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Eddie's World
Eddie Senta has a problem. His attractive second wife, a highly successful marketing research executive who hears her biological clock loudly ticking, wants a baby. She also wants Eddie to clean up his act. Their marriage is going bad.
Nothing’s going great for Eddie, in fact. His stints as a firecracker word processor in the legitimate business world mostly bore him, and the kick he once got running for the mob has fizzled into dull efficiency. Maybe Eddie is suffering the effects of a midlife crisis, like his wife’s therapist says.
Dogged by the feeling that his world is daily shrinking, Eddie seizes the opportunity, when it presents itself, to make an easy score and at the same time to help out a friend. Not that Eddie needs the five grand he figures to make on the deal, he longs for the thrill—and the rejuvenation of his stale fortyish self—that a quick, uncomplicated robbery might bring.
What it brings instead is disaster. The robbery’s a bust, and Eddie finds himself not only implicated in a case of triple murder but also entangled in an increasingly dangerous contest with the FBI, a ruthless killer under federal witness protection, two New York City homicide detectives, and a Russian mobster.
Shrewdly plotted, hotly paced, and often humorous, this high-voltage crime novel hurtles Eddie into a lot more excitement than he bargained form, as his crisis turns into a matter of midlife or death.
Nothing’s going great for Eddie, in fact. His stints as a firecracker word processor in the legitimate business world mostly bore him, and the kick he once got running for the mob has fizzled into dull efficiency. Maybe Eddie is suffering the effects of a midlife crisis, like his wife’s therapist says.
Dogged by the feeling that his world is daily shrinking, Eddie seizes the opportunity, when it presents itself, to make an easy score and at the same time to help out a friend. Not that Eddie needs the five grand he figures to make on the deal, he longs for the thrill—and the rejuvenation of his stale fortyish self—that a quick, uncomplicated robbery might bring.
What it brings instead is disaster. The robbery’s a bust, and Eddie finds himself not only implicated in a case of triple murder but also entangled in an increasingly dangerous contest with the FBI, a ruthless killer under federal witness protection, two New York City homicide detectives, and a Russian mobster.
Shrewdly plotted, hotly paced, and often humorous, this high-voltage crime novel hurtles Eddie into a lot more excitement than he bargained form, as his crisis turns into a matter of midlife or death.
241 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 2001
About the author
Charlie Stella
24 books27 followersCarmelo Stella is an author long familiar with the street life of New York City, which figures substantially in his writing. His work includes plays, performed off-off-Broadway, his debut novel called Eddie's World and Jimmy Bench-press, also published by Hale. He lives in New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 27, 2018
In his book “Eddie’s World’ by Charlie Stella we peek into the life of Eddie Senta. Eddie is a low level crook and part time word-processing employee that has a number of problems. Eddie is married to a successful corporate executive, Diane, whose biological clock is ticking. Diane wants to have a baby with Eddie. Eddie already has a son from his first marriage and he doesn’t want another kid. So Diane, with the advice from her therapist, is looking for an acceptable sperm donor.
Eddie who has decided he wants out of his mob ties and out of boredom decides to pull one more, last, and easy robbery, stealing the computers from the office where he currently is employed for his day job. However, his day-job is just a smoke screen for his nightly activities. By night, he breaks into office buildings to rob. It’s an easy and sure thing.Then he will retire.
“Eddie’s World” mixes a caper novel, some noir, and mid-life crisis problems. Add to that mix the Russian Mob, a recently released hitman under FBI protection, and a couple of ‘Toody and Muldoon’ cop characters and you get a great mixture of a novel.
This is Charlie Stella ‘s first book and the first of his that I have read. It defiantly will not be the last. I read that Mr. Stella writes ‘off Broadway’ plays and that background has obviously assisted in his abilities to keep the story moving at an exciting and fast pace. If I was asked to compare him to another author, my first choice would be Donald Westlake and his Dortmunder character. Yet Mr. Stella goes beyond some of Westlake’s boundaries. All to the good.
Eddie who has decided he wants out of his mob ties and out of boredom decides to pull one more, last, and easy robbery, stealing the computers from the office where he currently is employed for his day job. However, his day-job is just a smoke screen for his nightly activities. By night, he breaks into office buildings to rob. It’s an easy and sure thing.Then he will retire.
“Eddie’s World” mixes a caper novel, some noir, and mid-life crisis problems. Add to that mix the Russian Mob, a recently released hitman under FBI protection, and a couple of ‘Toody and Muldoon’ cop characters and you get a great mixture of a novel.
This is Charlie Stella ‘s first book and the first of his that I have read. It defiantly will not be the last. I read that Mr. Stella writes ‘off Broadway’ plays and that background has obviously assisted in his abilities to keep the story moving at an exciting and fast pace. If I was asked to compare him to another author, my first choice would be Donald Westlake and his Dortmunder character. Yet Mr. Stella goes beyond some of Westlake’s boundaries. All to the good.
January 18, 2024
Characters: Eddie Senta (lead character, tough guy, collector for the mob); Tommy Gaetani (Eddie's best friend going back to childhood, but one with a betting problem); Diane Senta (Eddie's wife - the one with the ticking biological clock going); Mike Linton (Diane's boss who wants to practice babymaking with her); Sarah Parker (the forty-one year old alcoholic who offers Eddie a lead on a caper); James Singleton (the ex-con Sarah meets in a bar).
In Eddie's World, Charlie Stella offers a hardboiled New York gangster tale, reminiscent of the movie Goodfellas. It is a book that, in many ways, is a throwback to an early time and could easily have been published in the fifties or sixties. At root, it is the perennial crime fiction favorite of a caper gone so woefully wrong. What makes it noir is that you as the reader know from the very first page how sideways this is all going to go and it is so damn obvious that you wonder how dumb the characters have to be not to see it.
Eddie is your prototypical wise guy. He is smart enough to sometimes have a daytime job - word processing- but that's not his bread and butter and it is not enough to make him eagerly get up in the morning. His life is about getting the good stuff, working his collection route, finding ways to earn. Eddie, we are told, is a broad, stocky man with a thick neck, curly black hair with streaks of gray, and a bright smile. He is getting older and not getting anywhere. His marriage is falling apart.
Diane found him charming and exciting when they met three years ago, but the excitement has worn off. She doesn't like him disappearing to do his earning. She is making dollars with a computer firm and she has now decided her biological clock is running out and she wants to make a baby. Eddie figures he has a fifteen-year-old with wife number one that he never sees and can't see raising another kid he can't be a stand-up father to. Besides times are tough and money isn't steady. But, Diane is determined to make a kid and tells Eddie (the tough guy) that, if he isn't going to ante up his sperm, she is going to make one with another donor and she has decided that her boss (Mike Linton) is the guy. She's going to go off to California with Linton and make a baby the old-fashioned way. Needless to say, Eddie ain't happy. He feels like he has blue balls turning purple.
It is probably because of his life situation being what it is that Eddie takes a chance on this caper. He tells us he is not sure about it. After all, "A guy blows smoke in your ear, you don't know it might turn into something. It looks attractive but it could just be smoke." But what he is taking a chance on ain't much. The chick who turned up this opportunity for him doesn't necessarily appear reliable. Sarah worked in an office Eddie temp'd in. Sarah Parker, a forty-one year old alcoholic still in fair shape with enough curves and big enough breasts to attract most men, was banging the boss cause being an on-again off-again alcoholic she needed a steady job, but it went sour on her when her boss began renting her out to his clients as an incentive to get deals done. One of these clients left so many bruises on her that she had to call in sick for a week. Eddie found out and had the guy's legs broken so she feels like she owes Eddie something and offers him an opportunity to draw $15,000 in cash sitting in an office desk drawer, waiting for a deal to buy gold on the black market.
All he has to do when he gets the signal from her is break in to the office, bust the drawer, and take the cash. But the whole deal sounds ridiculous. The take is barely anything. And Sarah just isn't the most reliable source. Plus she's meeting guys in bars and spilling the beans to them.
You know from the start with these two goons (Eddie and Tommy) talking like their lives were just about over that the caper was going to go sideways from the start, but what makes this book great (besides the brilliant characters) is just how damn sideways this is all going and how little Eddie and Tommy can count on anybody to set things right.
This is a fast-paced, action-packed read.
In Eddie's World, Charlie Stella offers a hardboiled New York gangster tale, reminiscent of the movie Goodfellas. It is a book that, in many ways, is a throwback to an early time and could easily have been published in the fifties or sixties. At root, it is the perennial crime fiction favorite of a caper gone so woefully wrong. What makes it noir is that you as the reader know from the very first page how sideways this is all going to go and it is so damn obvious that you wonder how dumb the characters have to be not to see it.
Eddie is your prototypical wise guy. He is smart enough to sometimes have a daytime job - word processing- but that's not his bread and butter and it is not enough to make him eagerly get up in the morning. His life is about getting the good stuff, working his collection route, finding ways to earn. Eddie, we are told, is a broad, stocky man with a thick neck, curly black hair with streaks of gray, and a bright smile. He is getting older and not getting anywhere. His marriage is falling apart.
Diane found him charming and exciting when they met three years ago, but the excitement has worn off. She doesn't like him disappearing to do his earning. She is making dollars with a computer firm and she has now decided her biological clock is running out and she wants to make a baby. Eddie figures he has a fifteen-year-old with wife number one that he never sees and can't see raising another kid he can't be a stand-up father to. Besides times are tough and money isn't steady. But, Diane is determined to make a kid and tells Eddie (the tough guy) that, if he isn't going to ante up his sperm, she is going to make one with another donor and she has decided that her boss (Mike Linton) is the guy. She's going to go off to California with Linton and make a baby the old-fashioned way. Needless to say, Eddie ain't happy. He feels like he has blue balls turning purple.
It is probably because of his life situation being what it is that Eddie takes a chance on this caper. He tells us he is not sure about it. After all, "A guy blows smoke in your ear, you don't know it might turn into something. It looks attractive but it could just be smoke." But what he is taking a chance on ain't much. The chick who turned up this opportunity for him doesn't necessarily appear reliable. Sarah worked in an office Eddie temp'd in. Sarah Parker, a forty-one year old alcoholic still in fair shape with enough curves and big enough breasts to attract most men, was banging the boss cause being an on-again off-again alcoholic she needed a steady job, but it went sour on her when her boss began renting her out to his clients as an incentive to get deals done. One of these clients left so many bruises on her that she had to call in sick for a week. Eddie found out and had the guy's legs broken so she feels like she owes Eddie something and offers him an opportunity to draw $15,000 in cash sitting in an office desk drawer, waiting for a deal to buy gold on the black market.
All he has to do when he gets the signal from her is break in to the office, bust the drawer, and take the cash. But the whole deal sounds ridiculous. The take is barely anything. And Sarah just isn't the most reliable source. Plus she's meeting guys in bars and spilling the beans to them.
You know from the start with these two goons (Eddie and Tommy) talking like their lives were just about over that the caper was going to go sideways from the start, but what makes this book great (besides the brilliant characters) is just how damn sideways this is all going and how little Eddie and Tommy can count on anybody to set things right.
This is a fast-paced, action-packed read.
July 3, 2020
Eddie is a sometimes gangster, sometimes word processor. He takes on his latest caper mostly to help out a friend who is in deep financial straits. It’s an after-hours heist for $15K in cash, split three ways between Eddie, Tommy, and the inside-gal Sarah. Like the rest of Eddie’s life, things get complicated, get worse, and get hard to see anyway free and clear of the noirish muck he’s mired in. Plot, characters, prose—this one’s terrific from every angle.
April 5, 2022
From 2001
I liked how fast this is. Mostly dialogue, it's an enjoyable book to read. Primarily about slightly mob connected men who are actually powerless.
I liked how fast this is. Mostly dialogue, it's an enjoyable book to read. Primarily about slightly mob connected men who are actually powerless.
November 27, 2012
Eddie’s World by Charlie Stella is a book that drags you out onto the street and into a world most of us would hope never to witness up close and personal – which is part of the fun. He’s mastered the demonstration of taking a simple situation and then spinning it out of control, changing lives, and ending a few along the way. This is not a police procedural; we witness the unraveling of the plot through the eyes of a sympathetic character, Eddie Senta, who’s just trying to do what has to be done. You realize in the end that it’s just not a good idea to step over the line, that there really are sharks in the water waiting to feed on your mistakes.
April 8, 2025
Take a whole lot of George V. Higgins (The Friends of Eddie Coyle), a pinch of Elmore Leonard (La Brava) and a pinch of Jason Starr (Fake I.D.) and you've got Eddie's World by Charlie Stella (2001). Stella's first novel, Eddie's World is a roller coaster of a crime fiction taking place in NYC. Eddie has mid-life-crisis-itis everywhere he turns, so to spice up a drag of a life he plans a robbery...and all goes to s**t. It's an enjoyable quick read but no great shakes and it definitely comes off like a first novel (the final chapter is a head scratch-er). Having said that though I'm looking forward to reading more books by author Charlie Stella...3.0 outta 5.0....
February 9, 2022
Low level mob tale during Soprano years
Really entertaining crime novel, that's set during the Soprano years . The book owes very little to the better known story, and in many ways its at least as good.
Eddie Senta is a knock around guy. Read the book if you don't know what it means. Then hold on for great dialogue, and a story that doesn't quit.... even in the last line!
Really entertaining crime novel, that's set during the Soprano years . The book owes very little to the better known story, and in many ways its at least as good.
Eddie Senta is a knock around guy. Read the book if you don't know what it means. Then hold on for great dialogue, and a story that doesn't quit.... even in the last line!
August 2, 2025
I'm definitely reading the next book - quite possibly will read his entire canon.
November 14, 2015
Eddie Stella is a small time loan shark with a few connections and a kind heart towards those he cares about. Interesting enough he also dabbles in a few outside ventures while using his varied positions as a word processing specialist to display himself as a legitimate individual. It is during the latest venture things unravel. A nice reading adventure.
August 30, 2015
A very nice NY noir cop gangster mystery, told with great homage to George V. Higgins, hence the name--who was a master of this genre.
January 15, 2017
Book just didn't grab my attention. A busy plot and lots of characters.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews