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Munch Mancini #4
Unfinished Business
Miranda "Munch" Mancini is quite a woman. She's a recovering drug and alcohol abuser; she's a southern California auto mechanic; she's the sole proprietor of a fledgling limo service; she's a loving mother to her 7-year-old adopted daughter, Asia. Set in the early 1980s, Barbara Seranella's fourth Mancini novel, Unfinished Business, has Munch and her friend, detective Mace St. John, in hot pursuit of a serial rapist-murderer who's killed one of her clients, the socialite Diane Bergman, and raped another, the actress Robin Davies. Worse--for all concerned, including the rapist--the rapist has come close enough to Munch's daughter to pin a note to her coat, and now Munch is getting threatening The phone rang again. Asia reached for it. "No," Munch said, with more force than she had intended. Asia jumped back. Munch picked up the receiver, tried to give Asia a comforting smile, and said "Hello?"
"You have a nice house," the strangely distorted voice said. It vibrated, sounding like the voice of that robot in that old television show Lost in Space. The cadence was slow, as if the speaker needed an extra moment to prepare each word. "But you really shouldn't take the same route home every day."
Gritty, creepy in the extreme, and at times positively harrowing, Unfinished Business is a most welcome entry into the Mancini line (No Human Involved, No Offense Intended, Unwanted Company). Seranella's characters are wholly yet finely drawn, their dialogue is true, and the mounting urgency she packs into this novel's pace, particularly down the home stretch, is palpable. --Michael Hudson
"You have a nice house," the strangely distorted voice said. It vibrated, sounding like the voice of that robot in that old television show Lost in Space. The cadence was slow, as if the speaker needed an extra moment to prepare each word. "But you really shouldn't take the same route home every day."
Gritty, creepy in the extreme, and at times positively harrowing, Unfinished Business is a most welcome entry into the Mancini line (No Human Involved, No Offense Intended, Unwanted Company). Seranella's characters are wholly yet finely drawn, their dialogue is true, and the mounting urgency she packs into this novel's pace, particularly down the home stretch, is palpable. --Michael Hudson
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
4 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Seranella
11 books19 followersBarbara Seranella was an American author known for her gripping crime novels. Growing up in Pacific Palisades, California, she ran away at 13 to San Francisco, joining a hippie commune and learning auto mechanics on the streets. Seranella later married Walter Haring and became a devoted mother to Michera Nicole Colella and Maryann Colella, raising both girls as her own. Drawing on her adventurous early life and sharp observations, she authored more than ten novels, including No Human Involved, No Offense Intended, and Deadman's Switch, blending crime, suspense, and realism. Seranella lived in La Quinta and Laguna Beach, California, and passed away in 2007 while awaiting a liver transplant.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 29, 2021
Munch Mancini is back and stronger than ever. She has a quiet, efficient, hard-earned calm about her these days. This fourth adventure left me breathless. Not from a quick, tremendous climax but from a buildup of action from the first pages of the book. Slowly the tension of figuring out a case that tied into multiple cases and who did it and why fueled the pages of this expertly written crime novel with excitement and anticipation.
Munch still has her limousine service and is working as the “lady mechanic” at the Brentwood gas station. She has the opportunity to meet and help out Diane Bergman, newly widowed head of the Bergman Cancer Center. She’s volunteered to drive home anyone needing it from the charity fundraiser. When Diane Bergman is murdered and left dead on the side of the freeway a few days later, Detective Mace St. John is assigned to the case. It is Munch who identifies the rich socialite from the photo of the scene where the victim was found with scorch marks on her body and eyes taped shut with duct tape.
Shortly afterward, taking an opportunity to help her fellow woman, Munch helps deliver Meals-on-Wheels to a rape victim still suffering from the trauma’s effects a month later. Talking with Robin and with St. John and meeting a rape counselor teaches Munch a lot about what rape really is and what the effects are. Munch still struggles with issues from her childhood, some of which are brought up now. She has enough distance from those earlier years to see through clearer eyes now what really happened then.
Determined to help Robin, Munch pursues the investigation with Detective St. John and discovers similarities between Robin’s attack and Diane Bergman’s death. As they begin to piece together the puzzle, a man with a disguised voice begins calling Munch – the same man who is terrorizing Robin with calls and threats to return. He gets word to Munch via her adopted daughter that he knows everything about Munch and that she cannot hide from him. When St. John goes out on sick leave, Munch is left on her own to figure out who this man is, where he is hiding, and how he can know so much about her.
This novel was particularly evenly paced, deftly increasing in intensity. Ultimately Munch discovers the motive behind the death of her friend through some gutsy moves of her own. She has really made great strides from her days as addict and more and is coming into herself beautifully. She has not only survived her own traumas of growing up with Flower George as a father, but she is surpassing his influence on her life.
Miranda “Munch” Mancini is one lady mechanic I’d like to know better.
Munch still has her limousine service and is working as the “lady mechanic” at the Brentwood gas station. She has the opportunity to meet and help out Diane Bergman, newly widowed head of the Bergman Cancer Center. She’s volunteered to drive home anyone needing it from the charity fundraiser. When Diane Bergman is murdered and left dead on the side of the freeway a few days later, Detective Mace St. John is assigned to the case. It is Munch who identifies the rich socialite from the photo of the scene where the victim was found with scorch marks on her body and eyes taped shut with duct tape.
Shortly afterward, taking an opportunity to help her fellow woman, Munch helps deliver Meals-on-Wheels to a rape victim still suffering from the trauma’s effects a month later. Talking with Robin and with St. John and meeting a rape counselor teaches Munch a lot about what rape really is and what the effects are. Munch still struggles with issues from her childhood, some of which are brought up now. She has enough distance from those earlier years to see through clearer eyes now what really happened then.
Determined to help Robin, Munch pursues the investigation with Detective St. John and discovers similarities between Robin’s attack and Diane Bergman’s death. As they begin to piece together the puzzle, a man with a disguised voice begins calling Munch – the same man who is terrorizing Robin with calls and threats to return. He gets word to Munch via her adopted daughter that he knows everything about Munch and that she cannot hide from him. When St. John goes out on sick leave, Munch is left on her own to figure out who this man is, where he is hiding, and how he can know so much about her.
This novel was particularly evenly paced, deftly increasing in intensity. Ultimately Munch discovers the motive behind the death of her friend through some gutsy moves of her own. She has really made great strides from her days as addict and more and is coming into herself beautifully. She has not only survived her own traumas of growing up with Flower George as a father, but she is surpassing his influence on her life.
Miranda “Munch” Mancini is one lady mechanic I’d like to know better.
January 16, 2022
Read in 2001. Mystery.
March 18, 2017
I really enjoy this series, had missed this one before. Mostly it is enjoyable to read about a main character who works as an auto mechanic. Always something to learn.
Read
May 28, 2014Unfinished Business, by Barbara Seranella, a-minus, Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Produced by Audible Inc. and downloaded from audible.com.
In this, the 4th Munch Mansini book, the company she works for is on a roller coaster ride, sometimes with more work than they can handle, sometimes with not enough work. Munch has made it a point to provide good service and gets many return customers, while some of the other mechanics aren’t that lucky and they resent her for her success, especially as they are men and she is a woman. But recently there seems to be a rash of women who are kidnapped, raped and tortured with electrical instruments. The person involved seems to come to the conclusion that he can make these women fall in love with him. He stalks them by phone, and he has started stalking Munch as well. When Munch further figures out that the women kidnapped and tortured, with one of them actually murdered, have a connection with the company she works for, she becomes very alarmed for herself, her friends, and for the safety of her daughter Asia. To make matters worse, Munch is going to have to solve these problems without much assistance from Detective St. John who is seriously ill in the hospital. Very good, as usual.
In this, the 4th Munch Mansini book, the company she works for is on a roller coaster ride, sometimes with more work than they can handle, sometimes with not enough work. Munch has made it a point to provide good service and gets many return customers, while some of the other mechanics aren’t that lucky and they resent her for her success, especially as they are men and she is a woman. But recently there seems to be a rash of women who are kidnapped, raped and tortured with electrical instruments. The person involved seems to come to the conclusion that he can make these women fall in love with him. He stalks them by phone, and he has started stalking Munch as well. When Munch further figures out that the women kidnapped and tortured, with one of them actually murdered, have a connection with the company she works for, she becomes very alarmed for herself, her friends, and for the safety of her daughter Asia. To make matters worse, Munch is going to have to solve these problems without much assistance from Detective St. John who is seriously ill in the hospital. Very good, as usual.
Read
December 7, 2010Christmas holiday reading.... minimal comments.
I love Munch Mancini and I'm glad to see another update on how she's getting her life together. It's good to see that there are less of her old drinking and drug taking friends in this one. Even though I want to see more of her old friends and what they are getting up to I think it's significant for Munch that Seranella decided to do without that angle in this book. I am finding that the series is getting a bit amateur sleuth like as Munch finds she has a connection to yet another murder but that's the sort of thing you have to go along with and at least Munch isn't falling over bodies herself. I'm looking forward to more of these books.
January 31, 2014
While I enjoy the Munch Mancini series a great deal and admire Seranella's ability to create a female protagonist where we have often seen men in this role, the series begins to feel a little repetitious at this point. I enjoyed reading it, and it feels like Seranella has done something worthy of contemplation with the series itself. Unfortunately, though, I'm starting to think maybe the Munch series could have ended a little sooner.
March 2, 2013
Munch is not your usual amateur detective, she is a recovering addict and an auto mechanic and an adoptive mom and has a compelling strength and moral compass. Tracking down a rapist and killer sounds like a job for the police detectives, but doesn't stop Munch from doing what she can to prevent this from happening to another victim.
September 10, 2007
UNFINISHED BUSINESS – VG
Seranella, Barbara – 4th in series
One of Munch Mancini’s customers is murdered, another raped and tortured and Munch is being threatened. This is a wonderful series, with excellent characters, which doesn’t disappoint.
Seranella, Barbara – 4th in series
One of Munch Mancini’s customers is murdered, another raped and tortured and Munch is being threatened. This is a wonderful series, with excellent characters, which doesn’t disappoint.
November 13, 2007
read 07.03.07
Want to read
February 6, 2008Munch Mancini Crime Novel Bk 4
Read
January 9, 2010ereader ebook
February 26, 2011
Although this is a "crime novel" the main character Munch is such a wonderful character! I really enjoyed this book.
October 5, 2011
Just discovered this series/author and really enjoy the books, only to discover the author died a few years ago.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews