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Tony Casella #1
No one rides for free
While chasing a white-collar snitch, a New York PI finds himself embroiled in a murderous conspiracy reaching deep into the federal government in this Edgar Award–winning mystery
In his short time as partner at a prestigious Wall Street law firm, Edgar Wood manages to steal $8 million. To avoid the hell of three years in prison, Wood turns witness for the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose mysterious investigation rankles the top brass at Wood’s old firm. Desperate to learn what Wood’s telling the feds, the remaining partners hire Tony Cassella, a private investigator whose past includes a year or so at Yale University’s law school, a stint as a corrections officer, and a cocaine addiction. Though he’s recently gotten his life back on track, Cassella is drawn to trouble, and can imagine no greater thrill than tangling with the SEC.
When Wood—under witness protection—is killed in a mugging, Cassella smells conspiracy. His hunt for the real crooks will leave no one safe, no matter how blue their blood.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Larry Beinhart including rare images from the author’s personal collection.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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About the author
Larry Beinhart
40 books59 followersLarry Beinhart is an Edgar Award-winning author whose American Hero became the movie Wag the Dog."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 16, 2023
The story begins with a lawyer that is being sent to jail for securities fraud. He refuses to go and says that he is willing to talk secrets to the Securities and Exchange Commission about others in his law firm that are more culpable than he. Needless to say, that does not go over well with his partners who threaten him with impropriety that will get him disbarred. The problem becomes moot when the lawyer gets killed, apparently the victim of a "random" carjacking gone wrong, but Tony Casella is hired to investigate. He is a little seedy, willing to do whatever it takes to solve a case. He is in fact, more anti-hero "noir" than anything else. I don’t need my good guys to be perfect, but they should be a good guy, at least, and Casella is not that. It might be hopelessly naive, but I would rather be on the side of the angels, even if I lose. If you like Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler, or Mickey Spillane, (all hopelessly cynical in my book) this is your type of novel. It's not my type of novel so it was just OK, but not more than that. I hated Sam Spade and Casella is just as villainous.
December 22, 2014
I have read Larry Beinhart before (American Hero, later renamed Wag the Dog: A Novel, like the derived movie, and Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin, a non-fiction analysis of mainstream media). This book was his first attempt at a pure mystery and surprisingly it won the Edgar (Allen Poe) Award for best mystery of 1986.
This book is also the first of the Tony Cassella trilogy, and in fact I purchased the bundled set The Tony Cassella Mysteries: No One Rides for Free, You Get What You Pay For, and Foreign Exchange
The premise is sophisticated and unique enough to arouse interest, involving corporate fraud. The dialogue is crisp and witty as expected for novels of this genre. Beinhart is a good writer, but there are some drawbacks in this first mystery novel. For one, the anti-hero is not really 'anti' as much as naughty. He has relations with four women in the story, and instead of adding spice, these philanderings actually bog down the story. Then there are the totally unnecessary insertions of what seems to be poetry, which borders on awful. In my opinion, editing out much of this extraneous stuff would have increased the momentum of the plot.
But, yeah, okay, I liked it. I'll need a break from Tony Cassella before I read his next exploit (which I'll read only because I bought the package).
(Note - the Kindle version has 'me' instead of 'the' in many instances throughout - rather annoying but I got used to it)
This book is also the first of the Tony Cassella trilogy, and in fact I purchased the bundled set The Tony Cassella Mysteries: No One Rides for Free, You Get What You Pay For, and Foreign Exchange
The premise is sophisticated and unique enough to arouse interest, involving corporate fraud. The dialogue is crisp and witty as expected for novels of this genre. Beinhart is a good writer, but there are some drawbacks in this first mystery novel. For one, the anti-hero is not really 'anti' as much as naughty. He has relations with four women in the story, and instead of adding spice, these philanderings actually bog down the story. Then there are the totally unnecessary insertions of what seems to be poetry, which borders on awful. In my opinion, editing out much of this extraneous stuff would have increased the momentum of the plot.
But, yeah, okay, I liked it. I'll need a break from Tony Cassella before I read his next exploit (which I'll read only because I bought the package).
(Note - the Kindle version has 'me' instead of 'the' in many instances throughout - rather annoying but I got used to it)
September 14, 2013
PROTAGONIST: Tony Cassella, PI
SETTING: New York
SERIES: #1 of 3
RATING: 3.25
WHY: Edgar Wood is an attorney for a law street firm who is convicted of embezzlement and promptly starts to testify to the SEC. PI Tony Cassella is hired by the firm to find out what he is saying. Wood is killed during a mugging; his daughter believes that he was actually murdered and wants Tony to find out by whom. Tony lives with the saintly Glenda and her son Wayne but promptly begins a sizzling affair with his client, who he professes to love. He's not immune to doing cocaine, all in all, not an entirely admirable character. He's a smooth liar, but he also is wonderful with Wayne. The plot was all over the place, but the writing was good enough to keep me going. Some very witty observations. I'll try the second in this series.
SETTING: New York
SERIES: #1 of 3
RATING: 3.25
WHY: Edgar Wood is an attorney for a law street firm who is convicted of embezzlement and promptly starts to testify to the SEC. PI Tony Cassella is hired by the firm to find out what he is saying. Wood is killed during a mugging; his daughter believes that he was actually murdered and wants Tony to find out by whom. Tony lives with the saintly Glenda and her son Wayne but promptly begins a sizzling affair with his client, who he professes to love. He's not immune to doing cocaine, all in all, not an entirely admirable character. He's a smooth liar, but he also is wonderful with Wayne. The plot was all over the place, but the writing was good enough to keep me going. Some very witty observations. I'll try the second in this series.
August 22, 2022
I struggled with this one. I had never heard of Larry Beinhart but some article recommended or advertised his latest so I decided to start with the 1st. It does not age well. I found it hard to read, distinguishing between the narrarator's inner thoughts and the actual dialogue being tough for me. I never really grasped the plot or the mystery as the narrator was too hung up on describing his almost non-stop sex capades with at least 3 different women (once almost immediately after being beat up and shot!) to stay focused on the actual case. Seems almost better suited as a "letter to Penthouse" from the 80's than a serious novel. Too bad, because I ordered 2 other books from him from Thriftbooks and now am not sure if I have any interest in reading them. Maybe to see if the author actually matures over time, unlike his protagonist.
March 8, 2013
Romance, sex, a couple of murders, suspense to kill for? This book took my by surprise – I had never heard of this writer – but he can write rings most of those writers who turn up on the best seller list all the time – now I am going for the rest of his books – yup! He’s that good!
June 6, 2023
Ha! Posting on FB in a book group, I was confused by what the reader claimed was the content of this book... turns out... there is a horror genre book with the same name. Ah, got it!
Back to this one... which I think I picked up due to a comment about the other book... but had forgotten that provenance by the time I started reading this one. Sigh. So many books, so little time.
Anyway, this turned out to be an ok read. Kind of a hard-boiled genre, but set in current times.
Back to this one... which I think I picked up due to a comment about the other book... but had forgotten that provenance by the time I started reading this one. Sigh. So many books, so little time.
Anyway, this turned out to be an ok read. Kind of a hard-boiled genre, but set in current times.
April 26, 2025
The protagonist is an asshole who just sleeps with people when the author doesn't know what to do next with the plot then acts like he cares about the people he's cheating on. I only finished it because it's short and I still had a slight interest in finding out who the killer was and why they did it.
March 21, 2013
Having just finished the first Tony Cassella (TC) novel, No One Rides For Free, I find that reading the trilogy in reverse-order was instructive. When I read Foreign Exchange (the third novel) I was struck by how “manic” it was. There was a lot of action, a lot of suspects, a lot of character interaction (but maybe not so much character development) and a whole host of characters were drawn into the book making it seem like there was no preset intention to end the TC series at that point. Going backwards into the past, I see that this book is equally fast-paced, but “lighter” both in action and in page count. And the middle book, You Get What You Pay For is pretty much between the two in feel and heaviness.
This is not a bad book. In fact, for a first novel it is a pretty good book. True, we walk into it with some confusion as our lead has a fully-formed life that we are only given measured doses of explanations for. If this was intended to be a standalone novel I would think that author and publisher to be overly parsimonious in back-story. But, since it was expected to begin a lengthy series we give it a pass on some things. The fact that the later books do “fill-in” some of the blanks (at about the same rate) makes it ok.
Tony is damaged goods. Like many anti-hero detectives he has some sterling qualities (often the sense of justice and fair play) and many destructive ones also. He’s bright enough to figure things out, but often leads with his fist instead of the little grey cells. He has a reputation for being street-wise, but also is an idealist. Even after vigorous shaking oil and water don’t want to mix and so it is with his many impulses.
The scale of his cases starts out looking small or local, but often develops into a national or international scope. (This is also true of the other books I’ve read by the author.) It’s his doggedness that allows him to find enough facts to connect the dots. Even when it hurts him he is often compelled to continue with a case. Like many a noir star, when he gives his word he must keep going, not matter where it leads. In this novel he tries to play fair with the official police when they work with him. He feeds them leads when he can (and when he cannot follow up himself), but he is not above administering punishment when the legal system cannot or would not.
While all three books have the same ‘feel” they operate in different enough ways that the stories remain unique and interesting. There are many sub-plots: many serve to develop various characters, but others are there to widen the investigation. These are all collected and resolved within the last 10-20 pages. A few things are left at the end “for the future”, but nothing that detracts from this book and this story. Unlike a lot of SF or Fantasy authors, the detective/mystery writers do a pretty good job of keeping things within the covers and Mr. Beinhart (and his editors) did this very nicely.
Despite is fast pace, this holds your attention enough for travel or a quick evening’s read. A solid 3-to-3.5 for this debut novel.
This is not a bad book. In fact, for a first novel it is a pretty good book. True, we walk into it with some confusion as our lead has a fully-formed life that we are only given measured doses of explanations for. If this was intended to be a standalone novel I would think that author and publisher to be overly parsimonious in back-story. But, since it was expected to begin a lengthy series we give it a pass on some things. The fact that the later books do “fill-in” some of the blanks (at about the same rate) makes it ok.
Tony is damaged goods. Like many anti-hero detectives he has some sterling qualities (often the sense of justice and fair play) and many destructive ones also. He’s bright enough to figure things out, but often leads with his fist instead of the little grey cells. He has a reputation for being street-wise, but also is an idealist. Even after vigorous shaking oil and water don’t want to mix and so it is with his many impulses.
The scale of his cases starts out looking small or local, but often develops into a national or international scope. (This is also true of the other books I’ve read by the author.) It’s his doggedness that allows him to find enough facts to connect the dots. Even when it hurts him he is often compelled to continue with a case. Like many a noir star, when he gives his word he must keep going, not matter where it leads. In this novel he tries to play fair with the official police when they work with him. He feeds them leads when he can (and when he cannot follow up himself), but he is not above administering punishment when the legal system cannot or would not.
While all three books have the same ‘feel” they operate in different enough ways that the stories remain unique and interesting. There are many sub-plots: many serve to develop various characters, but others are there to widen the investigation. These are all collected and resolved within the last 10-20 pages. A few things are left at the end “for the future”, but nothing that detracts from this book and this story. Unlike a lot of SF or Fantasy authors, the detective/mystery writers do a pretty good job of keeping things within the covers and Mr. Beinhart (and his editors) did this very nicely.
Despite is fast pace, this holds your attention enough for travel or a quick evening’s read. A solid 3-to-3.5 for this debut novel.
April 16, 2017
This novel has the vibe of a mid-series book: our protangonist Tony is beset with personal difficulties that he is struggling to put in order. At the same time, it seems the murder he is commissioned to solve keeps shifting and changing. There are no neatly tied bows here, but oh my he writed well.
October 10, 2016
Interesting
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews