organised crime

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Post Script: The Hit – Nadia Dalbuono

the-hit

The Hit

Nadia Dalbouno

Scribe Publications

ISBN: 9781925321609

 

Description:

The investigation of an apparent hit-and-run unravels a tangled web in modern Rome.

 

When the family of Micky Proietti, a top television executive, goes missing, Leone Scamarcio is called to investigate. Everyone, it seems — from Premier League footballers to jilted starlets and cabinet ministers — has an axe to grind with Proietti. What starts out as an investigation into his countless affairs soon becomes an inquiry into how Proietti does business and the people he has discarded along the way. Finally, Proietti’s finances attract Scamarcio’s attention, and he discovers that the drama commissioner has been granting favours to some very shadowy sponsors.

 

Like a swimmer trying to escape a riptide, Scamarcio comes to realise that this new inquiry threatens to bring him head to head with his father’s old lieutenant, Piero Piocosta. If he’s to survive in the police force, Scamarcio knows that he must find a way to get Piocosta off his back, once and for all. And find it quickly.

 

Reluctantly, he travels home to Calabria in an attempt to understand how powerful Piocosta has really become and whether he might ever be silenced. It’s a perilous journey, but one Scamarcio has to make if he’s to finally banish the ghosts of his past.

 

 

My View:

Always have a contingency plan.

 

A multifaceted crime fiction narrative of kidnapping, deceit, organised crime, and manipulation that threatens to destroy the career (and life) of our protagonist Leone Scamarcio. The importance of family – in the literal and figurative (criminal) definition of the word is cleverly explored as secrets are slowly revealed.

 

Once again Dalbuono takes the reader on an armchair tour of Italy – the locations and culture real and colourful.

 

Scamarcio is an empathetic character; flawed, haunted by the past and struggling to make sense of the present.  As the narrative progresses, we, the reader can foresee the very imminent danger that Scamarcio will soon face, he is like a puppet with his strings being pulled in all directions – the puppeteer/s hidden behind a screen. Lies and more lies, manipulation and manoeuvring, this complex plot delivers a not so happy ending…and the promise of more moral and ethical dilemmas to come. A great read.

 

 

 

 

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Post Script: Good Girl Bad Girl – Ann Girdharry

Good Girl Bad Girl

Good Girl Bad Girl

Ann Girdharry

Create Space and Kindle Direct

ISBN: 978-0993560217

 

Description:

Mother missing, the discovery of a powerful and corrupt syndicate and dark secrets about her father revealed leaves 28-year old Kal determined to pursue her own investigations, no matter what sinister truths she uncovers, in this intense psychological thriller.

 

Kal is convinced her investigative journalist mother must have been working on a controversial, and top level, news story, it is the only explanation for her sudden and suspicious disappearance. Although mistrustful of the police, Kal allows Detective Inspector Spinks, the officer assigned to her mother’s case, to accompany her when she visits her grandmother to break the news. What they don’t expect is to uncover a file of shocking research cataloguing the deviant activities of seven members of London’s political and business elite. Back on the streets of London, the survival instincts and specialist expertise she learned from her late father, kick into overdrive, as Kal resolves to not only find her mother but continue her work and unveil the conspiracy hidden amongst those in power.

 

About the author: Born and educated in the UK, Ann Girdharry is a trained psychotherapist and has worked as a manager in the not-for-profit sector for many years for agencies working with: carers, vulnerable older people and those with dementia, survivors of abuse, and victims of racism and racial attacks. Today she lives in Montpellier, France with her husband and two children. As well as her passion for writing, Ann enjoys gardening and is a member of her local roller blading club. Ann has previously published a series of short stories called Tales of the Unexpected (2015-2016). Her debut novel, and the first in the Kal Medi series, Good Girl Bad Girl by Ann Girdharry (published by CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing 23rd August 2016 RRP £8.99 paperback, £3.99 ebook) is available to purchase from online retailers including amazon.co.uk and to order from all good bookstores.

 

My View:

Be prepared to suspend your disbelief and then take a seat on a roller coaster ride of mystery, self-discovery and action.

Ann Girdharry’s debut novel is complex; what begins as a narrative surrounding a missing person quickly embraces the issues of paedophilia, bio-technology and ethics, exploitation, racism, organised crime syndicates and poses questions regarding identity, nature v nurture.

Be warned the subject matter can at times be a little gruelling, actually more than a little gruelling… perhaps the author intended to shock us – to wake us from our contended slumber and question some of the bigger picture question regarding first world and third world relationships and responsibilities ?  There is a lot happening in this book and I think the author perhaps would have been better served limiting the number of issues and fleshing out some of the characters, making them more likable.

This is an action packed debut not for the sensitive.

 

 

 

 

 

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Post Script: Waterfront – Duncan McNab

Cover Waterfront

Waterfront

Duncan McNab

Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9780733632518

 

Description:

The colourful and exciting story of the larger-than-life characters who have populated Australia’s docks, wharves and ports from the First Fleet to today – and the crime, violence and corruption that has always been present.

 

Ever since the First Fleet dropped anchor, Australia’s ports have been our opening to the world. They are also the breeding ground for many of Australia’s most notorious criminals, and a magnet for local and overseas criminal syndicates. WATERFRONT is the story of the crimes, the politics, the characters and the corruption in our nation’s ports.

 

From the time of Phillip and Bligh to today, from the gold rushes to modern-day drug smuggling, a criminal element has always found ways to profit from the rise and dominance of waterfront unions. After a century of Royal Commissions, reports, denials and crackdowns, crime and wrongdoing in Australia’s ports remains organised, entrenched and incredibly profitable.

 

Investigative journalist and former police detective Duncan McNab lifts the lid on the intriguing and chequered history of Australia’s waterfront.

 

 

My View:

Waterfront is an epic feat of research and writing that has surprised and confronted my somewhat romantic view of the history of the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia and life on the waterfront in general from then on. Before I go any further let me clarify what I mean when I say romantic view, I thought I was aware of the hardships and some of the challenges that the settlers of the First Fleet encountered – I had no idea of the reality as disclosed by McNab. My understanding of this period of history seems to have been somewhat simplified and whitewashed.

 

These were incredibly tough times, I cannot imagine how any one survived or even thrived in this environment, but some did and it is now evident to me hard work and dedication were not the only ingredients for success; manipulation, corruption, theft, coercion…lead the way. My eyes are now wide open. And so the story of corruption on the waterfront begins…

 

An intriguing look into the history, politics and the notorious larger than life individuals and members of organized crime gangs who have made the waterfront their own. McNab strikes a chord with me when he says in his final chapter “We’ve invested more time, effort and money in stopping boats full of people rather than gathering intelligence on, and penetrating the organised crime syndicates bringing in drugs like ice – labelled by the prime minister when announcing the task force as ‘a dreadful scourge’ and going on to state that ‘massive quantities of this pernicious and evil drug are coming into our country all the time.” (p.320) Well reported McNab.