Blog Tour: Dialogues of a Crime by John Manos

Author: John Manos
Publisher: Amika Press
Date of publication: July 2013

In this crime drama, Michael Pollitz must decide whether to protect the mobster who has protected him.

When Mike, a college student in 1972 Illinois, is arrested on drug charges, his father insists he use a public defender. His childhood friend’s father, Dom Calabria, head of the Outfit in Chicago, wants to help Mike by providing a first-rate lawyer, but Mike goes with his father’s wishes. The outcome is a plea bargain for a short stay in Astoria Adult Correctional Facility—but after he’s brutally beaten and raped by three inmates, Mike spends most of his sentence in the infirmary. He doesn’t give up his assailants’ names but threatens their lives right before he’s set to be released. When Mike is picked up by the head of the mob, people notice.

Flash forward to 1994, when Detective Larry Klinger begins investigating the murders of two former Astoria inmates who were violently killed shortly after being released. An informant—the third man who beat Mike—tells Klinger that the murders were committed by Calabria, the kingpin whom Klinger would like to see taken down. Klinger investigates, coming in contact with Mike, and the two form a friendship. When Klinger realizes that Mike will never give up Calabria, he begins to wonder whether it’s even worth investigating the murders of such evil men.

Dialogues of a Crime was not the suspenseful thriller that I was hoping I would get.  Honestly, I thought the book was very slow and not really engaging. I never got the feeling of mystery or suspense that I was hoping to get.  I found myself putting it down in favor of other books.  Never a good sign.  The book starts in 1972 with the arrest of Michael, a quiet college kid, who happened to show an undercover cop the room of a drug dealer.  In a sweep of the campus, he is taken into custody as an accessory to the dealer.  His father refuses the possibility of a good lawyer in favor of a public defender who subsequently convinces Michael to plead guilty.  For what?  I think that is where I had a hard time buying into the story.  Any two-bit lawyer would have been able to get those charges dropped, even in 1972.   

The story went down hill after I read about what happened to Michael in prison.  I felt so bad for him because he never should have been there in the first place.  I found myself not caring if the murderers of the men who assaulted him were ever caught, even 20 years later.  If you ask me, they got what they deserved. Because of this, the book really lost interest for me. I didn't like the cop or DA who tried to uncover the truth and I found myself rooting for Michael and his mob friends. 

The book has gotten a lot of good reviews, so I am clearly in the minority.  

About the author:

John K. Manos was a magazine editor in Chicago for 20 years. Since 2001 he has earned his living as a Knox College. Dialogues of a Crime is his first novel.

writer, editor, and occasional musician. He is a graduate of

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TOUR STOPS:

Monday, May 5th:  Simply Stacie

Wednesday, May 7th:  Bookish Ardour - review

Thursday, May 8th:  Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Sunday, May 11th: Bookish Ardour - guest post

Monday, May 12th:  Reading Reality

Wednesday, May 14th:  Patricia’s Wisdom

Thursday, May 15th:  Bound by Words

Monday, May 19th:  A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, May 21st:  From the TBR Pile

Thursday, May 22nd:  My Bookshelf

Tuesday, May 27th:  Books a la Mode – guest post/giveaway

Thursday, May 29th:  Crime Book Club