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Munch Mancini #7
Unwilling Accomplice
Munch Mancini and little daughter Asia are doing just fine. Munch rejoices in her job as an auto mechanic at the Brentwood Texaco. She and Asia have a house -- not in tony Brentwood -- and a dog, and Munch has been off drugs for years. She plans to stay that way. It's tough, though, when people from her old life resurface. Such a person is Lisa Slokum, Asia's aunt. Lisa has always meant trouble, and why should now be any different? It seems she has bolted from the Witness Protection Program with her two daughters, fifteen-year-old Charlotte and eleven-year-old Jill, and she needs Munch's help. Would that it were so simple. Munch will need to call upon Rico Chacón, a fine cop but not-so-fine boyfriend whose commitment to her on the nonprofessional side seems to be wavering. And before Munch can sort out her love life she must try on the role of auntie to Asia's new cousins -- not easy when the teenaged Charlotte goes missing and her mom, Lisa, lands in jail. Why did Charlotte run away, and where is she now? Is she in danger of becoming one of Hollywood's lost street children? Does she have information about the recent death of school friend Steven Koon? And why was a lock of her hair found stuck to a piece of duct tape in a ransacked storage locker? Munch must unravel the mystery of young Charlotte's complex life before it's too late to save her. To do that, she needs help from Rico, who's investigating the Koon boy's death. Will their professional alliance rekindle their romance? Should she take him back? Does he want to come back? Can she trust him? With its pulsating suspense and penetrating look at family relationships and the universal need for love and affirmation, Unwilling Accomplice is the best yet from a versatile author whose passionate voice shines through her fast-moving prose. Munch Mancini and little daughter Asia are doing just fine. Munch rejoices in her job as an auto mechanic at the Brentwood Texaco. She and Asia have a house -- not in tony Brentwood -- and a dog, and Munch has been off drugs for years. She plans to stay that way. It's tough, though, when people from her old life resurface. Such a person is Lisa Slokum, Asia's aunt. Lisa has always meant trouble, and why should now be any different? It seems she has bolted from the Witness Protection Program with her two daughters, fifteen-year-old Charlotte and eleven-year-old Jill, and she needs Munch's help. Would that it were so simple. Munch will need to call upon Rico Chacón, a fine cop but not-so-fine boyfriend whose commitment to her on the nonprofessional side seems to be wavering. And before Munch can sort out her love life she must try on the role of auntie to Asia's new cousins -- not easy when the teenaged Charlotte goes missing and her mom, Lisa, lands in jail. Why did Charlotte run away, and where is she now? Is she in danger of becoming one of Hollywood's lost street children? Does she have information about the recent death of school friend Steven Koon? And why was a lock of her hair found stuck to a piece of duct tape in a ransacked storage locker? Munch must unravel the mystery of young Charlotte's complex life before it's too late to save her. To do that, she needs help from Rico, who's investigating the Koon boy's death. Will their professional alliance rekindle their romance? Should she take him back? Does he want to come back? Can she trust him? With its pulsating suspense and penetrating look at family relationships and the universal need for love and affirmation, Unwilling Accomplice is the best yet from a versatile author whose passionate voice shines through her fast-moving prose.
- GenresMystery
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Seranella
12 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 29, 2021
Auto mechanic Munch Mancini is grateful for much in her life: her sobriety, her adopted daughter Asia, and now adopted cocker spaniel Jasper to share their home and yard. That pleasantness is shattered when Munch gets a call from Asia’s aunt Lisa who’d gone into the witness protection program when her brother and Asia’s father Sleaze John died many years ago.
Lisa wants her two girls Charlotte and Jill to meet their cousin Asia. Munch wisely picks a public place in the park. Then she calls her friend Detective Mace St. James to see if people actually come out of the witness protection program, and he tells her that they do if the danger is gone or if they are running some sort of scam. Munch fears the second.
The day after their date in the park, Lisa calls Munch at work telling her that Charlotte is missing, but since it’s only been a few hours, there’s not much the police will do. Munch goes to Lisa’s house after dinner to check out where Charlotte was living and what her bedroom might reveal. She discovers that Charlotte is dependent on insulin, which Lisa neglected to inform the police. With no recent pictures on hand to give the police, Munch visits the Venice High School where Charlotte was on the yearbook committee. Munch learns that just yesterday there was a memorial service for a boy who was murdered, a boy whom Charlotte ate lunch with every day. She gets his photo as well.
Then a moment of truth arrives. All of this has occurred in Rico’s Chacon’s district. Rico is the detective Munch had a torrid affair with a year ago until he cut it off. Munch has a rough time talking with Rico, but she keeps it mostly business and fills him in on the details of the case.
Munch does what she can and visits various shelters and women’s homes. She puts up posters and finds some likely hideouts for Charlotte. She also decides to help Lisa out by moving her belongings from storage to home. When they arrive at the storage unit, they’re both surprised to learn the bill is paid up and the unit has been trashed. It’s Munch who notices a piece of duct tape with Charlotte’s dark hair with the ends dyed orange on it. Now she calls Rico for help, and the evidence team moves in.
The story becomes much more intertwined from here on out. Munch is not alone in her search any longer, and many people, motives, and missions are tied together. The way Barbara Seranella tells a story is so deceptively easy, fluidly sliding from one piece of history to today and on to tomorrow, and back again, from her job to her home life, from her love life to the love of her life, Asia.
I have had the immense pleasure of reading all seven mysteries centered on Munch Mancini which started with the beginning of her sobriety in NO HUMAN INVOLVED, and continuing on through NO OFFENSE INTENDED, UNWANTED COMPANY, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, NO MAN STANDING, and UNPAID DUES. Munch is above all, a survivor in the world of the 1970s and 1980s. Her own father was scum to her, but she’s a model mother to her own daughter. She’s learned so many lessons in life and through living life that she applies one day at a time.
I am so damned proud of Munch Mancini and all she has accomplished in these years. If I ever had the chance to meet her in person, I’d definitely want to be good friends.
Lisa wants her two girls Charlotte and Jill to meet their cousin Asia. Munch wisely picks a public place in the park. Then she calls her friend Detective Mace St. James to see if people actually come out of the witness protection program, and he tells her that they do if the danger is gone or if they are running some sort of scam. Munch fears the second.
The day after their date in the park, Lisa calls Munch at work telling her that Charlotte is missing, but since it’s only been a few hours, there’s not much the police will do. Munch goes to Lisa’s house after dinner to check out where Charlotte was living and what her bedroom might reveal. She discovers that Charlotte is dependent on insulin, which Lisa neglected to inform the police. With no recent pictures on hand to give the police, Munch visits the Venice High School where Charlotte was on the yearbook committee. Munch learns that just yesterday there was a memorial service for a boy who was murdered, a boy whom Charlotte ate lunch with every day. She gets his photo as well.
Then a moment of truth arrives. All of this has occurred in Rico’s Chacon’s district. Rico is the detective Munch had a torrid affair with a year ago until he cut it off. Munch has a rough time talking with Rico, but she keeps it mostly business and fills him in on the details of the case.
Munch does what she can and visits various shelters and women’s homes. She puts up posters and finds some likely hideouts for Charlotte. She also decides to help Lisa out by moving her belongings from storage to home. When they arrive at the storage unit, they’re both surprised to learn the bill is paid up and the unit has been trashed. It’s Munch who notices a piece of duct tape with Charlotte’s dark hair with the ends dyed orange on it. Now she calls Rico for help, and the evidence team moves in.
The story becomes much more intertwined from here on out. Munch is not alone in her search any longer, and many people, motives, and missions are tied together. The way Barbara Seranella tells a story is so deceptively easy, fluidly sliding from one piece of history to today and on to tomorrow, and back again, from her job to her home life, from her love life to the love of her life, Asia.
I have had the immense pleasure of reading all seven mysteries centered on Munch Mancini which started with the beginning of her sobriety in NO HUMAN INVOLVED, and continuing on through NO OFFENSE INTENDED, UNWANTED COMPANY, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, NO MAN STANDING, and UNPAID DUES. Munch is above all, a survivor in the world of the 1970s and 1980s. Her own father was scum to her, but she’s a model mother to her own daughter. She’s learned so many lessons in life and through living life that she applies one day at a time.
I am so damned proud of Munch Mancini and all she has accomplished in these years. If I ever had the chance to meet her in person, I’d definitely want to be good friends.
June 7, 2022
Read in 2004. Engaging and complex protagonist.
Read
May 28, 2014Unwilling Accomplice, by Barbara Seranella, b-plus, Narrated by Paul Boehmer, Produced by audible inc., downloaded from audible.com.
In this, the seventh in the Munch Mansini series, Munch receives a call from Lisa Slocum, the sister of Sleazy John, Asia’s dead father. Munch thought Lisa and her daughters had been relocated by the feds in the witness protection program and she really didn’t have any wish to see Lisa again. But it seems Lisa left the program and is now back in California with her daughters, and now it seems her daughters want to meet their cousin, Asia. Munch isn’t that thrilled but agrees to meet them in a park. The meeting doesn’t go real well except that the cousins seem excited to meet. Then a few days later Munch gets a call at work that Charlotte, the older of the two girls, is missing and Lisa says she’s been kidnapped. She doesn’t want Munch to go to the police and she seems to know things that she won’t tell Munch, but Munch agrees to try to help anyway for the sake of the little girls. She does however insist on involving at least her cop friend, Detective St. John, and her former boy friend, Rico, a homicide cop. Then a boy’s body is found, someone in Charlotte’s class, and another boy has been killed as well. Munch and the police believe there are connections between those two deaths and Charlotte’s disappearance, and also with some missing jewelry from a wealthy family. This is again one of those thrillers filled with auto-mechanical know-how that Seranella was great at writing. Many surprises and twists and turns, including some possibility that Munch and Rico might get back together. Quite good, but more focus on the romance in this one than I was interested in.
In this, the seventh in the Munch Mansini series, Munch receives a call from Lisa Slocum, the sister of Sleazy John, Asia’s dead father. Munch thought Lisa and her daughters had been relocated by the feds in the witness protection program and she really didn’t have any wish to see Lisa again. But it seems Lisa left the program and is now back in California with her daughters, and now it seems her daughters want to meet their cousin, Asia. Munch isn’t that thrilled but agrees to meet them in a park. The meeting doesn’t go real well except that the cousins seem excited to meet. Then a few days later Munch gets a call at work that Charlotte, the older of the two girls, is missing and Lisa says she’s been kidnapped. She doesn’t want Munch to go to the police and she seems to know things that she won’t tell Munch, but Munch agrees to try to help anyway for the sake of the little girls. She does however insist on involving at least her cop friend, Detective St. John, and her former boy friend, Rico, a homicide cop. Then a boy’s body is found, someone in Charlotte’s class, and another boy has been killed as well. Munch and the police believe there are connections between those two deaths and Charlotte’s disappearance, and also with some missing jewelry from a wealthy family. This is again one of those thrillers filled with auto-mechanical know-how that Seranella was great at writing. Many surprises and twists and turns, including some possibility that Munch and Rico might get back together. Quite good, but more focus on the romance in this one than I was interested in.
November 13, 2010
#7 Munch Mancini mystery set in 1980's Los Angeles, and featuring our favorite female mechanic and ex-junkie. Things are going along well for Munch and her adopted daughter Asia when a blast from the past--Asia's aunt Lisa and her two girls--call and ask to get together. Munch, clean and sober for many years now, is always reluctant to let her past leak into her new, stable life, but Lisa is Asia's blood kin and Asia wants to meet her cousins, so she agrees.
When the elder daughter Charlotte goes missing a couple of days later, a distraught Lisa calls Munch as the police don't seem very interested in a Goth-looking fifteen-year-old whom they think ran away. Charlotte was friends with a boy who was killed a few days previously as part of a robbery, and Munch wonders if this had something to do with her disappearance--Lisa is convinced she was abducted, and some threatening phone calls later bear this out.
Meanwhile, Munch learns some interesting information about Rico, her former boyfriend who had broken their relationship off when his ex-girlfriend turned up pregnant, as he planned to 'do the right thing' and marry her.
I always enjoy a visit with Munch and Asia and Munch's unique perspective on life and this book was no exception. Only one left in the series. :(
When the elder daughter Charlotte goes missing a couple of days later, a distraught Lisa calls Munch as the police don't seem very interested in a Goth-looking fifteen-year-old whom they think ran away. Charlotte was friends with a boy who was killed a few days previously as part of a robbery, and Munch wonders if this had something to do with her disappearance--Lisa is convinced she was abducted, and some threatening phone calls later bear this out.
Meanwhile, Munch learns some interesting information about Rico, her former boyfriend who had broken their relationship off when his ex-girlfriend turned up pregnant, as he planned to 'do the right thing' and marry her.
I always enjoy a visit with Munch and Asia and Munch's unique perspective on life and this book was no exception. Only one left in the series. :(
September 6, 2007
UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE (Amateur Sleuth - non-cozy) – G+
Barbara Saranella – 7th book
Munch Mancini receives a call from her daughter's aunt, who wants the girl to meet her cousins. When one of the cousins goes missing soon after the meeting, Munch is drawn into finding the girl and discovers a ring of exploited and endangered children and teens.
***I didn’t feel this was the strongest book of the series and found the story a bit less suspenseful than others in the past. It’s interesting that as Munch becomes more “mainstream,” which is great for the growth of the character, she is less edgy and interesting. It’s still a very good series with a wonderful, strong, female character, but I’m going to be interested to see where it goes from here.
Barbara Saranella – 7th book
Munch Mancini receives a call from her daughter's aunt, who wants the girl to meet her cousins. When one of the cousins goes missing soon after the meeting, Munch is drawn into finding the girl and discovers a ring of exploited and endangered children and teens.
***I didn’t feel this was the strongest book of the series and found the story a bit less suspenseful than others in the past. It’s interesting that as Munch becomes more “mainstream,” which is great for the growth of the character, she is less edgy and interesting. It’s still a very good series with a wonderful, strong, female character, but I’m going to be interested to see where it goes from here.
March 2, 2013
Munch is another year clean and sober and a hard working, loving mother to Asia, her adopted daughter. When Asia's cousins and aunt turn up living nearby and asking for help, Munch is drawn back into proximity to the tempting world of drugs and booze that she left behind. A world that threatens the lives of her young nieces and makes Munch want to lock Asia up to keep her safe. Even with all precautions, how do you keep your kids safe?
March 27, 2008
not bad.
Read
January 9, 2010ereader ebook
July 29, 2011
Another great Munch book. Want to read so many more books in series alas there is only one more due to the tragic death of Baraba Seranella.
Want to read
February 6, 2008Munch Mancini Bk 7
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews