Unwanted Company

Munch Mancini #3

by Barbara Seranella

A favor for an old friend embroils ex-con-turned-limo driver Munch Mancini in a search for a serial killer and results in a murder and the disappearance of her limo. By the author of No Offense Intended and No Human Involved. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Barbara Seranella was an American author known for her gripping crime novels. Growing up in Pacific Palisades, California, she ran away at 13 to San Francisco, joining a hippie commune and learning auto mechanics on the streets. Seranella later married Walter Haring and became a devoted mother to Michera Nicole Colella and Maryann Colella, raising both girls as her own. Drawing on her adventurous early life and sharp observations, she authored more than ten novels, including No Human Involved, No Offense Intended, and Deadman's Switch, blending crime, suspense, and realism. Seranella lived in La Quinta and Laguna Beach, California, and passed away in 2007 while awaiting a liver transplant.

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Munch Mancini, auto mechanic
SERIES: #3
RATING: 3.5
WHY: After a harrowing period of addiction, Munch Mancini has been sober for 7 years and turned her life around. She works as an auto mechanic, raises her "adopted" daughter Asia, and has started a side limo business to make some money. When her friend, Ellen, is released from prison, Munch takes her in. Ellen books a limo job, and things go very wrong. She ends up driving to Mexico with a serial killer and a Romanian with a suitcase full of plutonium. With the abduction of Asia, all bets are off. Munch and Ellen are well-developed characters, and some of the recurring characters, such as Detective Mace St. John, evolve as well. Munch is such an authentic character; it's a pleasure to visit her world.

[Marc Jentzsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. As always, Seranella manages a story that is often unblinking and brutal without being bleak, and in a neat twist for a crime novel, wildly hopeful. You could, however, make a drinking game out of every time AA meetings and other elements of sobriety come up. It's clearly something near and dear to the author and an integral part of what makes Munch who she is, and it manages to be endearing more than irritating.

Looking forward to the next.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2000. I liked the Munch Mancini character enough to read two in one week.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating characters, grisly crimes. Not for those who prefer cozies, but a darn good read.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

[Comments taken from a mailing list discussion. They are out of contaxt and contain spoilers.]

[on the characters]

I think the characters were pretty consistent. I thought the time lapse worked well and we got to see how much Munch's life had changed and I thought we came in at a good point (from a story point of view) in Mace and Caroline's life too. Everyone had grown up and changed, moved on, it all seemed pretty realistic to me.

Ellen was an excellent new character and I'm glad to hear that she comes back for me in the future. I was gunning for her to sort her life out, even when she was doing dumb things I thought she was acting like a real person and not a caricature.

[on the plot]

I thought the weakness in this plot was the Romanian and plutonium and spy parts of it, I got all a little lost with what was going on at times, but to be honest I didn't really care, I was too interested in what was going on with Munch and Mace and Ellen to be bothered by not really understanding what was going on on the other side of the plot sometimes. On the whole I thought it was a weaker plot than the first two books but still pretty good. I didn't think the plot bled realism in the way that the character's did, I think that was what was a bit out of kilter for me.

[on the scenes, setting]

Several people mentioned Victor's suicide scene as something that didn't work for them, I loved it and thought it was really funny how dumb Victor was being. I didn't find this side of the plot very realistic so the silliness worked for me.

I can't remember individual scenes now but I thought most everything that Munch and Ellen did was excellently written with tons of tiny details adding up to a real picture of who these people were.

In the first two books I felt that the setting could be nearly anywhere but this one felt more LA specific with the ride down to Mexico and the Olympics coming up.

[overall]

This series is staying pretty much on a level for me, it's changing and each book is different but I'm not finding one book appreciably stronger or weaker than the next and this consistency is a good thing.

I like the ongoing background of drink/drugs rehabilitation and I'm enjoying and finding it illuminating seeing how Munch and her friends cope with it in their own ways.

Overall the series is great and I plan to keep right on with reading it.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Unwanted Company, by Barbara Seranella, a-minus, Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Produced by Audible Inc., downloaded from audible.com.

This is the third in the Munch Mansini series. Munch is now about seven years sober. She is working now for Lew, who has bought the auto maintenance part of a gas station. She has Asia still, and has raised her since she was six months old. Now she is turning seven. Munch bought an old Cadillac which she tooled into a limousine and she is trying to start her own business. But, since there’s only one of her and one car, and she’s trying to get started, she has to pretty much take any client who calls.In this way, she ends up picking up a guy whom she figures to be some kind of government informant, a foreign Ukranian he seems to be watching, and two girls. She brings them back several hours later. In the meantime, an old friend of hers, Ellen, who just got out of prison, comes to Munch for help. Munch hires her as a part-time driver but says she can’t start until Munch has her on the insurance policy. But the moorning after she took the guys and girls out, Ellen happens to be in the office when the same government man calls back and asks to be driven for the whole day. Ellen makes a snap judgment that she will best help her friend by accepting the job and carrying it out. So the next thing Munch knows, Ellen and her limousine are gone, and she believes Ellen has driven the client to Mexico. She goes to her old pal Detective St. John, and they start the search for Ellen. What is even more troubling is that there are several murders which occurred in Mexico, plus the two girls are murdered that she took in the limousine the night she drove, and all these murders seem to be connected to the two men that both she and Ellen drove. So Mucnh needs to keep her little daughter and herself safe, find Ellen and find her car, and help St. John solve the murders before more occur. Very good.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unwanted Company - VG
Barbara Saranella - 3rd in series
Just when things seem to be going relatively well for recovering addict, ex-prostitute, ex-con, and whiz-bang auto-mechanic-cum-limo-service-magnate Miranda "Munch" Mancini and her 6-year-old adopted daughter, Asia, she encounters a world of good-intentioned hurt from an old druggie friend, Ellen. Fresh out of prison and just 16 days sober, Ellen is determined to get her life back on track. When things on the outside don't go according to plan, she turns to Munch, who does the right thing by offering Ellen a couch to sleep on and a part-time job as a limo driver. Before you can say "That Ellen, she's going to be trouble," that Ellen becomes trouble when she drives Victor, a Romanian diplomat with a taste for the seedier side of Western life, and Raleigh, a misogynistic and unscrupulous CIA agent, to Tijuana. And, naturally, she doesn't tell Munch.

Saranella writes an excellent story.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally enjoyable and I'd look for more in the series (this was the earliest one my library had), but I'm not as intrigued as I was by the protagonist in the series ended by the author's death. :(

Oh, and there was one annoying "ho ho, you think THIS but it's really THIS!" that was way too obvious.

[Estibaliz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 para una novela negra ligera, bastante breve, pero con buenos personajes y argumento, especialmente destacable por su sencillez, que no simpleza, libre de grandes artificios o tramas en exceso elaboradas que a veces poco aportan.

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

book had more about the characters personal lives which was great. the crime part was iffy.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read from several years ago, this series just doesn't get old.

[Natalia]

Munch Mancini Crime Novel Bk 3