The dark fantastic

John Milano #2

by Stanley Ellin

Book by Ellin, Stanley

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Stanley Bernard Ellin was a mystery writer of short stories and novels. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award three times and the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere once, and in 1981 he was awarded with the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

Reviews

[Jean-marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book by Stanley Ellin I've come across and it was written around the twilight of his life. It turned out to be rather good! It would have been a lot less gripping if half of it weren't devoted to the testimonial of the bitter, twisted and dangerously intelligent Professor Kerwan. Without that, it would just have been a pretty average thriller, I think. But what most average thrillers lack is perspective. I always want to know what's going on in the mind of a threatening antagonist and here we have half the book devoted to his ruminations and inner monologue, delivered into a taperecorder and predating by years the sort of youtube testimonials that seem to be quite common among sociopaths about to go off the rails today. The sociopath in question here is also racially motivated, and that's just as relevant today as it was in the early 80s, if not more so. I found his diatribe to be really gripping, caustic stuff, poured onto the page with unsettlingly genuine seeming clarity.

By contrast, John Milano was not a terribly interesting hero, but he's very far from the worst of his sort that I've read in the many thrillers that come across my work desk for example. I like that Ellin doesn't pull any punches and doesn't make Milano out to be a ridiculously capable Mary Sue, nor is it that easy for him to "get the girl" at the end; though he does "get the girl" it seems like it's earned. Christine is a pretty cool chick as well. it's maybe even a little surprising that an old-school writer approaching seventy years of age was able to depict a contemporary young black woman with so much class and dignity. Worth a look, and I'll be finding more of Stanley's books at some point.

[Plagued by Visions · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the 1980s, this was probably a progressive book. But looking at it today, the racist and misogynistic tropes were cringeworthy and at times appalling. I barely finished it, and I have no recollection of why I added this to my list in the first place.

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

In a desolate part of Brooklyn, a retired history professor plots mass murder
The withered old man speaks into a tape recorder. This is not a confession, he explains, but a presentation. He is Charles Witter Kirwan, a former academic who has lived his whole life in the same house and watched his childhood neighborhood turn from white to black. Now, stricken with terminal cancer, Kirwan has decided to fight back against his neighbors. His may be the ravings of a lunatic racist, but the dynamite in his basement is real. He is going to blow up the apartment building next door—and take some sixty African Americans with it.
Private investigator John Milano is on the trail of a stolen painting when he catches wind of Kirwan’s mad plan. He has forty-eight hours to stop the bombing, and to keep those innocents from following this twisted, hateful man into death.

This book was first published in 1983 - and you can tell. Not to say that that is necessarily a bad thing, but you can instantly spot the different styles (not to mention fashion accessories!) from a period not so long agao - but long enough to stand out to even the casual reader.

The story was okay, in a looking-back-in-time kinda thing. Compared to a lot of thriller authors today, this book does lack some polish and consistency but, having said that, I think there were some elements to this tale that would work just as well now as it must have done back in the Eighties.

The character of Charles Kirwan is by far the standout in this story - he is creepy and his incessant ramblings filled me with some real dislike for him, even knowing full well that he is fictional. I also liked Christine - she was well-drawn (especially for an elderly white guy as Ellin was when he wrote this) and really added some real class to the cast. That side of this story really worked for me. However, the run-of-the-mill P.I. Milano was just so uninteresting that I really found myself ignoring him. And his relationship with Christine was just a little uncomfortable for me.

All in all, a decent enough story but lacking a little bit of today's polish...


Paul
ARH

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Witter Kirwan’s family has lived in Brooklyn (at 409 Witter) for so long that the street he lives on is named after his family. He lives in an immaculately kept twelve room private house (the last one on the block) on a street that is now full of run-down apartment houses.

Once, this was a neighborhood of country estates and farms. That is until his grandfather built the first apartment house at 407. It was a modern marvel when it opened, but now it’s seen better day. Kirwan has grown to hate the minority people who are now his tenants because of their lack of respect for him and the building.

The former infantry Captain and Professor of History, at a local college, has found out he is dying of cancer. He seeks revenge for all the slights and imagined slights he has suffered over the years. He has decided not to wait for death, but to kill himself and all of his tenants in a cataclysm of destruction.

Having learned demolition during WW 2, he is going to wire the building with dynamite and bring the building down on them and himself. He has left a collection of tapes explaining his psychotic reasoning behind what he plans.

John Milano is a PI who is working on a case involving stolen paintings. He gets involved with the receptionist (Chris Bailey) of the gallery where the paintings are being prepared so that they can be smuggled out of the country. Milano could have been a ‘wise guy’, but decided to work on the ‘right’ side of the law.

The receptionist is a black actress who just happens to live next door to Kirwan.
Milano is trying to convince Chris that inter-racial dating is not a big thing in 1980s New York City, but Chris isn’t convinced. She thinks he’s just in it for a cheap thrill, but he’s serious. Once he finds out about Kirwan’s plan, he has forty-eight hours to stop him, and keep the painting from being exported.

Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twin plots – private investigator John Milano trying to uncover the theft of two rare paintings – and a crazy, cancer riddled apartment owner slowly placing dynamite in the closed dumbwaiter shaft of his moldering apartment house – help make this an outstanding thriller, laced with romance, hatred, cleverness, and slowly building tension as these two stories reach their collision.

John Milano, a free romancing, free spending, sharp detective, shrewdly discovers the hiding place of the stolen canvases, as he falls head over heals with a gorgeous African American woman who easily gives him a run for his money.

At the same time, a retired professor who grew up in a mansion next door to a slum like apartment he owns and now rents to mainly African Americans plots with twisted hate to blow his renters up with his neighboring apartment house and use his taped suicide confession as a media bonanza that will pay for making his mansion into a museum.

Characters with depth, vivid description, sweet romance, and increasing suspense make this another masterpiece by one of our Grand Masters of Mysteries – one that can’t be beat.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has two stories. One is about a private investigator, Johnny Milano, who is looking for stolen paintings. The other story is about a crotchety, cancer ridden old man who is planning to blow up the rotting apartment building that he owns next door. With the people in it. The stories merge through the character, Christine Bailey, who hires the investigator to spy on her sister.

I had to skip many of the pages where the old man was just rambling and some of his antics were just way too wrong for me.

The story about the missing paintings definitely held my interest. The conclusion of the book had my heart racing and was well written. I just did not like the old man. Other than that, it was a good story.

Thank you Open Road Media and Net Galley for providing me with the e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Ann Hendrix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not for the faint of heart in terms of content about a violently racist landlord in NYC. Ellin's publisher since 1958, Random House, refused to publish it. It's a PI tale that is told in exchanging points of view between the cancer ridden landlord talking about the black residents in his apt building he intends to bomb, and the investigator talking about his art heist case that leads him eventually right into the bomb plot. The book is really great in detail and description of the city and the people, and is very much worth a read.