The Long Count

Rating:
Summary: The Long Count
Review: For the reader who likes living on the edge or a visit to the world of boxing, this is a perfect read. The genre edges are blurred as Johnny DeMarco, part-time P.I. and almot retired boxer searches for a missing girl.

In the midst of preparing for a come-back in the ring, Johnny is hired by an old friend to find his daughter who has disappeared into the strange world of wannabe vampires and Satanists who are working for the day when Satan will take over the world.

The story is peopled with fascinating characters from Johnny's crusty trainer, Willie, to the wise-cracking Raster who works for an underground newspaper among whose advertisers and readers are the Satanists.

As Johnny alternates between the boxing world and his PI work, he moves deeper and deeper into the black void inhabited by The Ninth Society, a devil-worshipping society led by The Crimson Dragon, Fletcher Ebrus, a wealthy man who proudly traces his ancestry back to the very early members of the society he now rules.

Ebrus and Johnny cross paths as Johnny searches for the missing girl, and Ebrus takes steps to remove him as a threat. A dark story written by a talented author who leads us into the blackness of mens' souls. A story rich in interesting characters set in an unusual and fascinating background. Enjoy. I did.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: Some will say Frank Megna's The Long Count is a novel about boxing. Some will say it's a detective story with romantic overtones, or a love story with mystery thrown in. But The Long Count is mostly about getting down to the nitty-gritty of life, what we're doing here, what's left of any value after all is said and done - if all is really ever "said and done."

Johnny DeMarco's wife Mary died a few years before we meet Johnny, but she permeates the narrative. We see glimpses of her beauty and purity, strong images of his guilt, and a delicately woven tapestry of two souls unquestionably fused. We have no trouble believing that she was devoted to him in all imaginable ways, that he was not the perfect husband, and that their imprint on each other was divinely indelible.

Having somehow survived the first dozen stages of grief, Johnny is now consumed with tackling impossible challenges. When he trains for one last fight, it is somehow for Mary. When he takes on the job of finding the missing daughter of a friend, we know that is probably about Mary as well. Johnny is ordinary and decent, just trying to put one foot in front of the other. Nonetheless, he seems eager to hear the end of the count.

Johnny DeMarco is a man you would like to know, a man you will root for.

Rating:
Summary: Familiar Places
Review: This book takes place in a neighborhood very similar to the one I grew up in. The colorful, short chapters punch at the reader with Italian/American colloquialisms which paint accurate living word pictures that palpably define the personnas and attitudes of the main characters, while advancing the plot in the "jabbing" style of the professional boxer.

he familiarity of the dialoque and descriptions of Tony De Marco's world, with its many technically and historically accurate references to the boxing community, were genuine and real, all of which gives the reader the actual feeling of being there.

The easy manner in which the main plat, and the several sub-plots are presented, kept me glued to the book, flipping pages. wrapped in the developing mystery and intrique of the characters and their relationships to eachother. The personal loss of the main character, lends a poignant undercurrent to the story, as it explores Tony De Marco's conflicting and unresolved emotions.

On every level, the story, the writing style, the premise, the venue, the dialoque, and the manner in which the writer ties them all together gave me the, the reader, an all too breif and enjoyable escape to "familiar places".