by William Boyle
SYNOPSIS
A STORY OF REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION, OF FACING DOWN THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST, OF UNTOLD DESIRES, OF YEARNING AND FORGIVENESS AND SYNCHRONICITY, OF THE GREAT DISTANCE OF LIVES LIVED IN DANGEROUS PROXIMITY TO EACH OTHER.
The lives of several lost souls intersect in Southern Brooklyn in the early 1990s.
There’s Donnie Parascandolo, a disgraced ex-cop with blood on his hands; Ava Bifulco, a widow whose daily work grind is her whole life; Nick, Ava’s son, a grubby high school teacher who dreams of a shortcut to success; Mikey Baldini, a college dropout who’s returned to the old neighbourhood, purposeless and drifting; Donna Rotante, Donnie’s ex-wife, still reeling
from the suicide of their teenage son; Mikey’s mother, Rosemarie, also a widow, who hopes Mikey won’t fall into the trap of strong arm work; and Antonina Divino, a high school girl with designs on breaking free from Brooklyn.
Uniting them are the dead: Mikey’s old man, killed over a gambling debt, and Donnie and Donna’s poor son, Gabe.
REVIEW In City of Margins we are introduced to a series of characters starting with Donnie Parascandolo, a disgraced ex-cop who works as an enforcer for loan shark Big Time Tommy. One by one, the other characters are added to form a kind of dysfunctional family tree in a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in Southern Brooklyn.
We learn very early on in the story, how one act of revenge, one wrong decision, one judgement can trigger a devastating series of events that you could never have imagined possible.
I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have read this kind of pulp/noir crime novel. I didn’t know what to expect but I was hooked right in from the start, it was really addictive, like reading a dark and gritty soap opera.
My main preconception about the book was that I wouldn’t warm to the characters, but, despite their flaws, I found myself rooting for them, hoping their luck would turn and was genuinely interested in their stories and backgrounds.
It was the level of characterisation that really pulled me in to the story, a brilliantly written novel, I could quite happily have carried on reading about this mixed bag of individuals indefinitely!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Boyle is from Brooklyn, New York. His debut novel, Gravesend, was published as #1,000 in the Rivages/Noir collection in France, shortlisted for the Prix Polar SNCF,
nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. Boyle is also the author of the Hammett Prizenominated
The Lonely Witness (No Exit Press), a book of short series, Death Don't Have No Mercy and another novel, Tout est Brisè, released in France by Gallmeister. His new novel, City of Margins, will be published by No Exit Press in 2020. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
Thanks to Anne Cater @RandomTTours, William Boyle @wmboyle4 and @noexitpress for the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Thriller / Crime
Product format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0857304056
Pages: 320 pp
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