{"id":129,"date":"2014-08-14T20:02:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T01:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/?p=129"},"modified":"2014-08-14T20:02:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T01:02:07","slug":"take-a-walk-down-blind-moon-alley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/take-a-walk-down-blind-moon-alley\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a Walk Down Blind Moon Alley<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blind<\/a><\/em>Blind Moon Alley<\/em><\/a>
\nJohn Florio<\/a>
\nSeventh Street Books<\/a>
\ntrade paper<\/a> $15.95
\nebook $11.99 Kindle<\/a> Nook<\/a><\/p>\n

I love me some Prohibition gangster stories, and with his debut novel Sugar Pop Moon<\/em><\/a> (reviewed here<\/a>), John Florio created one of the most unique and intriguing characters in that subgenre. Jersey Leo is an albino, a bartender in a speakeasy, and someone who is a whole lot tougher than the looks.<\/p>\n

In the sophomore installment in the series, Jersey is working in a speakeasy in Philadelphia when he gets a call from his childhood friend Aaron Garvey. During their days on the playground, Garvey was Jersey’s protector. These days he’s on death row for killing a cop.<\/p>\n

It turns out that death row inmates can have one guest at their last meal, and Garvey invites Jersey to dine with him. He needs a favor. Garvey had loaned twenty grand to another childhood friend, Myra Banks, so she could buy into a speakeasy. Now Reeger, the partner of the cop Garvey killed, is putting the squeeze on Myra. Garvey wants Jersey to help Myra with Reeger.<\/p>\n

Jersey is understandably reluctant to get involved, but then on the eve of his execution, Garvey manages to pull a breakout and heads straight to Jersey for help. Now, whether he likes it or not, Jersey is involved, so he helps Garvey hide.<\/p>\n

Then Reeger comes knocking. Jersey Leo is about to find out that no good deed goes unpunished.<\/p>\n

The action in Blind Moon Alley<\/em> flows smoothly, like high end whiskey.\u00a0 The pacing is relentless.\u00a0 Every time Jersey thinks he’s got a handle on things, something goes wrong.\u00a0 Before it’s over he’s questioning quite a few decisions he’s made in his life.<\/p>\n

And Jersey isn’t the only person whose head we get inside.\u00a0 He’s the only viewpoint character, but Florio does a masterful job of fleshing out a supporting cast through their interactions with Jersey and how he feels about them.\u00a0 For all the action, this is at heart a character based book.<\/p>\n

One thing I liked about this book was the music.\u00a0 (No, I didn’t read an enhanced ebook, but I would like to than Lisa MIchalski at Seventh Street Books for the review copy.)\u00a0 Florio frequently uses songs from the era to set the mood.\u00a0 Or rather he uses the titles, often naming the artists who made the songs famous in the process.\u00a0 I’ve always enjoyed music from that time period, but I must admit I didn’t recognize many of the songs.\u00a0 Still the ones I did know added a depth to the story.<\/p>\n

Don’t think you’ll miss a great deal if you aren’t familiar with the music.\u00a0 The names of the songs are really all you need to understand some of the things that run through Jersey’s mind, and Florio provides those.<\/p>\n

Blind Moon Alley<\/em> is a solid addition to a great historical mystery series, one that fans of gangsters and Prohibition era stories would do well to check out.\u00a0 It hits shelves next Tuesday, August 19th.\u00a0 Look for it.<\/p>\n

And now, a toast.\u00a0 Here’s to John Florio and Jersey Leo.\u00a0 May it be a long time before Prohibition is repealed in their world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blind Moon Alley John Florio Seventh Street Books trade paper $15.95 ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook I love me some Prohibition gangster stories, and with his debut novel Sugar Pop Moon (reviewed here), John Florio created one of the most unique and intriguing characters in that subgenre. Jersey Leo is an albino, a bartender in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,8,10,4],"tags":[38,87,89,39],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bootlegging","category-john-florio","category-prohibition","category-seventh-street-books","tag-jersey-leo","tag-john-florio","tag-prohibition","tag-seventh-stree"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P58L-25","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/gumshoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}