Rating: 
Summary: Hurrah for Joe and Shag
Review: This is a real slam-bam thriller. It took me a while to get into the author's stride, but once we got together, I could hardly put the book down. The book is much more than a thriller. Something that interests me is, why some pieces of art work, and others don't. The successes must be tapping in to some basic human themes which we all respond to. Silent Joe, the hero with half a face, renders many of the elements of myth, in his search for Father and Mother, part of which ends in the author's own hometown, maybe even his own house, with little male and little female splashing in the water. The river metaphor is especially well done. Well, come in, it's a detective book, who cares about all that? Nonetheless, in reading this book, I couldn't help admiring the author's skill and attention to detail. Bamboo 33 is such a clever name that either there really is a club by that name, or the author speaks Viet Namese. A very nice coincidence especially endears this book to me. Joe mentions his favorite childhood book, Shag: Last of the Plains Buffalo. Me too! Shag is one of three childhood books I have always kept on my shelf. Once you finish Silent Joe, you might want to see if you can find Shag (written by Robert McClung, illustrated by Louis Darling, 1960, William Morrow). It's full of magic, a book for all ages.
Rating: 
Summary: Warmhearted hero immersed in a feeble plot
Review: This is not a cops suspenseful tale, this book is all about Joe Trona's life, the twenty something weapons master, martial arts expert police deputy with a partly disfigured face, product of the work of a vengeful dissapointed empty-headed father that thrown him acid when he was in his crib after he learned that he was not his seed. Years later, Will Trona, stepfather of Joe Trona a politician with clout and shady deals, is murdered before Joe Trona's eyes after that big blow, Joe Trona commits himself to discover the perpetrator and make justice. After Will Trona murder, the author instead of developing the intrigue with alluring elements to grab the reader as it is expected in a story like this one, decides instead to delve deeper into Joe Trona's character, how he projects his feelings over the psychological wounds left by the acid thrown to his face by his father when he was a baby and some lovemaking details about a not credible affair with a starlette who anchors a TV program that interviews people like him, those who have undergone one of a kind awful tragedy in their lifes As I said, the weak point is that the mystery of the plot is left aside in the background and not developed as it should, all we can get as readers halfway, is a strong character in the foreground immersed in a very confusing plot full of secondary one dimensional characters and shallow circumstances that pop up chapter after chapter turning everything more and more blurred, (Where this name comes from ? Have I noticed him/her before ?) Do not expect deceitful twists and turns either as you may find in novels of this sort, just something crafted to give meaning to an ending.
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