Hot-Wired in Brooklyn by Douglas Dinunzio (Eddie Lombardi)
iPublish.com - June 2001
ISBN: 075955014X - e-book (Adobe Reader) - some explicit material

Reviewed by Brenda Weeaks, MyShelf.com
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It's January 1949 and a goon is suspending PI Eddie Lombardi over the East River -- again. It's the same over and over, but this time a name comes to him. After Eddie wakes from this repeated nightmare, a good friend arrives wanting help with a kid arrested for stealing the local DA's car. Yep, kid's name is the one in dream. It's enough to give you the creeps. So does he take the job or kick the guy out? Me, I would have kick the guy out, climbed back in bed, and demanded a better dream, but not Eddie. A Goddaughter's dance recitals, Sunday lasagna with the goombahs, dinner with the family, even the in-laws -- that's Eddie's way of life. He maybe a tough nosed PI, but family and friends comes first.

Eddie takes the case pro bono and even throws in his own lawyer. The kid doesn't appreciate it and tops the night off name calling and badmouthing everyone -- especially his boss, a member of local mafia. The same boss ends up dead after the kid is let loose. A simple case of hot-wired car thefts turns into much more when the kid's cohorts disappear and start showing up dead, one by one. One of the disappearing thieves leads Eddie to a pair of sisters, one good, and one very, very bad; both are interested in Eddie. Slowly, but surely Eddie's East River dream comes to life, and there is nothing he can do now but ride it out.

Hot Wired in Brooklyn pleasantly surprised me; I was expecting the typical mafia type tale, but instead got a great PI action drama. Although there is plenty of language it doesn't, thankfully, read as biting or hardboiled as most PI stories. I think readers will enjoy following Eddie and his goombahs' lives throughout the mystery. It's a credible mystery told in first person. If you like PI mysteries, especially the kind that takes you back to the old days then you have to download Hot Wired in Brooklyn by Douglas Dinunzio.