Street Money: A Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Lazy
Review: As a Philadelphian, I was excited to read this book, a mystery seeped in Philadelphia's corrupt politics by a local journalist. This didn't cut it. For all its mentions of locale, this book had no sense of place. It could have taken place in Cleveland.
The characters had no heart. The plot limped along thanks to a seemingly endless series of convenient coincidences, constantly painting itself into a corner and suddenly finding a secret trap door. After all that, the ending was a rushed little chapter tacked on without tying up half the loose ends. It was like author Bill Kent just got sick of writing the thing and stopped. Which is pretty much how I felt reading it.
If visiting Philly by book, do yourself a favor and read all three of Steve Lopez's novels instead. Heck, read W.C Fields's tomb stone.

Rating:
Summary: A Kick-{IT} Top-Notch Read
Review: Bill Kent's tough-as-nails heroine, Andy Cosicki is just right for the 21st Century. She's feminine enough to be vulnerable and tough enough to fight her way out of any mess. And she's smart, which is also true of the writing. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: IT'S A WISE CHILD...
Review: Street Money is the most interesting mystery that I have read thus far this year. It is also my first brush with magic realism in the mystery genre. How else can one describe a plot fueled largely by coincidence and felicitous encounter? It starts with the death of Benny "Lunch" Cosicki, successful facilitator of labor problems in Philadelphia and unfolds like an intricate piece of Celtic embroidery.

This is not to suggest that there is any lack of violence or derring-do in Kent's book. Much of the latter is supplied by Benny's daughter, Andy, a fresh-minted Penn graduate who is determined to find out why her father died. Her mentor is an agoraphobic obituary writer name Shep Ladderback at the tabloid Philadelphia Press where Andy has just been hired. He helps her explore the web of Cosicki's relationships which began in an orphanage and stretch from the blue collar neighborhood of Redmonton where Benny tended bar and met Andy's mother to Philadelphia's Main Line.

I hope Kent gives us more Ladderback and Cosiski collaborations.