Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful New York
Review: Very few mystery writers, especially new ones, have a gift for establishing a sense of place and developing sympathetic characters as well as Jim Fusilli does in this book. I was so blown away by his concise style in the first few pages, I could hardly believe that this was his first book. (Considering his background in journalism, I shouldn't have been surprised.) His depiction of downtown New York City (made all the more poignant by recent events) and its denizens, has the feel of a 1940's detective movie fast forwarded 50 years. But unlike the hardened private eyes of that era, Fusilli's protagonist Terry Orr, is a modern man, alternately caring and detached. He's a damaged soul who, only by the support of his quirky,loyal friends and the love of his daughter, can still function after the horrible death of his artist wife and infant son at the hands of a psychopath. The daughter in question, the precocious Bella, in light of the events around her, seems a little too cheery and confident. (However, I do believe she is poised to shatter a bit in her therapist's office.) I eagerly await the next installment.
Rating: 
Summary: A "Film Noir" for the New Millennium
Review: Very few mystery writers, especially new ones, have a gift for establishing a sense of place and developing sympathetic characters as well as Jim Fusilli does in this book. I was so blown away by his concise style in the first few pages, I could hardly believe that this was his first book. (Considering his background in journalism, I shouldn't have been surprised.) His depiction of downtown New York City (made all the more poignant by recent events) and its denizens, has the feel of a 1940's detective movie fast forwarded 50 years. But unlike the hardened private eyes of that era, Fusilli's protagonist Terry Orr, is a modern man, alternately caring and detached. He's a damaged soul who, only by the support of his quirky,loyal friends and the love of his daughter, can still function after the horrible death of his artist wife and infant son at the hands of a psychopath. The daughter in question, the precocious Bella, in light of the events around her, seems a little too cheery and confident. (However, I do believe she is poised to shatter a bit in her therapist's office.) I eagerly await the next installment.
Rating: 
Summary: Closing Time Doesn't open to the Heart of its message
Review: When one reads Closing Time about Terry Orr, a pivital character in mid life with lots of anger and angst,Manhattan is a main character,a landscape at the mercy of his moods. Orr, his very name suggests that he will be swallowed by his angry nature, or he will choose to pay more attention to his daughter and bury the hachett of his anger.
Although the book is supposed to be about fathers and sons, at least two of the characters have fathers that are abusive in one form or another, Fusilli leaves out any mention of Orr's father or mother. He's wrestling with his relationship with his daughter, but we know nothing of Orr's father. Did he hate him or respect or emmulate him? We know only of his perfect wife who made him a millionaire with her perfect paintings and then had the decency to exit before she sprouted her first gray hairs.
Orr's daughter Bella is also perfect in every way and shows none of the normal preadolescent snarling suffered by most parents. If Fusilli is exploring fathers and sons why aren't his main characters involved?
Perhaps we'll learn more about Orr's past in future books and it might be interesting to see what other neighborhoods this pro bono detective finds himself haunting. Will he ever match up to his daughter's wisdom? At least his wife left him lots of cash.
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