Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Cliff Walk-Bruce DeSilva

Cliff Walk


Bruce DeSilva

Forge, May 22 2012, $24.95

ISBN: 9780765332370



In Pascoag, Cosmo Scalici owner of Scalici Recycling’s farm that feeds waste to pigs notices what looks like a child’s hand amidst the trash. Before he can act, a pig eats the hand. The pig is slaughtered and an autopsy affirms Cosmos’ fears.



Someone is shot on Newport’s Cliff Walk. The victim falls off the Cliff Walk to his death.

State Police Captain Steve Parisi refuses to release the identity of the victim.



Providence Dispatch reporter Liam Mulligan covers both stories. He believes the pig recycle plant was used to cover a crime involving children and feels certain the Cliff Walk diver is pornographer and strip club owner Sal Maniella. Liam begins to connect the two incidents as he believes a vigilante is assassinating low life predators running a child porn ring. If his boss Edward Anthony Mason IV’s dying paper lives long enough, albeit a couple of weeks or so, he plans to break a converged super story. State AG Fiona “Attila the Nun” McNerney tells Liam to back off, Maniella’s bodyguards warns him to stay away from their dead boss’ daughter and his wife Dorcas continues to aflame his ulcer.



Filled with blood and gore, this is an exciting Rhode Island investigative thriller built on the premise of legalized prostitution, which was true in the state until 2010 when it became banned. Providence shines as it did in Mulligan’s first journalistic stew (see Rogue Island) while the comparisons between the dying newspaper and the dying porn industry enhance a strong mystery.



Harriet Klausner.







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