Graham Powell was kind enough to send me a copy of this e-collection of short stories. As you probably guessed, the protagonists are not quite heroes. Most of them come to bad, if very interesting, ends.
Take Tommy Roccaforte, the main man in our current story. The witness protection program has just dumped him far from his home in Staten Island, supplying with a nothing job in a second-hand bookstore. But -- and here is what I love -- Tommy approaches the business like the wise guy that he is. Who is the competition? And how can we destroy them? So the big box chain bookstore had better watch out. The story is witty, with big hints of Elmore Leonard.
Having said that, I have to register a big complaint: I don't buy the ending at all. Some of the choices made by people around Tommy don't make any sense to me, and one of those characters is just too paper-thin for the role.
You can find a better ending in Powell's "The Leap," in the same collection, but it doesn't have a concept as dazzling as "Grace."
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