Paradise City: A Novel of Suspense

While born in New York City, Giancarlo Lo Manto now is a cop in Naples, Italy. He ended up in Italy as a teenager after his father was killed by a don of the Camorra -- a known criminal organization. He made a promise to himself to get revenge for his father's death. He was working to stop illegal drug trafficking of drugs and other similar crimes with the intention to try and save families from the grief he himself had experienced. Pete Rossi, who is the son of the man who had ordered his father's death, decides he wants to lure Lo Manto back to the city to die. He does it by having Lo Manto's niece Paula (an exchange student) turn up missing. Jennifer Fabini, a New York detective, is then assigned to help Lo Manto and realizes it puts her in the middle of something bigger than she expected. Lo Manto is a guy who always seems to know exactly what to do and has the right connections to get what he wants done. A romance does end up developing between Jennifer and Lo Manto, but it's done in a way that I wondered why Carcaterra added it to the plot. Lorenzo Carcaterra is a producer and writer for the TV series Law & Order which makes sense of why some of the narrative reads like a TV script. It ends with an obvious showdown between Lo Manto and Rossi, but even though I saw it coming, was expecting it, was waiting for it I enjoyed it very much, probably because I like a good story about Revenge. Reviewed by Vesta Irene

You know Lorenzo Carcaterra's work. I mean, you know his work. Does the television show "Law & Order" mean anything to you? Carcaterra is a writer and producer for the program, which has been on for how many decades now? In addition to that, three of his novels --- APACHES, GANGSTER and STREET BOYS --- are in active development for feature film adaptation. He has co-scripted Beyond the Sea, which should be released soon. He's also...well you get the idea. He's everywhere. My favorite "everywhere" for the moment, however, is PARADISE CITY, Carcaterra's latest novel. Carcaterra is a master at combining several different elements that are lethal enough individually into an explosive mix. PARADISE CITY is an example of Carcaterra at his best. His protagonist here is Giancarlo Lo Manto. Lo Manto, born in New York City, moved to Naples, Italy as a teenager. Now a policeman, Lo Manto wages a one-man war against the Italian Mafia. His vendetta is the result of a blood-oath he swore over the body of his late father, an honest-working man who paid for his integrity with a violent, senseless death on the streets of New York City. Lo Manto is lured back to New York City due to the kidnapping of his beloved niece by the crime family of Mafia boss Pete Rossi. Lo Manto's police work in Naples has cut dramatically into Rossi's overseas operations, and Rossi accordingly wants --- and needs --- Lo Manto out of the way. Rossi sees some rough justice in bringing Lo Manto back to his birthplace to die. Lo Manto, however, has some very different plans. Fueled by the desire to rescue his niece and avenge his murdered father, Lo Manto begins a systematic rampage through the back streets and neighborhoods of New York City, leading to a violent, apocalyptic climax between good and evil. PARADISE CITY is a violent, gritty tale of revenge and rough justice. Fans of the crime/police genre will see the relationship forming between Lo Manto and his NYPD babysitter, Detective Jennifer Fabini, before the two even meet. But Carcaterra handles the chemistry between the two so well that readers would be disappointed if they didn't hook up! PARADISE CITY also contains a subtle but very visible plug for "Law & Order." Hopefully, that august program will at some point return the favor. On the other hand, maybe that won't be necessary. Recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The "Family" meant different things to different Italian-Americans. To young Giancarlo Lo Manto growing up in the slums of New York, the Sicilian Mafia was only a distant, menacing shadow in comparison to the cruel reality of its Neapolitan wing, the Camorra, and the powerful Rossi family who exacted the lifeblood of his East Bronx neighborhood in tribute. His father's murder at their hands puts an end to his childhood; his mother takes him and his sister back to Naples, but Giancarlo remembers. As an adult, his thirst for vengeance impels him into police work with but a single goal in mind: to cripple and ultimately destroy the Neapolitan drug trade with its murderous understructure which is at the heart of the Camorra/Rossi New York operation. Under the mentorship of brilliant and equally dedicated Commander of Homicide Pietro Bartoni, he hones his skills as a deadly, 'street-smart' detective to the point where he does indeed become a highly disruptive and effective adversary, and the American Camorra under the leadership of young Don Pete Rossi first takes notice and then takes action. Once he arranges the kidnapping of Lo Manto's fifteen-year-old niece Paula (who is spending her junior year in New York) as bait to lure Lo Manto to New York, this extraordinary novel becomes an absolutely breath-taking and unforgetably suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse between its charismatic hero and the men who are determined to kill him played out against the dark underbelly of the City. Although he's out of his territory and stripped of his gun, Lo Manto isn't completely out of his depth. His childhood acquaintances are there to help him, and his old friend, Midtown North's Captain Frank Fernandez, puts the Department's resources at his command. To 'Lone Wolf' Lo Manto's disgust, he also assigns a veteran police officer, daring and determined Jennifer Fabrini, as his 'baby-sitter' and back-up. As their partnership grows more interdependent, the ramifications of their search for the missing girl become increasingly complicated by echoes from a past which refuses to stay buried and eventually culminate in an electrifying confrontation which crystalizes the life-or-death choices implicit to Omerta. More than any other genre, if a thriller is to 'work' for me, I have to genuinely care about what happens to its characters when they are faced with a crisis situation in a believably true-to-life environment. Jennifer and Lo Manto...their allies and foes...inhabit an intensely real, completely credible world, and watching them maneuver within its confines while driven by their own demons against the wildest odds for success was a genuinely thrilling literary experience for me. Cross the verisimilitude of "The Godfather" with the high-wire tensions of "High Noon" redefined on his own terms by the magic of Lorenzo Carcaterra's brilliant craftsmanship and "Paradise City" becomes a reading experience to be savored and treasured.

"Paradise Cityâ" is an action packed thriller that revolves around the Camorra crime family and an Italian homicide detective. What I really enjoyed about this fantastic thriller was the similarities between the good guy (Giancarlo Lo Manto) and the bad guy (Joe Rossi). I couldn't help but get the feeling that these two characters could have been friends under different circumstances. Their main difference, of course, is the side of the law on which they stand. Gian being a homicide detective in Italy and Rossi being a mobster. Gian became acquainted with the Camorra, run by Don Nicola Rossi, at the tender age of fifteen, when they shot down his father in New York. Gian's mother decided it would be best to return to Naples, and this is where he saw the daily operations of the mob, the power they had and the killers they produced. In Gian's desire to make things right, he becomes a homicide detective on what is called the most dangerous beat in all Europe. His goal is to stop the Camorra before they can have a chance to leave Naples, therefore never making it over to New York. This does not make the New York faction of the Camorra happy at all. Joe Rossi decides he must take out Gian and devises a plan to get him to New York, by the kidnapping of Gian's niece. Gian goes to New York to rescue her, but also to take out Joe Rossi once and for all. What follows is a lot of great action, witty dialog, revenge, thrills galore, and even a little romance. "Paradise City" will pulled me right in and kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. If you are a fan of crime thrillers, this is a book for you.

At fifteen, Giancarlo Lo Manto attended his father's funeral, knowing that the men who killed him acted on the orders of the head of the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia. A few years after his father's death, his mother moved the family back to Naples where Lo Manto became one of the best police officers in Italy. He waged a one man war against the Camorra, making a dent in their operations on both sides of the Atlantic causing them to place a price on his head. The head of the New York family Joe Rossi kidnaps Lo Manto's niece in order to lure the Naples police officer onto his turf. He is determined that Lo Manto will be killed just as Giancarlo is sure that he will be the one to take Rossi down. Even after uncle and niece are reunited, Lo Manto stays in New York doing everything in his power to find a way to get Rossi to act openly so he can be put in a cage. What he doesn't count on is his feelings for his partner Jennifer Fabini who cares enough about him to risk her life so that he has a chance to survive the inevitable meeting with Rossi and his men. Both the protagonist and the antagonist are mirror images of each other as Rossi could have made a great police officer and Lo Manto could have been a fine Don. The way they were brought up determined what side of the law they walked on. PARADISE CITY is a fantastic crime thriller, filled with plenty of action, a touch of romance and great character development. Harriet Klausner