Book Review: No Man Standing

Reviewed By: Carl Brookins - RAM

No Man Standing     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Barbara Seranella
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller
Series: Munch Mancini # 5
2002, Scribner, 299 pages, $ 24.00

Boy, can this author write. Hard, restless, muscular prose that drives the story relentlessly forward. Barbara Saranella is in full command of her work. Just as her hero, Munch Mancini is in control of her life- pretty much. She should be. Mancini is an unusual anti-hero -almost. She's defied parental control, been on the street, run away, done drugs and knows an almost incredible array of those who regularly travel the mean streets of any large city, particularly Los Angeles, where this story takes place.

Mancini is getting her life together, what with a regular job as an auto mechanic and her start-up limousine service. She's managed to put together a deal to buy a house, and her relationship with her eight-year old daughter is improving every day. But then trouble arrives in the shape of long-time girlfriend Ellen Summers. Mancini believes in relationships, almost to a fault. So when Ellen's mother and stepfather are murdered and Ellen, ex-druggie, ex -stripper ex-thief is released from jail, Munch is immediately and unwillingly swept up in a swirling cesspool of low-life thievery, gun-play and deadly attempts to find hidden boodle.

There are clever twists, crackling blunt dialogue while Munch has some second thoughts about helping Ellen in what is becoming more and more evidently a criminal enterprise. She doesn't want to become collateral damage. More importantly she doesn't want any of this to touch her daughter, Asia. But Munch Mancini is not one to sit around wallowing in self-pity or wringing her hands worrying about whether she's up to the challenges life is throwing at her. Get out there and do it sister! That's her thing and let the chips-and bodies-fall where they may. I say bravo. One terrific novel.

Carl Brookins - RAM

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