The Rosary Girls: A Novel of Suspense

An even better mystery than the excellent plot provided in The Rosary Girls is why Richard Montanari isn't a household name among thriller lovers. The Rosary Girls is one of the best thrillers I've read this year. The story pits two homicide detectives against a fiercely intelligent and relentlessly brutal serial killer -- a killer fueled by a twisted, sacrilegious fury. Montanari writes in a style and provides non-stop twists and turns that will have you glued to the edge of your seat. It's the type of book that you can't wait to finish to see how it ends -- but then you're sorry that it's over. I've already ordered all of Montanari's other books. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a copy of The Rosary Girls.

I enjoyed this one. Very gripping story, well told. Unlike Publisher's Weekly, I rather enjoyed the "Gothic" wording at times and felt they added to the overall feeling of the story. The author is truely a good story teller and has a wonderful command of the language. This is one of those you will want to start of a Friday night and hope Saturday is a rainy day with no where to go. Character developement was great. Recommend this one highly.

I'll admit I am partial to crime/mystery/legal novels that take place in my home town. William Lashner and Lisa Scottoline always seem to end up on my reading list somehow. Now, Cleveland native Richard Montonari has begun a series based on a duo of Philadelphia-based cops that freely combines both actual and fictional venues based in the City of Brotherly Love. Part of the fun is deducing the real places or institutions he cleverly masks. I got a preview of Rosary Girls recently, and was glued to a cover-to-cover read. Obviously, Mr. Montanari has a few cheesesteaks under his belt, as he has captured the flavor of a huge city with disparate neighborhoods and cultures. Our cops have a reputation for sometimes administering 'street justice', but even those of us with liberal leanings feel a little safer for it. Beyond the venue, however, this is a gritty, twisted tale with abrupt turns of plot, and characters you may alternately love, hate, admire and be repulsed by. Montanari's books are not for the squeamish, as the grisly details of his evil-doers' deeds could easily make a hoagie come straight back up. Despite the wild ride, he manages to wind up with a satisfying, if not necessarily happy ending, just when all is given up for lost. Regardless of your home town, Richard Montanari is a mystery writer who will doubtless join the top ranks. Even though reading him can be a disturbing, nightmare-inducing practice, once you are hooked, you'll be anxiously awaiting the next one.

In the Rosary Girls, Richard Montanari has created a masterpiece of suspense. Full of beautifully descriptive imagery, he brings the reader into modern Philadelphia for a harrowing and deeply disturbing tale of a ruthless serial killer who kidnaps, murders, and mutilates Catholic school girls and the detectives who try to catch him. Montanari weaves his tale through the eyes of several different characters: the two main detectives on the case (Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano), a reporter covering the story, and the killer himself. Readers will find it interesting to see how the case takes a toll on the lives of the detectives both emotionally and physically. I honestly could not put this book down. The short, but action-packed chapters add to the suspense, and the many dead-ends into which Montanari leads the reader will leave you as desperate to unmask the psychotic killer as the detectives. Catholic symbolism is everywhere, but Montanari explains everything so that readers of any faith can understand the events of the novel which take place during Holy Week (the week before Easter). All in all, The Rosary Girls is a fast-paced, captivating thriller that will keep the reader on the edge of his seat until the EXTREMELY SURPRISING ending that no one could see coming. Don't miss this one!

Richard Montanari has been around for a little while, writing interesting, even riveting novels that peel back the dark and sordid side of the human psyche. Nothing he has previously done, however, will prepare readers for THE ROSARY GIRLS, his latest novel. THE ROSARY GIRLS introduces Philadelphia Police Homicide detective Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano. Byrne, the veteran, has a high rate of solved cases --- that's what he's supposed to do, but as we quickly learn at the beginning of the novel, his methods are, uh, a bit old-school. In other words, he's effective. There is, however, a price. Byrne isn't broken, but he's badly bent. He's a seething mass of contradictions, all of which rub up against each other, hard and mean, with every move he makes. Naturally he's partnered up with Balzano, the rookie who has an approach to things that is a bit gentler, though she is certainly capable of meeting force with force --- she is, among other things, an amateur boxer in her spare time. The end result is that Balzano could not have a better teacher, and Byrne could not have a better partner. Balzano and Byrne have their hands full when a fiend begins a ritualistic murder spree, killing Catholic high school girls and leaving them provocatively posed and unspeakably mutilated around the city of Philadelphia. The cops are trying to figure out what the common element is that links these particular girls. Montanari does a great job of plotting here. While the reader gets into the killer's head, it doesn't really help, and ultimately we don't know much more than the police do until the apocalyptic conclusion. A warning here: Montanari will take you on a tour of the human psyche out where the buses have never run and where the sun has never shone. By the time you're halfway through this novel you might be checking to see if that cloistered nunnery in town is accepting any new novitiates and making an application for that daughter of yours. The world that Montanari paints in THE ROSARY GIRLS is frightening, but it is also a world where a cop like Byrne is badly needed. Byrne and Balzano are tough and tender, with their methods complementing each other rather than clashing. Byrne's methodology gets him in trouble on a number of different levels. As a result he must engage in more of the same off-the-books tactics to resolve the situation. This creates a vicious cycle that doesn't leave much room for redemption. But is redemption necessary, or even appropriate? Byrne engages in some self-destructive behavior, but he gets the bad guys off the board, individuals who would be processed through the system for yet another go-round if they faced any justice at all. Montanari is overtly nonjudgmental on this, preferring to use Balzano as a tough but tender good cop to Byrne's bad but brutally effective cop. The result is a thoroughly engrossing work that is driven by plot, character development, and an edge-of-your-seat denouement. THE ROSARY GIRLS fully reveals