Loot the Moon

Loot the Moon is a gripping whodunit that reads like a roller coaster ride. Superior Court Judge Gilbert Harmony is shot dead in his home during a break-in and the killer/thief dies in a car wreck fleeing the scene of the crime. Although the police consider the case open and shut, the judge's friend and former law-partner, Martin Smothers, doesn't. Why would the thief shoot the judge and dash away without stealing anything? And why did he kidnap the judge's son at gun-point during his exit and then promnptly carjack a passing vehicle? Martin enlists the aid of Billy Povich, a former journalist with a gambling problem, to help him figure out who hired the two-bit shoplifter turned killer/carjacker to murder the judge. Billy, battling personal problems that include an ailing father and an eight-year old son recovering from his mother's death, uncovers a handful of suspects that include the judge's jealous brother, his widow, and his mistress' son. Mark Arsenault's writing is crisp, fast-paced, and peppered with insights that will make you laugh--and seriously consider your own relationships. The plot, with its twists and turns, is clever and suspenseful and ends on an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. The characters are quirky, endearing, and all too realistic. I literally couldn't put this book down once I started reading.

With the second book of the Providence-based Billy Povich series, Mark Arsenault has made my automatic-buy list. This humorous yet darkly noir novel packs plenty of action around serious philosophical questions about end-of-life issues and family relations.

I like mystery and suspense books that make me think. This book has stayed with me for several days after I raced through it. Highly recommended. There's lots of action and humor, but the novel also raises serious ethical questions and will remind you of your own imperfect family relationships.

In Rhode Island at the dog track, attorney Martin Smothers obsessively pleads with his friend former investigative journalist turned obit writer Billy Povich to look into the murder of Judge Gil Harmony. Two bit thief Adam Rackers assassinated the Judge during a car-jacking. Rackers died in the subsequent car crash, which left one survivor in critical condition Stuart Tracy. Smothers wants Povich to uncover who paid for the hit. Povich begins his inquiry and quickly learns a local mobster threatened the judge and that his honor had a secret life in Manhattan where he kept a mistress who appears at the reading of the will. Menwhile Harmony's legal clerk Kit Bass is beaten up at a club owned by mobster Glantz. When someone threatens Billy, his son and his father, he takes on the case with renewed vigor. In many ways this is a noir, but the hard boiled Billy is somewhat softened with family matters especially discussions with his dad over death that seems so timely. The story line is action-packed as Billy gets into all sorts of predicaments and the final twist is superb. The secondary eccentric cast enhances the engaging plot of the investigative GRAVEWRITER who in many ways brings out the best and worst in his support crowd. Harriet Klausner

A carjacking gets the blood racing in this thriller, an adrenaline rush that is sustained throughout the story. In Rhode Island, Billy Povitch, a fairly unsuccessful gambler and former journalist who writes poetic obituaries at night for a newspaper, is struggling. A widower, Billy is raising his young son and trying to convince his debilitated father that life is still worth living, even on dialysis. Life is tough for this family, but not nearly as tragic as the fate of esteemed Superior Court Judge Gil Harmony, found shot to death the night of the carjacking incident. So when Martin Smothers, Patron Lawyer of Hopeless Cases, requests Povitch's aid, the novel is off and running. Arsenault writes with an energy that is as much character-driven as plot, delving into the daily trials and disappointments that affect his protagonists and the outrageous behaviors of the criminal element, a vengeful mobster who makes liberal use of his hired muscle, a wise-cracking small-time thief named Scratch and a judge with a sterling reputation and lots of secrets. The judge's death is ruled opportunistic, but Smothers wants Billy to dig deeper into the facts, convinced it is a deliberate hit. And when Billy exercises due diligence, he uncovers shocking information and no shortage of suspects. Arsenault takes a well-plotted thriller and turns it into something more, a study of human behavior and the vagaries of fate, where a frustrated attacker hides behind a shower curtain with a plastic bag over his head and an ice pick in his fist, where a judge's clerk learns more than she wants to know and a sometimes-investigator gets a beating while sinking into his own grave. With a style similar to Don Winslow (The Winter of Frankie Machine, California Fire and Life), this author has an eye for characters and a great sense of timing, where life pulls no punches and danger is right around the corner ready to pounce. Luan Gaines/2009.