Casino Moon

This story, like many other Hard Case reprints, probably owes a debt to Night and the City - Criterion Collection (and its source material) for its basic plot-line. "Casino Moon", a reprint from 1994, is also an interesting omen for "The Sopranos", which was a little less than five years over the horizon. The extended cast of characters will now look somewhat familiar to those who hung in for the "Sopranos"' nearly decade-long run. Anthony Russo, the nominal hero of the book, is the adopted son of a mid-level Atlantic City mobster. Anthony wants to get out of the business, even as his dad is trying to get him made, through an over-his-head attempt to manage a fading professional boxer. Meanwhile, Teddy, the mob boss, is getting squeezed by cancer on one side, and the greedy New York City families on the other. There's also a local cop who feels kinship with Anthony, and a variety of women suffering the consequences of long-ago life choices. Author Peter Blauner has a lot of balls to juggle here, but he does so deftly. He executes a lengthy and satisfying climax which cuts in and around the prize fight depicted on the reprint cover. The book's longer and denser than most Hard Case reprints (due in fact to it being one of their newer titles), with a larger cast of characters. The writing style is also more edgy and graphic, with many characters meeting truly horrific ends. Two characters are given modestly happy endings, at least, and it's a nice tribute to Blauner's craft that you probably won't be able to guess at least one of those two beforehand.

More than a gritty mob story, which it is, this is a novel--filled with tragedy, redemption, and visions of love and loyalty. Blauner's characterizations are excellent, with heroes and villains who share flawed personalities along with human qualities. It's a thick book for Hard Case Crime loyalists, but breezes by like an off-shore wind from the Atlantic. The 1990's setting of Atlantic City hasn't changed much over the years... and certainly the excitement of this book hasn't dimished.

I'm not a huge fan of the modern reprints from HCC: I much prefer their reprints of stuff from the '60s (or earlier!). Partly because, as this novel demonstrates, there's an awful notion that unless there's a lot of foul language and gratuitous and loveless sex, it's not 'gritty' enough. Seems to me Spillane and Hammett did plenty of gritty without getting nasty. So, be warned if your ears are sensitive. And as a New Jerseyite of Italian descent, I do get a little tired of the Italian goombah stereotype--it smacks of unoriginality. However, this book redeems both of these objections. The story has multiple themes, including legacy, identity, family and corruption. The subplots are well-woven together, and there are incongruous touches of absurd humor (like everyone apparently crashing Rosemary's dressing room). Blauner could have taken the easy narrative road with all of these stereotypes and written an escape narrative, or one of family bonding. He chooses a harder narrative, and that elevates this story from plain ol' pulp into something resembling Greek tragedy. Though some of the characters (notably Teddy) never really come 'alive' in any psychological sense (he's a don's don with no other depth), they manage to work together to create a stiflingly realistic and dangerous environment--almost like a whirlpool trying to suck the poor protagonist down. Blauner's AC (which is the most realistic part of the story) is a filthy town populated by corrupt people, turning the American Dream on its head. It's a good read, but not a wild and fun ride like I'm used to with my older pulps.

Among the various pulp-fictionish novels published by Hard Case Crime, Peter Blauner's Casino Moon stands out as a bit of an oddity. Most Hard Case Crime books are either re-releases of out-of-print stories from the 1950s and 1960s (typically early novels of famous writers) or original novels. Casino Moon fits in the middle, as it is actually only a decade-and-a-half old. It may be an atypical book, but it is still a good one. The protagonist in Casino Moon is Anthony Russo, the stepson of a mobster. Anthony would like to live the legitimate life, but he lives in a world where living within the law is not that easy. His stepfather Vin not only looks down on the honest life, he's intent on getting Anthony "made". Anthony's wife, Carla, is also the niece of Vin's boss, Teddy. In an act of misguided paternal instinct, Vin makes it look like Anthony killed a man, which has Anthony also dealing with the man's vengeful son. Fortunately, there is hope: Anthony gets a chance to manage a former boxing champion; a fight against the reigning champ could give Anthony enough money to buy his way to freedom. He will soon realize, however, that the boxing world is just as corrupt as the mob life, and every step that he takes towards his goal will also get him into more and more trouble. Casino Moon is the literary equivalent of film noir, with a flawed hero who finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a pit of doom. It is not all darkness, however. Blauner does add bits of humor into the story, keeping things from getting too grim. Overall, this is a well-written crime novel that - despite being an odd duck in the Hard Case Crime aviary - will be enjoyed by fans of this series.

This is about a guy whose father was killed by the mob, but who is then raised by another guy who's IN the mob. Then he marries the daughter of a local mob boss so for all intents and purposes he's in the mob himself. But he doesn't wanna be. But he is. And it's the obligation stuff that pounds away at his soul, that gnaws at him, that makes him nuts, and that ultimately leads to his downfall. He has two kids; he meets another woman; he tries to make money from boxing. The author, Peter Blauner, knows exactly how to handle his characters--how to give them dialogue that sounds exactly like they should be speaking to each other and how to have them do the things they would do to make the reader get grabbed by the story. This has no happy ending, but I'm not spoiling anything by saying that. It's a really well written piece of work and makes the minutes fly by. Too bad it wasn't made into a film (my favorite medium). Too often, mob stories don't really bring out how corrupting an association with the mob can be to someone not really in the mob, yet in it by association. Here's one that does and that nails it, perfectly. Highly recommended--nifty.