What do you think?
Rate this book
North Beach Mystery #2
The Big Boom
Edgar Award--winning author Domenic Stansberry is known for his intensity---his dark thrillers, thick with suspense, in which the differences between good and evil are not so easy to decipher. The Big Boom is just such a novel: set in San Francisco, at the peak of the high-tech frenzy, just before the technology markets and the California economy all go bust.
The Big Boom features the return of Dante Mancuso, the hero of Stansberry's Chasing the Dragon, an obsessive private investigator working the streets of his San Francisco neighborhood. He is a dark-eyed, complex figure---melancholic, tender, with fierce, aquiline good looks---known to neighborhood familiars by his nickname: the Pelican. Dante's nickname---like the demons that haunt his personal life---comes from his family on account of his tenacity, and his large, Sicilian nose.
Now Dante has settled into a new apartment in North Beach, hoping to put those demons behind him and patch together a life with his longtime lover, Marilyn Visconte, but before long he is approached by an old North Beach family in hopes that he will find their missing daughter---a young woman, a former sweetheart, with whom Dante had been involved years before---and his newfound peace is shattered.
Dante's search for Angela Antonelli, though, has hardly begun when the corpse of a young woman is dredged from the bay. He soldiers on in his investigation, fearful that the missing woman and the corpse are one and the same.
His search for the missing woman---even after he has been called off the case---becomes an obsession that alienates his current lover, but Dante follows the ghostly trail anyway into the heart of the financial district and the underside of the dot-com revolution. It is a quest rendered in the staccato prose of the genre, a style that---in Stansberry's hands---takes on a dreamlike cast, hallucinatory at times, blurring the lines between reality and Dante's own dark nostalgia.
The Big Boom is a tightrope of a novel, a taut story about familial duplicity, personal greed, and the desperate pull of love even across the divide of memory.
The Big Boom features the return of Dante Mancuso, the hero of Stansberry's Chasing the Dragon, an obsessive private investigator working the streets of his San Francisco neighborhood. He is a dark-eyed, complex figure---melancholic, tender, with fierce, aquiline good looks---known to neighborhood familiars by his nickname: the Pelican. Dante's nickname---like the demons that haunt his personal life---comes from his family on account of his tenacity, and his large, Sicilian nose.
Now Dante has settled into a new apartment in North Beach, hoping to put those demons behind him and patch together a life with his longtime lover, Marilyn Visconte, but before long he is approached by an old North Beach family in hopes that he will find their missing daughter---a young woman, a former sweetheart, with whom Dante had been involved years before---and his newfound peace is shattered.
Dante's search for Angela Antonelli, though, has hardly begun when the corpse of a young woman is dredged from the bay. He soldiers on in his investigation, fearful that the missing woman and the corpse are one and the same.
His search for the missing woman---even after he has been called off the case---becomes an obsession that alienates his current lover, but Dante follows the ghostly trail anyway into the heart of the financial district and the underside of the dot-com revolution. It is a quest rendered in the staccato prose of the genre, a style that---in Stansberry's hands---takes on a dreamlike cast, hallucinatory at times, blurring the lines between reality and Dante's own dark nostalgia.
The Big Boom is a tightrope of a novel, a taut story about familial duplicity, personal greed, and the desperate pull of love even across the divide of memory.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2006
1 person is currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Domenic Stansberry
24 books44 followersDomenic Stansberry is an Edgar Award winning novelist known for his dark, innovative crime novels. His latest novel, The White Devil, tells the story of a young American woman in Rome, an aspiring actress, who— together with her too charming brother— is implicated in a series of crimes dating back to her childhood days in Texas. Stansberry is also the author of the North Beach Mystery Series, which has won wide praise for its portrayal of the ethnic and political subcultures of San Francisco. Books from the series include The Ancient Rain, named several years after its original publication as one of the best crime novels of the decade by Booklist.
An earlier novel, The Confession, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for its portrayal of a Marin County psychologist accused of murdering his mistress.
Stansberry grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in a small town north of that city with his wife, the poet Gillian Conoley, and their daughter Gillis.
An earlier novel, The Confession, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for its portrayal of a Marin County psychologist accused of murdering his mistress.
Stansberry grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in a small town north of that city with his wife, the poet Gillian Conoley, and their daughter Gillis.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 28, 2010
This top-notch PI noir is set in San Francisco when the heady dot com bubble popped (~2001). Lots of Italian history and cultured is steeped around the North Beach area. The Chandleresque mood and metaphors underpin the bleak detective story with perfection. Immensely rewarding and a powerful read.
November 30, 2020
“But sometimes people just did not want to bury their dead.”
This is a melancholy read, full of sadness and death, but I really liked it! The first three pages are amazing, and set the tone for the book. Dante is investigating the death of an old friend/lover, and the ghosts of his, and his neighborhood's past, follow him everywhere. Everything, and everyone, in this story seem maudlin - remembering the old days, while the new San Francisco has changed in ways that are no longer recognizable. The time period of this tale is right at the precipice when the dotcom boom went bust, and The City was irrevocably changed. For the worse, most 'old timers' believe.
Like I said, I really enjoyed reading this, as I did the first one, and I'm eager to read number three. Dante is such a strong character, and I love all the Italian life detailed on these pages. And I've always been a sucker for anything in, or on, North Beach!
This is a melancholy read, full of sadness and death, but I really liked it! The first three pages are amazing, and set the tone for the book. Dante is investigating the death of an old friend/lover, and the ghosts of his, and his neighborhood's past, follow him everywhere. Everything, and everyone, in this story seem maudlin - remembering the old days, while the new San Francisco has changed in ways that are no longer recognizable. The time period of this tale is right at the precipice when the dotcom boom went bust, and The City was irrevocably changed. For the worse, most 'old timers' believe.
Like I said, I really enjoyed reading this, as I did the first one, and I'm eager to read number three. Dante is such a strong character, and I love all the Italian life detailed on these pages. And I've always been a sucker for anything in, or on, North Beach!
August 7, 2018
Better than the previous book. Strange ending.
September 6, 2023
Melancholic detective and dark AF.
May 21, 2010
PROTAGONIST: Dante Mancuso, PI
SETTING: San Francisco (North Beach)
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 4.0
Domenic Stansberry has been acclaimed as a writer of the "new noir" ever since the publication of his first book, THE LAST DAYS OF IL DUCE. He has a unique style which is hard to describe. It's spare but evocative, Chandleresque with a more sardonic point of view. THE BIG BOOM is the second book in the Dante Mancuso series set in San Francisco, and it perfectly captures the Big Boom world of venture capitalists and heated investment opportunities, most of which flame out spectacularly.
Mancuso assists a crusty old private investigator named Cicero and is one of his more prized operatives. Independent, intelligent and intuitive, he rarely fails to complete an assignment. He's obsessive about finding the truth. This case involves a young woman who has gone missing. As it turns out, Dante was involved with Angela Antonelli many years earlier. There are still some ties to his heart, and he cannot reconcile what he knows of her and the manner of her death. Even after Angela's father dismisses the PI agency, Dante continues to investigate. Angela worked for a start-up company that experienced huge success; Dante feels certain that there's a connection between that job and her demise. He becomes even more certain of that when other employees of that firm die under suspicious circumstances. The truth behind Angela's death is quite horrifying, and something that the reader neither expects nor celebrates.
In addition to crafting a well-told and timely tale, Stansberry excels at delineating conflicting worlds that exist side by side, but very different in their principles and values. There are the hustling business types, riding a wave of financial opportunity, coexisting with the solid old denizens of the North Beach neighborhood. There's the feisty Italian woman running a bar where the old timers congregate, the old Italians who were friends with Dante's father or part of the neighborhood power structure from his youth. And then there are the hot shots in their tailored suits and expensive cars.
Fans of hardboiled crime fiction (and I count myself in that category) will find THE BIG BOOM to be a lean and atmospheric book, yet complex and thoughtful at the same time. I'm not sure I'd call it "noir", but that's an argument for another day.
SETTING: San Francisco (North Beach)
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 4.0
Domenic Stansberry has been acclaimed as a writer of the "new noir" ever since the publication of his first book, THE LAST DAYS OF IL DUCE. He has a unique style which is hard to describe. It's spare but evocative, Chandleresque with a more sardonic point of view. THE BIG BOOM is the second book in the Dante Mancuso series set in San Francisco, and it perfectly captures the Big Boom world of venture capitalists and heated investment opportunities, most of which flame out spectacularly.
Mancuso assists a crusty old private investigator named Cicero and is one of his more prized operatives. Independent, intelligent and intuitive, he rarely fails to complete an assignment. He's obsessive about finding the truth. This case involves a young woman who has gone missing. As it turns out, Dante was involved with Angela Antonelli many years earlier. There are still some ties to his heart, and he cannot reconcile what he knows of her and the manner of her death. Even after Angela's father dismisses the PI agency, Dante continues to investigate. Angela worked for a start-up company that experienced huge success; Dante feels certain that there's a connection between that job and her demise. He becomes even more certain of that when other employees of that firm die under suspicious circumstances. The truth behind Angela's death is quite horrifying, and something that the reader neither expects nor celebrates.
In addition to crafting a well-told and timely tale, Stansberry excels at delineating conflicting worlds that exist side by side, but very different in their principles and values. There are the hustling business types, riding a wave of financial opportunity, coexisting with the solid old denizens of the North Beach neighborhood. There's the feisty Italian woman running a bar where the old timers congregate, the old Italians who were friends with Dante's father or part of the neighborhood power structure from his youth. And then there are the hot shots in their tailored suits and expensive cars.
Fans of hardboiled crime fiction (and I count myself in that category) will find THE BIG BOOM to be a lean and atmospheric book, yet complex and thoughtful at the same time. I'm not sure I'd call it "noir", but that's an argument for another day.
September 12, 2009
The Big Boom is, of course, a murder mystery. You aren't positive from the beginning, but there is at least the possibility that there is more than one victim and that there might be a mistaken identity with regard to at least one of those victims. Even so, the mystery isn't too mysterious. Rather, it's uncomfortable. You are pretty sure who is responsible very early on. You are pretty sure that no one, including the private detective protagonist known as "The Pelican," is going to be satisfied with the outcome.
The Big Boom is a realistic novel. It captures an environment (San Francisco downtown and SOMA) where I lived and worked during a particular era (the dot-bomb era) where stock manipulation scams were being worked in the industry that I covered (computer entertainment as a subset of computer technology). It captures a transition, North Beach's devolution from the classic "Little City" of Italy/Sicily to different ethnicity, decay, and redevelopment. I remembered those hidden bocce ball courts, those great restaurants and bars (if not the names, the neighborhood), and those industry PR parties that are described in this book.
But for all of its intensity and all of its verisimilitude, I'm not sure it would have held my interest if it hadn't been a nostalgic tour of my own past. I think that's why I found it available at a library sale for a quarter and I think that's why, even though the author is an Edgar Alan Poe winner, I hadn't heard of him before.
His writing is straightforward and, for someone who lived through the times he was typing about, evocative enough. But if the mystery had taken place in Burlington, Vermont or Grand Rapids, Michigan (both places I've never been), I don't think it would have worked for me. The characters are credible, the plot is realistic, and the outcome is logical. Yet, somewhere during my reading, the novel felt like one of those old houses the pioneering Italians and Sicilians were trying to sell. Without my personal prejudice, I would have rated this two stars. With my nostalgia trip, it's worth three.
The Big Boom is a realistic novel. It captures an environment (San Francisco downtown and SOMA) where I lived and worked during a particular era (the dot-bomb era) where stock manipulation scams were being worked in the industry that I covered (computer entertainment as a subset of computer technology). It captures a transition, North Beach's devolution from the classic "Little City" of Italy/Sicily to different ethnicity, decay, and redevelopment. I remembered those hidden bocce ball courts, those great restaurants and bars (if not the names, the neighborhood), and those industry PR parties that are described in this book.
But for all of its intensity and all of its verisimilitude, I'm not sure it would have held my interest if it hadn't been a nostalgic tour of my own past. I think that's why I found it available at a library sale for a quarter and I think that's why, even though the author is an Edgar Alan Poe winner, I hadn't heard of him before.
His writing is straightforward and, for someone who lived through the times he was typing about, evocative enough. But if the mystery had taken place in Burlington, Vermont or Grand Rapids, Michigan (both places I've never been), I don't think it would have worked for me. The characters are credible, the plot is realistic, and the outcome is logical. Yet, somewhere during my reading, the novel felt like one of those old houses the pioneering Italians and Sicilians were trying to sell. Without my personal prejudice, I would have rated this two stars. With my nostalgia trip, it's worth three.
February 7, 2012
I enjoyed reading The Confession, so this was a major disappointment. Stansberry's knowledge of North Beach may be passable (I'm not knowledgeable enough to call him out on it), but his description of other San Francisco and Bay Area geography is at times sloppy and in at least one instance downright wrong. (I don't understand how someone who claims to have lived in the city can get so many details wrong -- including some that could have easily been checked online, such as where the Transamerica Pyramid is located.) In a bigger sense the story is a fraud, too, in that it proposes capturing the tech boom in the Silicon Valley, but that locale and subject is simply paid lip service. There is no reward for the reader patient enough to make it beyond those two stumbling points. The plot is uninteresting, romances are hinted at but left unexplored, at least one prominent red herring is left unexplained, and the ending of the story is telegraphed before the halfway point of the book. The optimistic reader might assume there will be a twist in the end. There is not.
This was so far below the caliber of The Confession, I'm truly wondering whether the same man wrote both books. Did he need to scramble to meet a publishing deadline at the last minute? Maybe that's the real mystery here.
This was so far below the caliber of The Confession, I'm truly wondering whether the same man wrote both books. Did he need to scramble to meet a publishing deadline at the last minute? Maybe that's the real mystery here.
August 6, 2010
Every few minutes of listening to this book, I found myself thinking "Dang! This is GOOD!" This author is a wonderful find (Thanks Ed)
Stansberry REALLY knows how to write a scene and weave a story that keeps the reader/listener guessing.
Of course, Jonathan Davis is so talented! His narration adds so much to the story.
The spoiler part? Well, it isn't much of a real spoiler.
There are 4-5 scenes in the story when terrible things happen to animals. I can't handle that. I don't mind if people meet violence in a story but I just can't handle the animals being treated so cruelly.
If I can find another of Stansberry's books that doesn't have that part in it, he will become a favorite. But one more hurt fur-ball and I'm outta heah.
Stansberry REALLY knows how to write a scene and weave a story that keeps the reader/listener guessing.
Of course, Jonathan Davis is so talented! His narration adds so much to the story.
The spoiler part? Well, it isn't much of a real spoiler.
There are 4-5 scenes in the story when terrible things happen to animals. I can't handle that. I don't mind if people meet violence in a story but I just can't handle the animals being treated so cruelly.
If I can find another of Stansberry's books that doesn't have that part in it, he will become a favorite. But one more hurt fur-ball and I'm outta heah.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2014
I love the way Domenic Stansberry writes. The Confession was one of the best mysteries I've ever read, and The Big Boom, though far different, is just as good. The way he juxtaposes new world technology with old world Italian ways is brilliant and poignant, and the pace, while teasingly deliberate, is never slow. I'd knock off half a star if I could for the way some things resolved in the end, but that's a quibble. Great book, great read.
September 23, 2010
I like this book, but it does differ from detective stories I'm used to, in that the people ultimately responsible for the crimes are never brought to justice, just the ones who actually did in the victims. Also in this book, there's an discarded journal which precipitated the deaths, sort of like the one in his previous book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2008
This is the second novel in a mystery series set largely in San Francisco's old Italian section, North Beach. I don't know North Beach very well but I know Italian-Americans and Stansberry nails us, older generation, my generation, the whole thing. Well worth reading.
July 9, 2009
Good mystery set in San Francisco.
September 5, 2010
New author for me, was a recommendation from someone on Goodreads. I will definitely read his other books.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews