Charlie Opera

by Charlie Stella

A fellow goes to Las Vegas for a holiday. In a matter of hours he gets drunk, gets mugged, and gets dumped by his wife. Things could get worse, and do, in this gritty new crime novel from Charlie Stella, whose work, “in both style and substance,” not only reminds the San Diego Union Tribune “of George V. Higgins’ underworld thrillers” but also “stacks up well against the master.”

With bravura, alternating brutality with humor and high-octane action with virtuoso tough-guy dialogue, Stella crafts his story of Charlie Pellecchia, whose unwitting entanglement with New York mobster Nicky Cuccia plops him in the path of the DEA, FBI, and Las Vegas police. Law enforcement may find Charlie awkwardly in its way, but elsewhere—in deluxe casino hotel suites, at deserted construction sites, on quiet residential streets—a bodybuilding punk looking to be made, a professional killer, a mob chief’s double-dealing accountant, and a pair of Vietnamese gang-bangers are all trying to put Charlie permanently out of the way. All because he broke a wiseguy’s jaw.

Add to the mix hookers with felonious kinks, a cop deeply troubled by his wife’s infidelity, a ham-fisted redneck with vengeance on his mind, and some bad faith between the Vignieri crime family and the Russian mafia, and you’ve got more than trouble. You’ve got Charlie’s opera.

Genres: Crime

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2003

About the author

Carmelo Stella is an author long familiar with the street life of New York City, which figures substantially in his writing. His work includes plays, performed off-off-Broadway, his debut novel called Eddie's World and Jimmy Bench-press, also published by Hale. He lives in New Jersey.

Reviews

[Brett Wallach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, I swear. Stella has a good ear for male banter. But the plot was so ridiculously convoluted, with pointless and cliched subplots and characters used as so much filler, that I just can't recommend this novel. When people say that Elmore Leonard made it look so easy, this is exactly what they mean, as this book tries its darndest to emulate that style, but fails.

[ND · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writer. Too many subplots however. Characters get confusing. Some plot lines go nowhere (what happened to the compromising photos)?

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read a review of this book which prompted me to order it for my Kindle. While the book was good it did not live up to its review IMHO. It was pretty good, though, and I did find it a good distraction at airports and while traveling.