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Munch Mancini #6
Unpaid Dues: A Munch Mancini Crime Novel
Miranda "Munch" Mancini, a single mom and mechanic, seeks out a vicious killer dredging up her past after her fingerprints and picture turn up in a murdered woman's arrest file, along with a current cold murder case headed up by her detective lover Rico Chacon, as she must lure the murderer out or face the consequences of a past that she cannot seem to shed. Reprint.
- GenresMystery
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Barbara Seranella
11 books19 followersBarbara 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.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 13, 2014
RATING: 4.75
One of the greatest joys of a reader is to find an author who can write a compelling series, with each new book anxiously awaited. For me, Barbara Seranella is one of those authors. The Munch Mancini series is one of my favorites, and Unpaid Dues, is the very best of them all.
Six books ago, we were introduced to Munch Mancini in No Human Involved. At that time, she was in pretty bad shape, trying to break a serious drug addiction while dealing with some very dangerous people. Over the course of time, Munch has shown herself to be a survivor and a fighter. It's never been easy for her, but life has improved quite a bit. She's happily living with her adopted daughter, Asia, and working as a mechanic in a garage where she's respected. This good life hasn't turned her into Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms. She's still got an edge, and she's extremely aware of anything that may threaten her newfound peace.
Somehow, Munch can never escape the tendrils that reach out to her from the past. In this case, there is a bad and a good part of her history touching her life. Munch has known homicide detective Mace St. John for quite some time. When he runs the prints on a murdered woman, he finds a picture of Munch in her file. It turns out that many years earlier, Munch had used the other woman's identity so she could escape a drunk driving rap. The thing that Munch won't admit to is that she was an unknowing accessory to a murder. It seems like someone is trying to uncover her secret and bring her down. It's tough for her to know what to do, to trust the cops knowing that she will probably receive a prison sentence or to try to handle the situation on her own. But dealing with a man whose specialty is inflicting pain is not exactly a wise thing to do.
On the positive side, someone she cared very much about many years earlier shows up on her doorstep. Many years earlier, she had cared for the son of one of her degenerate friends. "Boogie", now known as "Nathan", is a young man. He hasn't had an easy life, but he seems to be doing reasonably well. His mother is off in Paris with her latest man, and Nathan has fantasies about hooking up with her again. Munch offers him her home and her heart, but too much time has passed for her to overcome some of the influences of his youth.
Seranella did a superb job in weaving together all the elements of the narrative. She skillfully pulled in pieces of Munch's history from the previous books in the series. For those readers who have read the earlier books, it was like a nostalgic trip through the ups and downs of Munch's life. For the reader who has not been exposed to the series before, these references to past events helped establish Munch's background quickly. Just enough time was spent on these areas so that both types of readers were satisfied.
What really blew me away was the resolution of the book. It was perfectly done. There was an element of surprise, but it was totally fair play, no rabbits pulled out of any hats. And justice was truly served, as painful as it was to experience.
Seranella has really raised the bar with Unpaid Dues. Superb characterization, excellent pacing, wonderful plotting—what more could you want? Highly recommended.
One of the greatest joys of a reader is to find an author who can write a compelling series, with each new book anxiously awaited. For me, Barbara Seranella is one of those authors. The Munch Mancini series is one of my favorites, and Unpaid Dues, is the very best of them all.
Six books ago, we were introduced to Munch Mancini in No Human Involved. At that time, she was in pretty bad shape, trying to break a serious drug addiction while dealing with some very dangerous people. Over the course of time, Munch has shown herself to be a survivor and a fighter. It's never been easy for her, but life has improved quite a bit. She's happily living with her adopted daughter, Asia, and working as a mechanic in a garage where she's respected. This good life hasn't turned her into Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms. She's still got an edge, and she's extremely aware of anything that may threaten her newfound peace.
Somehow, Munch can never escape the tendrils that reach out to her from the past. In this case, there is a bad and a good part of her history touching her life. Munch has known homicide detective Mace St. John for quite some time. When he runs the prints on a murdered woman, he finds a picture of Munch in her file. It turns out that many years earlier, Munch had used the other woman's identity so she could escape a drunk driving rap. The thing that Munch won't admit to is that she was an unknowing accessory to a murder. It seems like someone is trying to uncover her secret and bring her down. It's tough for her to know what to do, to trust the cops knowing that she will probably receive a prison sentence or to try to handle the situation on her own. But dealing with a man whose specialty is inflicting pain is not exactly a wise thing to do.
On the positive side, someone she cared very much about many years earlier shows up on her doorstep. Many years earlier, she had cared for the son of one of her degenerate friends. "Boogie", now known as "Nathan", is a young man. He hasn't had an easy life, but he seems to be doing reasonably well. His mother is off in Paris with her latest man, and Nathan has fantasies about hooking up with her again. Munch offers him her home and her heart, but too much time has passed for her to overcome some of the influences of his youth.
Seranella did a superb job in weaving together all the elements of the narrative. She skillfully pulled in pieces of Munch's history from the previous books in the series. For those readers who have read the earlier books, it was like a nostalgic trip through the ups and downs of Munch's life. For the reader who has not been exposed to the series before, these references to past events helped establish Munch's background quickly. Just enough time was spent on these areas so that both types of readers were satisfied.
What really blew me away was the resolution of the book. It was perfectly done. There was an element of surprise, but it was totally fair play, no rabbits pulled out of any hats. And justice was truly served, as painful as it was to experience.
Seranella has really raised the bar with Unpaid Dues. Superb characterization, excellent pacing, wonderful plotting—what more could you want? Highly recommended.
July 29, 2021
Auto mechanic, mother, recovering addict, former biker and much more, Munch Mancini returns in the sixth entry in this unique series. What I have enjoyed the most with each entry is the growth Munch experiences as she takes a troubled life and turns it around. Yet it is this former life that keeps coming up threatening to pull her back into old ways.
A woman is found in a storm channel next to a golf course bound tightly with a doll in her arms. Homicide detective Mace St. John begins to piece together the facts to discover who the woman was and how she ended up there. Evidence takes him to an old arrest file from ten years ago. When he opens the file to read more, he is shocked to see the photo of a very belligerent Munch Mancini, a woman he knows is very much alive and happy in her new life. St. John is married to Caroline, Munch’s ex-parole officer, and they have become good friends.
In the meantime, a young teenage boy shows up on Munch’s doorstep unannounced. After a moment she recognizes Nathan as a child she knew years ago and who is the son of a woman she used to hang out with. He has no place to go with his mother in Europe, leaving him to fend for himself. Munch invites him to stay for a short while, provided he get a job and follow some ground rules. Nathan remembers Munch and her old pals and even the father of her adopted daughter Asia, Sleaze John.
Munch is feeling vulnerable which is a new feeling for her to share. She’s fearful that the life she has so carefully built up will come unraveled if a thread of her past is pulled on too hard. Somehow the two murder cases are connected and sooner or later Mace St. John and her boyfriend Rico Chacon will know everything too.
This book fills in even more blanks of Munch’s past life than we’ve learned in earlier entries. In the beginning, the book was going along as a nice procedural, but as it dawned on me that Munch was involved in some way and then another key player was introduced, the pace took off and would not let up until the last pages were read. The twist at the end was totally unexpected. Whew; it was a bumpy ride but very much worth it.
Reading the earlier entries in the Munch Mancini series – NO HUMAN INVOLVED, NO OFFENSE INTENDED, UNWANTED COMPANY, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, NO MAN STANDING – is recommended to give the reader the background on Munch and her enormous growth as a woman and single mother doing the best she can, one day at a time.
If Munch Mancini were a living woman and not fictional, I would be proud to call her my friend. I would marvel at her strength and courage and fortitude. I would be touched by her kindness and love. She’s a fabulous parent and excels at her job. She’s come a long way from those mean streets. I’m privileged to be invited to journey along with her.
A woman is found in a storm channel next to a golf course bound tightly with a doll in her arms. Homicide detective Mace St. John begins to piece together the facts to discover who the woman was and how she ended up there. Evidence takes him to an old arrest file from ten years ago. When he opens the file to read more, he is shocked to see the photo of a very belligerent Munch Mancini, a woman he knows is very much alive and happy in her new life. St. John is married to Caroline, Munch’s ex-parole officer, and they have become good friends.
In the meantime, a young teenage boy shows up on Munch’s doorstep unannounced. After a moment she recognizes Nathan as a child she knew years ago and who is the son of a woman she used to hang out with. He has no place to go with his mother in Europe, leaving him to fend for himself. Munch invites him to stay for a short while, provided he get a job and follow some ground rules. Nathan remembers Munch and her old pals and even the father of her adopted daughter Asia, Sleaze John.
Munch is feeling vulnerable which is a new feeling for her to share. She’s fearful that the life she has so carefully built up will come unraveled if a thread of her past is pulled on too hard. Somehow the two murder cases are connected and sooner or later Mace St. John and her boyfriend Rico Chacon will know everything too.
This book fills in even more blanks of Munch’s past life than we’ve learned in earlier entries. In the beginning, the book was going along as a nice procedural, but as it dawned on me that Munch was involved in some way and then another key player was introduced, the pace took off and would not let up until the last pages were read. The twist at the end was totally unexpected. Whew; it was a bumpy ride but very much worth it.
Reading the earlier entries in the Munch Mancini series – NO HUMAN INVOLVED, NO OFFENSE INTENDED, UNWANTED COMPANY, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, NO MAN STANDING – is recommended to give the reader the background on Munch and her enormous growth as a woman and single mother doing the best she can, one day at a time.
If Munch Mancini were a living woman and not fictional, I would be proud to call her my friend. I would marvel at her strength and courage and fortitude. I would be touched by her kindness and love. She’s a fabulous parent and excels at her job. She’s come a long way from those mean streets. I’m privileged to be invited to journey along with her.
June 17, 2024
The beginning is gritty, the ending a fantasy, and the middle is a whipsawing hose. The Munch Mancini novels are those of redemption and optimism holding out the hand of a savior from within the maelstroms of life. Munch doesn't have an easy existence and the author never sugarcoats the dirt and the blood and the violence, but she still rewards Munch for keeping the faith, for enduring and for helping others to endure. Not every dark tunnel emerges into light, but for all their meandering, they angle upward and back to where the sun will rise just as surely as it set. Life hurts, but it also blesses; it also rewards. And sometimes, particularly when things are hard, knowing you're on the right side of things matters.
If you haven't read this series, hunt it down. Read it. It's fantastic.
If you haven't read this series, hunt it down. Read it. It's fantastic.
May 1, 2022
Read in 2003. There were only 9 Munch Mancini mysteries. Always enjoyable.
September 9, 2009
#6 Munch Mancini mystery. Munch, an auto mechanic living in 1980's California, has another visit from her past, which comes back to haunt her again when a beaten, dead body found in a pond comes up with a picture of Munch attached to the name and prints, nearly giving Detective Mace St. John another heart attack. The victim is actually someone named Jane Farrar, "New York" Jane to Munch, who had been one of the gang of druggies Munch used to hang with ten years previously before she went straight. Munch wonders whether Jane's husband Thor might be the perpetrator as he had savagely beaten Jane (and many others) to near death before. She is loathe to tell all to St. John though, because it will dredge up a very bad incident in her past life in which she unknowingly participated in a brutal triple murder--she was the driver for a supposed drug heist that Thor, Jane, and Sleaze John did, and didn't know until later that people had been killed. Munch fears that revealing this will pull the rug out from under her new stable, sober life with a decent job and her adopted daughter Asia.
On top of this, Munch's friend Deb's son Nathan "Boogie" Franklin comes for a visit--she hadn't seen him since he was a young boy, and now is a teenager, living on his own. Munch invites him to stay until he finds a job and gets himself together. Munch's romance with Detective Rico Chacon is on shaky ground as well, as she attempts to get him to commit to a more permanent relationship and provide some stability--but of course, he's still married.
The mystery was painfully simple to figure out, and as much as I love Munch, I wish some of the mysteries would involve something besides her sordid past. Yes, it's true--past mistakes will come to bite you in the butt, and by now we get that. I hope the next book is more firmly rooted in Munch's present life.
On top of this, Munch's friend Deb's son Nathan "Boogie" Franklin comes for a visit--she hadn't seen him since he was a young boy, and now is a teenager, living on his own. Munch invites him to stay until he finds a job and gets himself together. Munch's romance with Detective Rico Chacon is on shaky ground as well, as she attempts to get him to commit to a more permanent relationship and provide some stability--but of course, he's still married.
The mystery was painfully simple to figure out, and as much as I love Munch, I wish some of the mysteries would involve something besides her sordid past. Yes, it's true--past mistakes will come to bite you in the butt, and by now we get that. I hope the next book is more firmly rooted in Munch's present life.
March 23, 2011
Munch Mancini thought she was finally getting her life together. After spending years addicted to alcohol and drugs she now works as a mechanic doing a job she loves. However, the years she spent strung out on drugs with people who cared little for themselves and less for others had left her many memories she would rather forget. She is raising a little girl now. Not hers, but the daughter of a “friend” who hadn’t made it though to the other side like Munch has been lucky enough to have done. She loves little Asia as if she were her own daughter. The past is the past and she plans to leave it that way.
Then the police find a dead woman in a storm sewer not far from the garage where Munch works. Mace St. John is a policeman but he is also her friend. When he learns that the dead woman is someone from Munch’s past he begins to ask questions. Munch begins to question many things at this time, not just her connection to Jane, the dead woman, but all of her past and how it all somehow ties together. She and the police come to the conclusion that whoever killed Jane will likely come after Munch as well because of something that happened in the past.
There is a lot of suspense and excitement in this book but there are also subtle questions that the main character must face and in the reading we come to understand that we also must face those same questions in our life. At some point, we must choose which way we will live our lives. The author did a great job of writing a fine crime novel but did an even better job of bringing out the choices that we face everyday. We see that where we are today (or where we are NOT today) is simply a result of the choices we make.
Then the police find a dead woman in a storm sewer not far from the garage where Munch works. Mace St. John is a policeman but he is also her friend. When he learns that the dead woman is someone from Munch’s past he begins to ask questions. Munch begins to question many things at this time, not just her connection to Jane, the dead woman, but all of her past and how it all somehow ties together. She and the police come to the conclusion that whoever killed Jane will likely come after Munch as well because of something that happened in the past.
There is a lot of suspense and excitement in this book but there are also subtle questions that the main character must face and in the reading we come to understand that we also must face those same questions in our life. At some point, we must choose which way we will live our lives. The author did a great job of writing a fine crime novel but did an even better job of bringing out the choices that we face everyday. We see that where we are today (or where we are NOT today) is simply a result of the choices we make.
Read
May 28, 2014Unpaid Dues, by Barbara Seranella, a-minus, Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Produced by Audible Inc., downloaded from audible.com.
In this, the sixth Munch Mansini book, Munch finally has to come to terms with something from her past that she has tried to forget for the past ten years. A woman is found severely beaten and murdered and dumped into a storm drain. The police find a picture of Munch in the woman’s crime file, which tells Detective St. John, at least, that Munch had some connection with the crime from the past which may have led to the current murder of the woman involved. Munch is trying to make a good home for her adopted daughter, asia, and she suddenly also has another friend’s son from the past under her roof as well. The current murder harks back to a murder that occurred in which three persons were murdered ten years ago. The only other person involved who is still alive is a very scarey psychopath who Munch does not want to come into contact with because he would be a danger to herself and her family. But Munch is required to come to grips with everything that happened ten years ago, and with the truth about the murders. Very good.
In this, the sixth Munch Mansini book, Munch finally has to come to terms with something from her past that she has tried to forget for the past ten years. A woman is found severely beaten and murdered and dumped into a storm drain. The police find a picture of Munch in the woman’s crime file, which tells Detective St. John, at least, that Munch had some connection with the crime from the past which may have led to the current murder of the woman involved. Munch is trying to make a good home for her adopted daughter, asia, and she suddenly also has another friend’s son from the past under her roof as well. The current murder harks back to a murder that occurred in which three persons were murdered ten years ago. The only other person involved who is still alive is a very scarey psychopath who Munch does not want to come into contact with because he would be a danger to herself and her family. But Munch is required to come to grips with everything that happened ten years ago, and with the truth about the murders. Very good.
September 8, 2007
UNPAID DUES – VG
Barbara Seranella – 6th in series
Mechanic and mother, Munch Mancini hopes that she's finally left her checkered past behind, but when a murdered woman's fingerprints yields a mug shot of Munch, she is forced to confess she once posed as the dead woman, Jane Ferrar, to weasel out of a drunk-driving charge. What she doesn't say is that they were once involved in something much more serious which may destroy the new life she has built.
This is a very good series. If you’ve not read the previous books, this one summarizes Munch’s history, but doesn’t drag down the present story for the rest of us. She is a strong, but vulnerable, character who must always deal with sins of the past.
Barbara Seranella – 6th in series
Mechanic and mother, Munch Mancini hopes that she's finally left her checkered past behind, but when a murdered woman's fingerprints yields a mug shot of Munch, she is forced to confess she once posed as the dead woman, Jane Ferrar, to weasel out of a drunk-driving charge. What she doesn't say is that they were once involved in something much more serious which may destroy the new life she has built.
This is a very good series. If you’ve not read the previous books, this one summarizes Munch’s history, but doesn’t drag down the present story for the rest of us. She is a strong, but vulnerable, character who must always deal with sins of the past.
March 2, 2013
Unpaid Dues, Barbara Seranella's sixth Munch Mancini book. I could hardly put it down. I liked this one more than the last one, the way Munch was involved in this case seemed more natural somehow. It is usually hard to rationalize a civilian who is not a PI as a participant in a police investigation. Munch is a great character, her struggles with the entanglements of her past and her stubborn resistance to her addictions plus her love of Asia, Mace and Carolyn make this series a must read for me. The questions of whether someone is responsible for a crime that was not wittingly committed, culpability after the fact when you didn't expect there to be anything criminal, and being responsible while under the influence are all thought provoking.
April 12, 2007
This is a reread for me, a surprise favorite I picked up somewhere and decided to keep. I enjoy the unusual characters and points of view, enlivening what appears to be a rather mundane crime, at the beginning of the story, and the ending is satisfactorily unexpected without being unbelievable.
June 2, 2017
Another gritty mystery about Miranda "Munch' Mancini, ex-druggie, ex-biker chick, ex-really screwed up female mechanic who has turned her life around, and tries to do the good, right thing for her friends, and yet stay on the sober path.
March 15, 2015
Bad transcription...
As usual, an excellent story, tightly woven and not easily unraveled. The only issue I had was that whoever transcribed the story for an e-book was extremely sloppy, and made mistakes with some words that made sentences confusing.
As usual, an excellent story, tightly woven and not easily unraveled. The only issue I had was that whoever transcribed the story for an e-book was extremely sloppy, and made mistakes with some words that made sentences confusing.
October 31, 2007
She will be missed.
Want to Read
February 6, 2008Munch Mancini bk 6
February 21, 2009
Just OK
Read
January 9, 2010ereader ebook
April 15, 2016
Advance Proof.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews