Great book!! Great story!!! The plotline was absolutely addicting. that's my whole review! Doesn't get much simpler than that. This is the first Balzano/Byrne book I've read, not to mention Mr. Montanari. Did not realize when I picked it up at the library that it was the 4th go round for these de...
"Badlands" by Richard Montanari is the fourth installment featuring the detective team of Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano. "Badlands" refers to the portion of the city, north Philadelphia, which has been a blight for decades. Byrne and Balzano catch the case of teenage runaways girls who turn up ...
This hasn't been my favourite of the series enough it had its moments. If 1/2 stars were possible it would score at 3.5.Part of the difficulty is the final denouncement did, as others have commented, a certain Scooby-Doo feel to its final pages which let down the build-up. Still I am very fond of...
The Killing Room is Richard Montanari's 7th Byrne & Balzano murder mystery with several brutal killings discovered in various abandoned churches around Philadelphia. There are many plots and subplots running concurrently through the book which feels a little disconnected, but in true Montanari st...
A popular priest lies dead of a heroin overdose in a Cleveland apartment, following an apparent tryst with a high priced call girl. A freelance journalist recognizes a great stow -- salacious and saleable -- in the cleric's demise...and follows it into the twisted, terrifying mind of a psychopath...
Richard Montanari, Rosary Girls (Ballantine, 2005)I always approach a new (well, new-to-me) ongoing mystery series with trepidation. Not because I fear I'll hate it. In fact, I have a lot fewer problems with those I hate, since I can just abandon them. But, you see, I'm a reader of George R. R. M...
The blurb:The streets of Philadelphia are blistering in the summer heat, the homicide rate is soaring and the nights belong to the mad. Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are prowling the streets with a growing sense of unease. Where next will evil rear its ugly head?When a series of seem...
It was one of the few remaining old high-rise buildings in the area. It had recently been converted into a senior living facility. On the way over, Vincent explained to Byrne that one of DeRon Wilson’s dodges was to use the place as a stash house. He said Wilson’s grandmother had passed away in 2...
It provided counsel and protection to teenaged runaways; since its founding nearly a decade earlier, more than two thousand girls had passed through its doors.The storefront building was whitewashed and clean, recently painted. The insides of the windows were webbed with ivy and flowering clemati...
They also signed the cash into evidence, and locked it down. The Forensic Lab was a state-of-the-art, heavily fortified building at 8th and Poplar streets. In the basement was the Firearms Identification Unit; on the first floor was the Crime Scene Unit, Document Examina...
Black woman, well dressed, early fifties. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘I was wondering if you could help me. My cousin Eleanor left the bar about a half-hour ago, and I thought perhaps you could pop into the ladies’ room here and see if she might be in there, see if she’s all right.’ ‘Sure,’ the woman ...
The man stood across the vacant lot, leaning against a half- demolished brick wall. The man had been there every day at the same time for the past three days, probably long before that. He wore the same clothes. He wore the same hat, the same expression. To Byrne he looked emptied, as if someone ...
Pastor Roland Hannah and Deacon Charles Waite offered service at 7:00 am. Roland’s sermon was one of hope, of renewal. He spoke of The Cross and The Cradle. He quoted Matthew 2:1-12. The baskets overflowed. later, roland and Charles sat at the table in the basement beneath the church, a pot of co...
It was a muggy night. A damp breeze crawled off the river, bringing with it the industrial smells of the power plant, a pungent mix of ozone and copper. On every special occasion since his confirmation at St. Paul’s, in 1919, Charles Flagg had worn a long-sleeved shirt but...
A standalone low brick building, The Ark was located at 52nd and Chestnut, near the heart of University City in West Philadelphia, an unincorporated neighborhood that was home to both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. There were enough people in their l...