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Canary in the Coal Mine
PI Pete Fortunato, half-Italian, half-Jewish, who suffers from anger management issues and insomnia, wakes up one morning with a bad taste in his mouth. This is never a good sign. Working out of a friend’s downtown real estate office, Fortunato, who spent a mysteriously short, forgettable stint as a cop in a small upstate New York town, lives from paycheck to paycheck. So, when a beautiful woman wants to hire him to find her husband, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. Within a day, Fortunato finds the husband in the apartment of his client’s young, stud lover. He’s been shot once in the head. Case closed. But when his client’s check bounces, and a couple of Albanian gangsters show up outside his building and kidnap him, hoping he’ll lead them to a large sum of money supposedly stolen by the dead man, he begins to realize there’s a good chance he’s been set up to take the fall for the murder and the theft of the money.
In an attempt to get himself out of a jam, Fortunato winds up on a wild ride that takes him down to Texas where he searches for his client’s lover who he suspects has the money and holds the key to solving the murder.
In an attempt to get himself out of a jam, Fortunato winds up on a wild ride that takes him down to Texas where he searches for his client’s lover who he suspects has the money and holds the key to solving the murder.
- GenresCrime
Unknown Binding
First published April 18, 2022
5 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Charles Salzberg
38 books280 followersCharles Salzberg's latest novel, Swann's Lake of Despair, is the third in the Henry Swann Detective Series. When rare photos, a scandalous diary, and a beautiful woman all go missing at once, the stage is set for three challenging cases for this skip tracer and his slovenly, disbarred lawyer friend, Goldblatt.
Devil in the Hole, his last novel, is a work of literary crime fiction based on the notorious John List murders, which is on shelves now, was just chosen by Suspense Magazine as one of the Best True Crime Novels of the Year. It is also now available as an e-book on Kindle.
He is also the author of the Henry Swann detective series: Swann’s Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel; Swann Dives In; and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair.
Salzberg has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he was a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City.
His freelance articles has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
He is also the author of From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA; On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball’s 10 Worst Teams of the Century; and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales, Catch Them Being Good; and The Mad Fisherman.
Devil in the Hole, his last novel, is a work of literary crime fiction based on the notorious John List murders, which is on shelves now, was just chosen by Suspense Magazine as one of the Best True Crime Novels of the Year. It is also now available as an e-book on Kindle.
He is also the author of the Henry Swann detective series: Swann’s Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel; Swann Dives In; and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair.
Salzberg has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he was a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City.
His freelance articles has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
He is also the author of From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA; On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball’s 10 Worst Teams of the Century; and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales, Catch Them Being Good; and The Mad Fisherman.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 20, 2023
"I'd like to hire you to prove my boyfriend innocent."
"Innocent of what?"
"Of murdering my husband."
It's a tale as old as time . . . dame walks into a detective's office.
Hell follows.
"Let me guess. Separated and headed for a divorce but you signed a pre-nup, so the only way you'll actually cash in is if he's dead...and you didn't kill him. Do I have that right?"
This decent noir novel has all the required elements - tough talking private dick, gorgeous, untrustworthy broad, snappy dialog, and an intriguing case. Plus, you'll learn all you'd ever want to know about the Albanian mob.
"We can do this the hard way or the harder way . . ."
(Seriously - do NOT get mixed up with the Albanian mob. There. Don't say I didn't warn ya!)
"Innocent of what?"
"Of murdering my husband."
It's a tale as old as time . . . dame walks into a detective's office.
Hell follows.
"Let me guess. Separated and headed for a divorce but you signed a pre-nup, so the only way you'll actually cash in is if he's dead...and you didn't kill him. Do I have that right?"
This decent noir novel has all the required elements - tough talking private dick, gorgeous, untrustworthy broad, snappy dialog, and an intriguing case. Plus, you'll learn all you'd ever want to know about the Albanian mob.
"We can do this the hard way or the harder way . . ."
(Seriously - do NOT get mixed up with the Albanian mob. There. Don't say I didn't warn ya!)
December 31, 2023
A pleasure to read.
Any author capable of whipping up a new spin on the wisecracking, all-knowing hardboiled detective so prevalent in novels and novellas and paperback originals from the 1920s throughout the 1950s is a force to contend with if you’re in my boat or one approximating same. Some us will sometimes tire of the routine around pages 50-75 and toss it into a dump box to give away or trade. Pulling off a novel length caper item featuring a unique private eye (or civilian who performs similar tasks) narrator that is both likeable enough to gain the reader’s interest can’t be easy.
And then to populate the tale with just enough characters that the reader won’t get confused can be a work of art.
I doubt that more than a couple of you will ever read this book.
A real shame because our narrator here is up there with the deadly serious but oddball dicks that occasionally capture the imagination of readers. No Mike Hammer tuff-guy nonsense - the dick in this one is under a court order to attend anger management classes, so he can’t go around punching guys out in order to obtain necessary information. He’s been through a lifelong series of bar fights as well as baseball field skirmishes (our hero’s a former baseball player who washed out) that have usually ended with his opponents seriously injured and maimed.
He reminds the reader of this often, usually when pummeling some low heeled thug who’s posing a serious threat.
I’m not regurgitating a plot synopsis because I’ll blow it and wind up writing a review full of spoilers. This was my first Charles Salzberg novel (he’s written a score of books -at least one other mystery series, several standalones, and “two dozen non-fiction books”).
This will NOT be my last.
The events in this novel are related in first person present tense. Some folks hate this style of novel. Works great in film (check out Robert Montgomery in the Christmas-themed Philip Marlowe/Raymond Chandler sourced “Lady In The Lake” - 1946 - with the astonishing looking Audrey Totter) but in a less-talented author’s hands, first person present tense tales can quickly turn into overcooked oatmeal.
Salzberg pulls it off effortlessly and this reader was hooked by page 30.
Warning: this novel features scary ass Albanians engaged in assorted mayhem.
Not a lot of gunplay but plenty enough action to satisfy the armchair adrenaline junkie.
Highest Recommendation- one of my 5 favorite reads of 2023.
Any author capable of whipping up a new spin on the wisecracking, all-knowing hardboiled detective so prevalent in novels and novellas and paperback originals from the 1920s throughout the 1950s is a force to contend with if you’re in my boat or one approximating same. Some us will sometimes tire of the routine around pages 50-75 and toss it into a dump box to give away or trade. Pulling off a novel length caper item featuring a unique private eye (or civilian who performs similar tasks) narrator that is both likeable enough to gain the reader’s interest can’t be easy.
And then to populate the tale with just enough characters that the reader won’t get confused can be a work of art.
I doubt that more than a couple of you will ever read this book.
A real shame because our narrator here is up there with the deadly serious but oddball dicks that occasionally capture the imagination of readers. No Mike Hammer tuff-guy nonsense - the dick in this one is under a court order to attend anger management classes, so he can’t go around punching guys out in order to obtain necessary information. He’s been through a lifelong series of bar fights as well as baseball field skirmishes (our hero’s a former baseball player who washed out) that have usually ended with his opponents seriously injured and maimed.
He reminds the reader of this often, usually when pummeling some low heeled thug who’s posing a serious threat.
I’m not regurgitating a plot synopsis because I’ll blow it and wind up writing a review full of spoilers. This was my first Charles Salzberg novel (he’s written a score of books -at least one other mystery series, several standalones, and “two dozen non-fiction books”).
This will NOT be my last.
The events in this novel are related in first person present tense. Some folks hate this style of novel. Works great in film (check out Robert Montgomery in the Christmas-themed Philip Marlowe/Raymond Chandler sourced “Lady In The Lake” - 1946 - with the astonishing looking Audrey Totter) but in a less-talented author’s hands, first person present tense tales can quickly turn into overcooked oatmeal.
Salzberg pulls it off effortlessly and this reader was hooked by page 30.
Warning: this novel features scary ass Albanians engaged in assorted mayhem.
Not a lot of gunplay but plenty enough action to satisfy the armchair adrenaline junkie.
Highest Recommendation- one of my 5 favorite reads of 2023.
June 23, 2023
Charles Salzburg's Canary in the Coal Mine came out last year. I was able to get it on interlibrary loan from Bisbee, Arizona - 1,164 miles away. I love this country. Salzburg was a founding member of the New York Writers' Workshop. In addition to crime novels, he's also penned nonfiction books on sports.
New York City private investigator Pete Fortunato is an ex-cop in his 40's. He has a cheapo office like Philip Marlowe - actually he rents a desk and phone service in someone else's office ! Fortunato self-describes as cynical and paranoid - sound like any other fictional PI we all know ? My PI heroes don't have to be anything like Marlowe for me to enjoy crime novels. But if they are, and are done well, it's a plus. Salzburg writes a Marlowe type so well, it's like you're learning everything else about Marlowe that you always wanted confirmed, and it all fits perfectly within the character framework that Chandler set up.
Fortunato is hired by Lila Alston, a wealthy beautiful woman, to find her husband Donald, whom she now suspects may be dead, and wants whatever the truth of his disappearance is to be known, so that her name can be cleared, as well as that of her boyfriend Travis. That, too, sounds like a classic Chandler set-up. Salzburg uses first person narration, which I think works very well in crime novels. Canary in the Coal Mine isn't deep literature rife with symbolism and lyricism. But it's a good story well told. There's a little bit of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men here, too. If this book isn't Salzburg's best, I'd like to read whatever is.
This is the first novel that's taught me about the Albanian Mob in the U. S. According to the State Department, Albania is the mainstay of organized crime worldwide.
Salzburg paid homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby's opening line, "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world", with his opening line to Part 3, as two men in grave danger return to New York: "No matter how often I leave, approaching the city ... always sends chills up my spine. It encompasses the past, the present and the future with promises of fame and fortune ..."
New York City private investigator Pete Fortunato is an ex-cop in his 40's. He has a cheapo office like Philip Marlowe - actually he rents a desk and phone service in someone else's office ! Fortunato self-describes as cynical and paranoid - sound like any other fictional PI we all know ? My PI heroes don't have to be anything like Marlowe for me to enjoy crime novels. But if they are, and are done well, it's a plus. Salzburg writes a Marlowe type so well, it's like you're learning everything else about Marlowe that you always wanted confirmed, and it all fits perfectly within the character framework that Chandler set up.
Fortunato is hired by Lila Alston, a wealthy beautiful woman, to find her husband Donald, whom she now suspects may be dead, and wants whatever the truth of his disappearance is to be known, so that her name can be cleared, as well as that of her boyfriend Travis. That, too, sounds like a classic Chandler set-up. Salzburg uses first person narration, which I think works very well in crime novels. Canary in the Coal Mine isn't deep literature rife with symbolism and lyricism. But it's a good story well told. There's a little bit of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men here, too. If this book isn't Salzburg's best, I'd like to read whatever is.
This is the first novel that's taught me about the Albanian Mob in the U. S. According to the State Department, Albania is the mainstay of organized crime worldwide.
Salzburg paid homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby's opening line, "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world", with his opening line to Part 3, as two men in grave danger return to New York: "No matter how often I leave, approaching the city ... always sends chills up my spine. It encompasses the past, the present and the future with promises of fame and fortune ..."
May 9, 2022
Private Investigator Pete Fortunato never met a fight he didn’t take part in. The professed protector of the underdog will always fight for justice and what’s right.
Most of the time.
When wealthy socialite, Lila Alston, hires Fortunato to find her husband—dead or alive—he knows he should walk away… because of the “dead” part, but bills need to be paid so he takes the job, and of course, finds the husband dead… in the apartment of the woman’s boyfriend.
While Fortunato succeeds in recouping his money when Lila’s check bounces, and doing a quick soft shoe to keep the cops off his back for now, he’s caught off-guard when Travis Chapman, Lila’s former boyfriend, wants to hire him for protection. Travis won’t divulge who he needs protection from, but Pete soon finds out when he’s taken for a ride to meet with the Albanian mob. They want Travis, and their money and it’s up to Pete to find him… soon.
Now he has to find the mob’s money just to survive.
And that’s what Pete Fortunato is… a survivor. With ADHD, anger management, and daddy issues, the hapless anti-hero always has the deck stacked against him, but manages to draw a winning card. However, that may not be the case this time around.
The realistic tone of Canary in the Coal Mine raises it to more than a crime fiction mystery. The writing style, and Pete’s quirky, sarcastic first-person narrative, along with its break-neck pace make this read a five star page-turner!
Most of the time.
When wealthy socialite, Lila Alston, hires Fortunato to find her husband—dead or alive—he knows he should walk away… because of the “dead” part, but bills need to be paid so he takes the job, and of course, finds the husband dead… in the apartment of the woman’s boyfriend.
While Fortunato succeeds in recouping his money when Lila’s check bounces, and doing a quick soft shoe to keep the cops off his back for now, he’s caught off-guard when Travis Chapman, Lila’s former boyfriend, wants to hire him for protection. Travis won’t divulge who he needs protection from, but Pete soon finds out when he’s taken for a ride to meet with the Albanian mob. They want Travis, and their money and it’s up to Pete to find him… soon.
Now he has to find the mob’s money just to survive.
And that’s what Pete Fortunato is… a survivor. With ADHD, anger management, and daddy issues, the hapless anti-hero always has the deck stacked against him, but manages to draw a winning card. However, that may not be the case this time around.
The realistic tone of Canary in the Coal Mine raises it to more than a crime fiction mystery. The writing style, and Pete’s quirky, sarcastic first-person narrative, along with its break-neck pace make this read a five star page-turner!
January 7, 2024
Canary in the Coal Mine by Charles Salzberg is a NYC PI story, the description comic, entertaining and madcap comes to mind. The story is dished up and dished out by private eye, Peter Fortunato. Pete’s a washed up wannabe baseball player, who couldn’t make it as a hick cop, upstate NY, so in his 40’s divorced and failed in every job he’s tried, returns to the city to become a private investigator.
Oh yeah, Pete also suffers from insomnia and is lucky to get 3 or 4 hours sleep. He knows his limits though - it’s 2 beers, not 3 because… “You might say I have a temper but I prefer to think of it as a short fuse and an obsession with justice. No one gets away with anything on my watch. I win a few. I lose a few”
So why does Pete like his job? “I was suited to do little else. My new profession meets a laundry list of criteria. • I do not have to wear a suit and tie. • I do not have anyone telling me what to do, where to be, and when to be there. • It gives me an opportunity to use my brain, brawn (not that I’m brawny, but even now I’m still pretty solid, topping out at 170 pounds on my five-foot-ten-inch frame,It doesn’t take too much concentration since like half the population of the world, I’ve got ADHD issues. In other words, I lose interest very quickly. • I make my own hours. • I mind someone else’s business while I can ignore my own. • The job fits my cynical, paranoid personality which makes me suspicious of everyone and supports a strong belief in Clare Boothe Luce’s claim that no good deed goes unpunished.”
Pete on baseball. “I loved the game not only because I was good at it but because although it appears that for long stretches of time nothing is happening there’s always something going on. ven if it isn’t discernible to the eye. Baseball is not just a game of physical skill. It’s a game of thought, analysis, contemplation, and anticipation. Unlike other team sports, there is no time limit. It takes as long as it takes, and in this sense, it mimics life. It is a game of ebb and flow. It is unpredictable. Just like life. Baseball imitates life: Long stretches of nothingness, then short bursts of action, which comes as a logical conclusion of those stretches of nothingness. This is much how our lives unfold. At least it’s the way mine does.”
Pete’s city. “It’s that schizo time of year when you never quite know what to wear. As a result, I always seem to be dressed one or two days ahead or behind the weather. … New York really is the city that never sleeps. At least that’s true for some of its citizens. No matter how late or early it is I’m never the only one walking the streets. But I’m probably the only one who has no idea where he’s going.”
Pete’s office is a desk in the back of his buddy’s real estate office, gratis. His Buddy describes a prospective client that was looking for Pete. “She looks like you’d want to get to know her and spend a lot of time with her. If I weren’t so blissfully married, she’d be at the top of my list for number four.” I resist asking, how long’s that gonna be for? and say instead, “That good, huh?” … Meet the client. “The name on it is Lila Alston. I like the sound of that. And the smell of lemons. Her name reminds me of those in one of those pulp crime novels. Like Velma. Or Bubbles.” … “This is a rather…odd situation and it might take some explaining.” “I specialize in odd situations, Mrs. Alston.” “I suspected as much.” - “how did you come to get in touch with me?”
“I went down a list of private investigators until I found a name I liked. It happened to be yours. Fortunato. It has a rather nice ring to it.” The Fortunato, clearly Italian, but Pete’s other 1/2. “The Chosen People.” “Jewish?” She stirs another packet of Splenda into her iced coffee. “I never would have guessed.” “Why’s that?” “I don’t know. You just don’t seem…” “To be the type to secretly control the world’s monetary system?” — “But it’s what you meant.” “You have no idea what I meant,” she says. Her voice is wrapped in a thin layer of indignation, which is okay by me. —I don’t mind getting a rise out of people. It puts them off their game and me on mine. “Let me guess. Some of your best friends are Jewish.” “You’re mocking me again” … “I have no mob ties and I haven’t been in a synagogue since my best friend Harry Stein’s bar mitzvah. My mother and her family were assimilated Jews who ate pork and shellfish and whatever else was put in front of them. And my mother learned to cook Italian food better than my fraternal grandmother.” — my father, he was a boring Italian insurance salesman, who drank” And then split when Pete was 12.
The Case. “not one hundred percent sure Donald is actually dead. But he has been missing for almost a week and under the circumstances…” “Donald’s your husband?” … “ she’s smiling when she says this. In fact, I’m pretty sure of it. This is one ice-cold bitch and you know what, I’m starting to fall in love.” In Finance. “I don’t want to embarrass myself any more than I already have. And, I don’t want to waste the time, since in the end I really don’t give a shit. I can look it up on the internet if it’s important. No one is stupid today, unless they want to be. Besides, I probably know enough to get by. It’s about using someone else’s money to make more money, something I don’t need to know about.” … “but there something about this thing about Lila Alston, that just doesn’t make sense. Maybe that explains why that bad taste in my mouth is starting to make a comeback.”
Pete’s Anger Issues and Management. “ • Think before I speak. High degree of difficulty. • Once I’m calm I’m supposed to express my anger, verbally, of course, and calmly. This, I might be able to fake. • Don’t hold a grudge. Huh? What is there to live for if you can’t hold a grudge?” … “far as I’m concerned, my anger is always justified.”
Our Sleuth finds Alston… dead in Lila’s ex boyfriend Travis’s Apartment. “ This was getting complicated. Suddenly, everyone had skin in this crazy game. Everyone was screwing everyone else. Literally and figuratively. And I can’t figure out why. It’s like some silly French farce. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like something out of one of those James Cain novels that when you read it you think, Now why didn’t I think of that?” About Travis. “I want him to shut the fuck up already. I need to get out of there and to do that I have to shut Travis down. “I get how you got involved with them, Travis, now let’s get to the point where I come in.” “What did Alston want you to do, Travis?” He puts his head down. I know exactly what he’s doing. He’s practicing his lines.” … “He said business wasn’t going so good.” “Bernie Madoff shit ? “I guess.” “There’s something you ought to know about me, Travis. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. I get hit, I hit back. But what you don’t want is me as an enemy. You know why? Because I don’t give a fuck. And when you don’t give a fuck it means you have nothing to lose. You? Well, you obviously have something to lose, my friend, which is why you came to me in the first place, isn’t it?” Travis. “ You can say ‘case closed’ all you want but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Not with these guys.” At first, I think he means the cops, but from the look of fear on his face, I realize he’s talking about someone else. “Again with the guys. What guys?” He takes his forefinger and bends back his nose. “The mob?”
Case Not Closed -Two Reasons Why. Pete. “I’m still on the hook. They know I was on the scene, but they don’t know why and they don’t know for how long.” … “I did learn that cops, especially the good ones, have a sixth sense when it comes to crime. It’s rooted deep in their DNA. They know when something’s not right. They know when someone’s lying. They know when someone’s holding back the truth. It’s a stink most of us can’t pick up.” Reason #2. “My body starts to bob almost imperceptibly back and forth, like the old Jews I used to watch davening when my maternal grandfather dragged me into the synagogue in a vain attempt to let me connect with that half of my heritage. My mother’s family gave up trying to get me to church. I’m sure it was the half-Jew thing, which didn’t go over so well with my father’s family. As far as they were concerned, I was halfway to purgatory before I was even born. My mother’s side was more stubborn—maybe that’s where I get it from. They didn’t give up so easy. Every Jewish holiday became a battleground.” These guys. “I’m ready to put up a fight. But before I can, Teardrop, as if sensing there might be trouble, puts down his newspaper and gets out of the car. He’s even bigger than Ponytail and although the size of a man never seems to stop me from throwing a punch, the size of two men almost twice my size is a great inhibitor.”
This mob —“summed up in a comment once made by a member of the Kielbasa Posse, a Polish mob out of Philly. “We Poles are willing to do business with just about anybody. Dominicans, blacks, Italians, Asian street gangs, Russians, but we don’t go near the Albanian mob. They’re much too violent and unpredictable.” … “ Each family clan is referred to as a fis. Every fis has an executive committee called a Bajrak. The Bajrak selects a high-ranking member for each unit which is led by a Krye who selects a Kryetar or underboss who is second in command. The Kryetar chooses a Mik, or “friend,” who acts as a liaison to the other members of the family and is responsible for coordinating the family’s activities” … “The Albanians adhere to a strong code of honor, called besa, which is very much like a contract between members. Breaking that contract is not an option, at least it’s not if you want to continue to exist.”
Pete Must Locate Travis. “I’ll have it for you first thing in the morning.” “Not sooner?” “Man, it’s almost five o’clock. I’ve got a dinner appointment. Besides, what can you possibly do with the information in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep?” “Not everyone, my friend.” “Who are you? The guy who makes the donuts?” “No. But I could be.” Because Pete. “don’t like people knowing my business. My comings and goings. That didn’t sit well with my ex-wife. It wasn’t the reason we split up, but might have made the top ten. Even as a kid I rebelled against my parents knowing where I was and what I was doing. I had an unexplained need to be unencumbered. Meaning, I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it” “I able to put a name to the way I felt: Pascal’s Wager. More About Pete. “The release of violence seems to get into my heartbeat, slowing it down. In turn, it travels to my brain, and suddenly it’s like I’m on a potent drug that’s making me one with the world. This is not the way it should be. But it is. I’m sure the urge comes from somewhere hidden deep in my childhood. The anger I couldn’t express at adults mistreating me, real or imagined.”
So That’s Pete, and He’s on a Mission to save his life… Major themes that follow… “That’s a trail nothing but a nose can follow.” —James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans. … “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Madcap fun ensues Texas to New York… “The sparkling, impressive skyline of New York beckons. It encompasses the past, the present, and the future with promises of fame and fortune for so many. For me, not so much. For me, it represents reality; a bucket of cold water in the face. Wake up, Pete! Life is about to cut you down to size.”
That’s Pete Fortunato, and the caper… a worthy comedic noir… highly recommended. I hope Salzberg continues the saga of Fortunato… we’ll see.
Oh yeah, Pete also suffers from insomnia and is lucky to get 3 or 4 hours sleep. He knows his limits though - it’s 2 beers, not 3 because… “You might say I have a temper but I prefer to think of it as a short fuse and an obsession with justice. No one gets away with anything on my watch. I win a few. I lose a few”
So why does Pete like his job? “I was suited to do little else. My new profession meets a laundry list of criteria. • I do not have to wear a suit and tie. • I do not have anyone telling me what to do, where to be, and when to be there. • It gives me an opportunity to use my brain, brawn (not that I’m brawny, but even now I’m still pretty solid, topping out at 170 pounds on my five-foot-ten-inch frame,It doesn’t take too much concentration since like half the population of the world, I’ve got ADHD issues. In other words, I lose interest very quickly. • I make my own hours. • I mind someone else’s business while I can ignore my own. • The job fits my cynical, paranoid personality which makes me suspicious of everyone and supports a strong belief in Clare Boothe Luce’s claim that no good deed goes unpunished.”
Pete on baseball. “I loved the game not only because I was good at it but because although it appears that for long stretches of time nothing is happening there’s always something going on. ven if it isn’t discernible to the eye. Baseball is not just a game of physical skill. It’s a game of thought, analysis, contemplation, and anticipation. Unlike other team sports, there is no time limit. It takes as long as it takes, and in this sense, it mimics life. It is a game of ebb and flow. It is unpredictable. Just like life. Baseball imitates life: Long stretches of nothingness, then short bursts of action, which comes as a logical conclusion of those stretches of nothingness. This is much how our lives unfold. At least it’s the way mine does.”
Pete’s city. “It’s that schizo time of year when you never quite know what to wear. As a result, I always seem to be dressed one or two days ahead or behind the weather. … New York really is the city that never sleeps. At least that’s true for some of its citizens. No matter how late or early it is I’m never the only one walking the streets. But I’m probably the only one who has no idea where he’s going.”
Pete’s office is a desk in the back of his buddy’s real estate office, gratis. His Buddy describes a prospective client that was looking for Pete. “She looks like you’d want to get to know her and spend a lot of time with her. If I weren’t so blissfully married, she’d be at the top of my list for number four.” I resist asking, how long’s that gonna be for? and say instead, “That good, huh?” … Meet the client. “The name on it is Lila Alston. I like the sound of that. And the smell of lemons. Her name reminds me of those in one of those pulp crime novels. Like Velma. Or Bubbles.” … “This is a rather…odd situation and it might take some explaining.” “I specialize in odd situations, Mrs. Alston.” “I suspected as much.” - “how did you come to get in touch with me?”
“I went down a list of private investigators until I found a name I liked. It happened to be yours. Fortunato. It has a rather nice ring to it.” The Fortunato, clearly Italian, but Pete’s other 1/2. “The Chosen People.” “Jewish?” She stirs another packet of Splenda into her iced coffee. “I never would have guessed.” “Why’s that?” “I don’t know. You just don’t seem…” “To be the type to secretly control the world’s monetary system?” — “But it’s what you meant.” “You have no idea what I meant,” she says. Her voice is wrapped in a thin layer of indignation, which is okay by me. —I don’t mind getting a rise out of people. It puts them off their game and me on mine. “Let me guess. Some of your best friends are Jewish.” “You’re mocking me again” … “I have no mob ties and I haven’t been in a synagogue since my best friend Harry Stein’s bar mitzvah. My mother and her family were assimilated Jews who ate pork and shellfish and whatever else was put in front of them. And my mother learned to cook Italian food better than my fraternal grandmother.” — my father, he was a boring Italian insurance salesman, who drank” And then split when Pete was 12.
The Case. “not one hundred percent sure Donald is actually dead. But he has been missing for almost a week and under the circumstances…” “Donald’s your husband?” … “ she’s smiling when she says this. In fact, I’m pretty sure of it. This is one ice-cold bitch and you know what, I’m starting to fall in love.” In Finance. “I don’t want to embarrass myself any more than I already have. And, I don’t want to waste the time, since in the end I really don’t give a shit. I can look it up on the internet if it’s important. No one is stupid today, unless they want to be. Besides, I probably know enough to get by. It’s about using someone else’s money to make more money, something I don’t need to know about.” … “but there something about this thing about Lila Alston, that just doesn’t make sense. Maybe that explains why that bad taste in my mouth is starting to make a comeback.”
Pete’s Anger Issues and Management. “ • Think before I speak. High degree of difficulty. • Once I’m calm I’m supposed to express my anger, verbally, of course, and calmly. This, I might be able to fake. • Don’t hold a grudge. Huh? What is there to live for if you can’t hold a grudge?” … “far as I’m concerned, my anger is always justified.”
Our Sleuth finds Alston… dead in Lila’s ex boyfriend Travis’s Apartment. “ This was getting complicated. Suddenly, everyone had skin in this crazy game. Everyone was screwing everyone else. Literally and figuratively. And I can’t figure out why. It’s like some silly French farce. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like something out of one of those James Cain novels that when you read it you think, Now why didn’t I think of that?” About Travis. “I want him to shut the fuck up already. I need to get out of there and to do that I have to shut Travis down. “I get how you got involved with them, Travis, now let’s get to the point where I come in.” “What did Alston want you to do, Travis?” He puts his head down. I know exactly what he’s doing. He’s practicing his lines.” … “He said business wasn’t going so good.” “Bernie Madoff shit ? “I guess.” “There’s something you ought to know about me, Travis. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. I get hit, I hit back. But what you don’t want is me as an enemy. You know why? Because I don’t give a fuck. And when you don’t give a fuck it means you have nothing to lose. You? Well, you obviously have something to lose, my friend, which is why you came to me in the first place, isn’t it?” Travis. “ You can say ‘case closed’ all you want but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Not with these guys.” At first, I think he means the cops, but from the look of fear on his face, I realize he’s talking about someone else. “Again with the guys. What guys?” He takes his forefinger and bends back his nose. “The mob?”
Case Not Closed -Two Reasons Why. Pete. “I’m still on the hook. They know I was on the scene, but they don’t know why and they don’t know for how long.” … “I did learn that cops, especially the good ones, have a sixth sense when it comes to crime. It’s rooted deep in their DNA. They know when something’s not right. They know when someone’s lying. They know when someone’s holding back the truth. It’s a stink most of us can’t pick up.” Reason #2. “My body starts to bob almost imperceptibly back and forth, like the old Jews I used to watch davening when my maternal grandfather dragged me into the synagogue in a vain attempt to let me connect with that half of my heritage. My mother’s family gave up trying to get me to church. I’m sure it was the half-Jew thing, which didn’t go over so well with my father’s family. As far as they were concerned, I was halfway to purgatory before I was even born. My mother’s side was more stubborn—maybe that’s where I get it from. They didn’t give up so easy. Every Jewish holiday became a battleground.” These guys. “I’m ready to put up a fight. But before I can, Teardrop, as if sensing there might be trouble, puts down his newspaper and gets out of the car. He’s even bigger than Ponytail and although the size of a man never seems to stop me from throwing a punch, the size of two men almost twice my size is a great inhibitor.”
This mob —“summed up in a comment once made by a member of the Kielbasa Posse, a Polish mob out of Philly. “We Poles are willing to do business with just about anybody. Dominicans, blacks, Italians, Asian street gangs, Russians, but we don’t go near the Albanian mob. They’re much too violent and unpredictable.” … “ Each family clan is referred to as a fis. Every fis has an executive committee called a Bajrak. The Bajrak selects a high-ranking member for each unit which is led by a Krye who selects a Kryetar or underboss who is second in command. The Kryetar chooses a Mik, or “friend,” who acts as a liaison to the other members of the family and is responsible for coordinating the family’s activities” … “The Albanians adhere to a strong code of honor, called besa, which is very much like a contract between members. Breaking that contract is not an option, at least it’s not if you want to continue to exist.”
Pete Must Locate Travis. “I’ll have it for you first thing in the morning.” “Not sooner?” “Man, it’s almost five o’clock. I’ve got a dinner appointment. Besides, what can you possibly do with the information in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep?” “Not everyone, my friend.” “Who are you? The guy who makes the donuts?” “No. But I could be.” Because Pete. “don’t like people knowing my business. My comings and goings. That didn’t sit well with my ex-wife. It wasn’t the reason we split up, but might have made the top ten. Even as a kid I rebelled against my parents knowing where I was and what I was doing. I had an unexplained need to be unencumbered. Meaning, I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it” “I able to put a name to the way I felt: Pascal’s Wager. More About Pete. “The release of violence seems to get into my heartbeat, slowing it down. In turn, it travels to my brain, and suddenly it’s like I’m on a potent drug that’s making me one with the world. This is not the way it should be. But it is. I’m sure the urge comes from somewhere hidden deep in my childhood. The anger I couldn’t express at adults mistreating me, real or imagined.”
So That’s Pete, and He’s on a Mission to save his life… Major themes that follow… “That’s a trail nothing but a nose can follow.” —James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans. … “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Madcap fun ensues Texas to New York… “The sparkling, impressive skyline of New York beckons. It encompasses the past, the present, and the future with promises of fame and fortune for so many. For me, not so much. For me, it represents reality; a bucket of cold water in the face. Wake up, Pete! Life is about to cut you down to size.”
That’s Pete Fortunato, and the caper… a worthy comedic noir… highly recommended. I hope Salzberg continues the saga of Fortunato… we’ll see.
May 7, 2022
Not your normal crime novel! This is about an former cop, turned private investigator living paycheck to paycheck, Pete Fortunato. For me, it was a mystery book but also had humor to make it a light read. Pete is asked to find a women’s husband. He thinks it is going to be an easy job and will put some cash in his pocket. Well find the husband he does…dead…in the wife’s ex-lover’s apartment! This is where the story turns interesting when the Albanian mob comes after him. The story really draws you in and Fortunato’s moves and thoughts could be very realistic. It is everything you expect and then more. Fortunato is a tough, cynical and intelligent man with little drive to be anything else. He just wanted to take some jobs to live off. He is a man who will put a guy’s lights out in a second if they make him angry. But fighting the mob is not something he would like to do. Was he set up? Did the wife hire him to be her fall guy? Salzberg keeps you on your toes to try to stay one step ahead of Fortunato and the mob. This a fast paced crime that has impending doom through it. I love the title though at first sight I thought it was going to be about coal miners. Very interesting title and an author who knows how to write, what to write and the ability to express it thoroughly to the reader.
Many thanks to #partnersincrimevbt and the author, #charlessalzberg for an ARC copy of this whodunnit crime mystery. I have read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Many thanks to #partnersincrimevbt and the author, #charlessalzberg for an ARC copy of this whodunnit crime mystery. I have read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
May 23, 2022
Canary is the Coal Mine is a title that will definitely keep you guessing what this story might be about or how it will end. In this blunt narration , Charles Salzberg tells the story of a PI and not any typical PI. Pete who's hired by a beautiful woman, Lila Alston, to find her missing husband Donald. That's just the beginning of the biggest mess Pete will end up in.
Pete's personality , sharp , old fashioned, straightforward , doesn't mess around, takes the story to a whole new level. Suffering from anger management and insomnia doesn't come in handy at all! I can't imagine someone doing Pete's job with this kind of personality but he pulls it together very well. Not gonna lie I laughed in some parts , because he just makes sense to me. 😆
Pete's job gets way complicated and in this mystery novel, he takes the reader on a journey to fix a mess that he didn't start nor had any intention to!
I would totally recommend this novel for someone who loves light crime fiction. This novel is a total page-turning mystery, with a strong main character and just overall great binge-worthy narration in a big city!
Pete's personality , sharp , old fashioned, straightforward , doesn't mess around, takes the story to a whole new level. Suffering from anger management and insomnia doesn't come in handy at all! I can't imagine someone doing Pete's job with this kind of personality but he pulls it together very well. Not gonna lie I laughed in some parts , because he just makes sense to me. 😆
Pete's job gets way complicated and in this mystery novel, he takes the reader on a journey to fix a mess that he didn't start nor had any intention to!
I would totally recommend this novel for someone who loves light crime fiction. This novel is a total page-turning mystery, with a strong main character and just overall great binge-worthy narration in a big city!
May 4, 2022
This is a pretty good PI mystery. Pete has to figure out a very complex situation in order to unravel a murder and ultimately save his own life. The narrative is heavy on Pete's personal life with long passages of his thoughts. There is some action but it is generally tucked in between Pete ruminating. The characters are developed well and there is some good dialogue, witty and snarky.
The end of the novel was strange. It just ended without resolving some major points in the plot. I felt the abrupt end was unsatisfactory.
This is a good PI mystery for readers who like to be immersed in the thoughts of the hero and prefer not to have much action.
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.
The end of the novel was strange. It just ended without resolving some major points in the plot. I felt the abrupt end was unsatisfactory.
This is a good PI mystery for readers who like to be immersed in the thoughts of the hero and prefer not to have much action.
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.
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May 10, 2022I loved this book! A great down-on-his-luck, tough-guy main character, a sexy femme fatale, dangerous mobsters, a lot of keep-you-guessing twists and turns, and lots of witty, wise-guy banter - In other words, just what a Neo Noir should be! And a page turner to boot. James M.Cain, Jim Thompson, etc. would be proud. Hope to see more of Pete Fortunato from Mr. Salzberg.
June 4, 2022
Charles Salzberg does a fabulous job of pulling us in from the beginning of the story with Pete Fortunato when the hard-boiled PI is hired by a beautiful, intelligent redhead to find her husband. I couldn't put this down until I finished reading it. If you're a fan of mystery or noir, you won't be disappointed.
July 6, 2023
This book is a lot of fun. Relatable characters & a fast moving plot! Plus a little baseball weaved in - everything I need in a novel.
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