Tangled Web UK Review November 2000
The Violet Hour by
Richard Montanari
pbk out January 99
(Penguin)
at £5.99
Father John Angelino’s death from a heroin overdose comes as a shock to the Cleveland Catholic community. And the fact that he spent his last hours with a (now also dead) prostitute is even more shocking. Yet no one suspects that the deaths are anything more than they seem: a priest who has fallen from grace big time! Freelance reporter and cousin of Angelino’s best friend, Nicholas Stella, decides to look into the background for the story and in so doing walks straight into the nightmare world of a crazed killer hell bent on revenge. And the killing certainly doesn’t stop there….
Montanari’s writing is literate (I loved the little girl with “an electric shrubbery of pumpkin red hair”), his plotting skilful and his characterisation is impressive. With a few words he creates characters that are real, and more importantly characters you care about. And as the characters become real, so too does the fear. From page one you are in no doubt of the horrors the killer is planning: with every page, the tension is turned up a notch.
But this is no straightforward game of cat and mouse. You are treated to shock after shock. Nothing and no one is as they seem! Skilful misdirection, an involving and intriguing storyline, and a desperation to know just “whodunnit” keep the pages turning and the light on well after midnight…
With The Violet Hour, Richard Montanari certainly proves himself worthy of a place among the elite of the genre. If dark psychological suspense is your thing, do not miss this book.
(
Liz Lees
)
