and unique as snowflakes. Kaminsky is the creator of Hollywood detective Toby Peters, Chicago police officer Abe Lieberman, Russian sleuth Inspector Rostnikov and Florida private investigator Lew Fonesca. In total, Kaminsky lists 50 mystery novels in his bibliography and also has found time to publish five biographies, four textbooks and four movie screenplays. With this resume, it is not surprising that the former college professor was awarded the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Grandmaster Award from the Mystery Writers of America. ALWAYS SAY GOODBYE is the fifth appearance of Lew Fonesca, formerly of Chicago but now a resident of Sarasota, Florida. Four years ago, Fonesca's wife was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Chicago. She was a prosecutor in Cook County, and Fonesca was an investigator in that same office. In torment over her death, Fonesca fled Illinois and drove south until he decided to stop in Sarasota. He now works as a private investigator out of a cheap office near the Dairy Queen off Highway 301. Fonesca struggles to earn a living as a process server, occasionally helping others get out of difficult situations and fighting the ghosts of his former life. As the novel opens, Fonesca decides that it is time to go back to Chicago to find the person responsible for his wife's death. He returns to the city and is met at Midway Airport by his brother-in-law Franco. It immediately becomes clear that Fonesca's return to the Windy City is more complicated than solving a hit-and-run. The car following them from the airport is a clear indication that this will be neither a routine nor a quickly resolved investigation. Fonesca's deceased wife Catherine may have left some files that could contain extremely incriminating material against certain people. Those unknown individuals are willing to kill to locate the damaging evidence. While seeking the person responsible for Catherine's death, Fonesca must navigate the treacherous field created by those hunting for the missing files. Kaminsky knows Chicago. For years he was a professor at Northwestern University. His character Abe Lieberman works the streets of the city as a police officer. It is an interesting juxtaposition in ALWAYS SAY GOODBYE to observe Floridian Fonesca returning to his former home to work and walk the streets of a city where he once lived. Kaminsky devotees familiar with the Abe Lieberman series will enjoy Fonesca's visit to some different Chicago neighborhoods. The joy of reading a Kaminsky mystery comes from meeting characters who are both complex and at the same time simple and straightforward. Kaminsky does not rely on gimmicks or unfathomabl