No Human Involved

Rating:
Summary: A scintillating first effort
Review: Author Barbara Saranella's first novel, NO HUMAN INVOLVED, is an exceptional debut. In it, we have "Munch" Mancini, a street wise, world weary, over-the-top-cynical ex-prostitute and recovering heroin addict, hiding from both a brutal biker and Mace St. John, the latter a street wise and world weary cop investigating a series of murders in the Los Angeles of the 70's. Munch is a prime suspect in one of the slayings. She's also a crackerjack auto mechanic, a skill she utilizes to bring in a paycheck while she lies low. As for Mace, he lives in a lovingly restored, 1927-vintage Pullman car parked on a spur of unused Southern Pacific track in an unprepossessing part of town.

In so many works of this genre, the author attempts to create sympathetic characters, apparently using some arcane formula that only results in very two-dimensional personae. I can't tell you how many crime thrillers I've finished not caring one iota about the story's hero(es). Somehow, in her first time out, Saranella manages to transcend this trap, creating in Munch and Mace people I cared about from the very first page. This is so refreshing!

The plot of NO HUMAN INVOLVED is revealed to the reader in a manner as smooth and sharp as a scalpel's incision lays open the inside of a cadaver during an autopsy. There's even a bit of humor and pathos along the way in Mace's relationship with a new girlfriend, and with his aging father, the latter suffering a mental deterioration following several strokes. The manner in which Mace acquires two dogs near the book's conclusion is particularly amusing. The story's end involves a satisfying plot twist.

Judging from subsequent releases by the same author, Munch is to be the central character in a continuing series. Bravo! I, for one, immediately added Saranella's two latest books to my Wish List.

Rating:
Summary: Strange but satisfying
Review: I didn't enjoy the 70s, and if I'd picked up earler that this story was set in 1977 urban Southern California, I probably would have given it a pass. A fortunate mistake.

Not that Seranella makes me feel nostalgic. If anything, she paints a bleaker picture than I remember. An asphalt lanscape, populated with self-satisfied, bigoted Angelenos, burned out junkies, cynical cops... And yet she forces us to acknowledge a certain strange beauty in this landscape, where strangers, or even enemies, casually help each other out, or a tough garage owner starts a garden in his parking lot, because he can't bear to uproot a struggling tree.

Then there's a cop who ignores orders to stop working on a horrifying serial murder -- but still finds time to look after an aging father and restore the old Pullman rail car he lifes in.

And most of all there's Munch. Junkie, prostitute, thief. The useless scum referred to in the title? Yes and no. Because she's also a genius -- a wizard at fixing cars, a savant who drinks up the contents of books the way ordinary people drink water. The best parts of this book are about her struggles. With addiction -- which she imagines to be an alter ego, whispering in her ear, "just a taste". With a life stacked against her. With an appalling sense of herself, that horrifying personal dissociation you see in survivors of abuse. And in the end, she's the one who saves the day with a momentous, heroic act.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel
Review: I've never posted a customer review before but feel compelledto post one for this book. I started reading it last night and justfinished this morning. I agree completely with the editorial review above from Poisoned Pen: "Every so often a first novel is so strong, so original and so well written that it is obviously the beginning of an important career. Seranella has written such a book." I'm now reading the second book in the series and will order the third and latest one today. I hope to be reading about Munch and Mace for many more years.

Rating:
Summary: More authentic on auto mechanics than dialog
Review: It is great writing and I pulled an all-nighter until I'd finished it. Wonderful technical detail, from botany to cars. The dialog is not Elmore Leonard standard. No drug-addicted prostitute I have ever known (and I've known a few) ever expressed herself in such terms as "hypothetically speaking couldn't the information the police sought be obtained over the phone." I liked finding that a witty and hard-boiled crime writer included a few decent, helpful, effective, and even sincerely religious, characters.

Rating:
Summary: Munch Comes Alive
Review: No Human Involved marked Barbara Seranella's debut of her Munch character. This book is terrific. Munch is a woman with piles of problems in her past, yet she's, in essence, a good gal. The mystery reads well, and this entire series is picking up speed with each fresh novel.

Rating:
Summary: Munch is great, but the others are horrible
Review: Serannelle's mystery has an interesting main character at least, a homeless woman, a desperate junkie, who is, of course, the main suspect. Other than that bit of originality, this is nothing but trite tripe.

As far as the Venice PD is concerned, the murder of lowlife dealer ``Flower George'' Mancini is a clear case of AVA, NHI- -``a****** versus a******, no human involved.'' So it's no big deal when Mancini's daughter Munch, the chief suspect in his killing, gives Sgt. Mace St. John the slip and disappears into the San Fernando Valley. But when the gun that shot Mancini is linked to a grisly series of dismemberments, Mace wishes he'd paid closer attention to Munch's moves while he had the chance. Even though he squeezes some personal details of her horrible life (her father got her hooked and repeatedly sold her for drugs) out of her attractive probation officer, he has no way of tracing her to Happy Jack's Auto Repair, where she's working as a lippy mechanic and assiduously building the new paper trail that'll bury her old identity for good. While Mace is wrestling with his own father's problems, he has no compassion or understanding for others.

I would be interested in seeing another story with Munch, but Mace St. John can take a hike.

Rating:
Summary: VERY ORIGINAL WRITING
Review: The title and book cover are very deceiving at first glance. I had picked the paperback up three times and put it back before reading a few of the pages. It gives the impression of being a sci-fi/horror book. Instead, I was rewarded with a good, solid suspense mystery. Very good writing,original characters with humor to boot. Looking forward to reading "NO OFFENSE INTENDED.' Keep them coming, Barbara, 'cause you have a fan here.

Rating:
Summary: One of my top 3 for 1997!
Review: This is a wonderful first novel which is chock full of story(s), and great characters you really root for. There is something for everyone here from S/M to AA to Alzheimers, child abuse, drugs, motorcycle gangs, car chases, guns, a non-hokey romance,and even pets adopted from an animal shelter! Seranella's narrative flow keeps it all in the air and moving. She makes the whole thing almost believable, and she caught me with a nifty surprise ending. Despair is everywhere, but so is hope, and the reader is lead to believe these wonderful characters are headed for redemption. This is one of the top three books I've read this year, and I recommend it highly. P.S. It even has narrow margins!!!

Rating:
Summary: It was thrilling and was fast paced and educational.
Review: This is another boonie dog book review by Wolfie and Kansas. We eagerly looked forward to reading Barbara Seranella's novel "No Human Involved". Both the title and the fact that the main character is named "Munch" gave rise to certain expectations.

Alas, it turned out that nearly all of the characters in this novel are noncanine animals of primate derivation. Even Munch is human. This novel has two saving graces, however. First, one of the lead characters, a police detective, does save two dogs from being "put to sleep" at the "humane shelter". Second, "No Human Involved" may be the best first novel in the crime fiction genre that we have ever read--and we had to think twice about including the word "first" in this sentence.