Unwanted Company

I came back to Seranella after a long hiatus (reading other books and earning a living and stuff) because I'd just read Evanovich's "Metro Girl" and remembered how much better Seranella did the wrench wench thing. This is third in the series. The official main plot concerns a rather run-of-the-mill sadistic serial killer with a bad childhood and a renegade Rumanian with one of those suitcases full of plutonium that every other thriller character seems to tote. The sub-plot is much better. Munch Mancini is struggling to make a go of her limo business and worried about retaining her custody of Asia. She tries to help her old friend Ellen from her drug/alcohol days to get clean. It's wrong of me but I found Munch Mancini at her most interesting in "No Human Involved" before she became respectable. (I shouldn't really feel bad. She's a fictional character).Whenever a scene is written from much Mancini's or Ellen's point of view the writing improves. It's an odd effect. It's not just that they are better drawn characters, but the prose become clunky and cliché-ridden and the scene-setting is perfunctory and conventional when the POV changes. We get passages like "the last thing the city fathers wanted was reports of a maniac killing women inside their own homes." A terrific car chase at the end.

Clean & sober for 6 years, Munch Mancini has her own limo service & is glumly looking at the post-graduation slump of summer. She hires out for a week to a cash-toting customer. When the women who escorted her customer & his friend the night before end up dead, Munch gets drawn back into sleuthing & reconnects with Det. St. John. When longtime friend Ellen, recently released from jail, turns up complete with her gallery of wigs & dare-devil sense of fun, Munch offers her a temporary slot as a driver.Then Ellen, her customers & her limo disappear & Munch decides she's going to have to do some hunting. Meanwhile, police departments & foreign powers are breathing down her neck, also wanting to know where her customers & her limo are.Another satisfying read from Barbara Seranella with all the ingredients I so like in her Munch Mancini books: quirky, dangerous characters, lots of unexpected action & some good moments of memory & redemption...

If you are looking for a new mystery writer to investigate, and are tired of the "formula" writers so common today, welcome to the world of Barbara Seranella. In her latest best seller, Unwanted Company, her gritty, in your face, real world experiences, written in a clean, spare style, pull you quickly through this book. It's even smoother than her first two--but if you are a new reader, don't skip No Offence Intended and No Human Involved.If you are a follower of "Munch" Mancini, little Asia, Detective Mace St. John and his sidekick Detective Cassiletti, you are in for a great read. New characters abound: Ellen, a blast from the past, the dirty duo of a Romanian madman and his CIA "Spook" handler are the best yet. Perhaps the biggest surprise of this book, is that nobody in Hollywood has scooped it up for a movie!

Unwanted Company draws you into the lives of incredibly interesting characters living at mach 3 speed. Munch Mancini, a former addict and mechanic, tries with all she's got to build a "regular" life with her adopted daughter, Asia, and a new limo business. It all starts going haywire with very high stakes when Ellen - her friend from her "former" life - pops up. Then murders begin to occur around her new limo client. When Ellen "borrows" Munch's limo, Seranella expertly crafts the a tale of highs and lows of people trying to hold it all together when their world tips sideways. The tenderness between Munch and her daughter Asia contrast starkly with Ellen's wildness and penchant for finding trouble wherever she goes. An excellent, excellent read - the series just keeps getting stronger.

Miranda "Munch" Mancini is an ex-con and a former addict who has stayed clean for seven years. She lives for Asia, a child who owns her heart in spite of being someone else's offspring. She tries to stay squeaky clean, but when Ellen, a close friend is released from jail, Munch takes the woman into her home. She provides Ellen a job as a driver of the one of the limousine that make up Ellen's fleet. However, Munch fails to anticipate that Ellen will pick up a fare without informing her benefactor.Ellen and the limousine disappear somewhere in Tijuana. By the time the vehicle is found, Ellen and her passengers have fled the scene. Apparently in the border town, Ellen has witnessed a horrible murder that links back to a Los Angeles serial killer, The "Band Aid Killer." Munch's friend, police detective Mace St. John feels he knows the identity of the perpetrator, but cannot touch the killer because of a CIA connection. When the culprit threatens Asia, the mass murderer finds Munch, Ellen, and Mac as formidable opponents ready to do anything to stop him.Readers will deeply care what happens to Munch and Asia. Munch is flawed, but has an inner strength to climb out from the abyss and become a positive member of society. She represents hope and survival regardless of the odds against success. Each character has a voice in the swiftly moving story line. That technique works because the talented Barbara Seranella capably allows the audience to observe the inner thoughts and feelings of the main players. With novels like UNWANTED COMPANY and NO HUMAN INVOLVED, Ms. Seranella is gaining a reputation for exciting tales.Harriet Klausner