Smiling Wolf

by Philip Carlo

Detective Frank De Nardo must find a beautiful reporter who mysteriously vanished after interviewing an enigmatic man named Santos Dracol, an investigation that leads him into a dark world of perversion, power, sex, and murder where he must confront the unthinkable. Original.

Genres: Mystery

321 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

About the author

Philip Carlo was the author of The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, his New York Times bestselling book about Richard “Ice Man” Kuklinski, murderer of 200 people and a favorite among all seven of the East Coast crime families. He was also the author of Gaspipe, The Butcher, and The Night Stalker, which chronicles the brutal career of serial killer Richard Ramirez. Carlo grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, amidst the world’s highest concentration of Mafia members. When he was 16, Carlo was shot in the head in a gang war, and while recuperating, he read voraciously, discovering the magic of books for the first time. His intimate knowledge of Mafia culture—their walk and their talk—helped Carlo become a successful crime writer. He died in 2010 from ALS.

Reviews

[Stevedutch · Rating 1 out of 5]

An earnest effort but if you want good, cliché free writing, engaging and well drawn characters and an interesting plot line you’ll need to avoid this little oddity. Okay if you’re on holiday in another country and it’s the only book available in English.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat addictive, in the same way The Da Vinci Code was; unfortunately, it was as good. A massive buildup of the underground world of vampires is just a smokescreen for a serial killer story. But hey, a quick read done in one day.

Philosophical conundrum: can you resist a book whose cover blurb is an endorsement by Robert DeNiro?

[Robert Noll · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vampire, the mafia, a torrid love affair and a “blink and you’ll miss it” ending combine for a cheesy story. I wanted it to work. I really did.

[Anya · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a very unfortunate read. The book felt very plain. Over explanation of every reference put the last nail in the coffin (a nice put considering the plot).

[Alexis Reads Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got this book from a “little library”. Thought it was gonna be about vampires, was misled, did not finish. Switched to reading about vampires

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank De Nardo is a P.I. hired to find a missing woman who has become mixed up in the vampire scene of New York, which is comprised of human vampire wannabe's, or so it would largely seem...

The writing style employed is very simplistic; there are no real descriptions and every piece of dialogue or action is geared towards propelling the story to its conclusion meaning that any characterisation falls by the wayside (instead, just take it as read that virtually everyone that you meet is extremely damaged and has most likely been horrifically abused at some point of their lives). That said, it also means that this is a very fast paced read that's only slightly disappointing come the (anti) climax. I can't help but think that a vampire versus the Mafia should have been awesome and would have made for some entertaining battles, but instead the confrontation (if you could call it that) and culmination of events took all of a page to get through. However, this is still an interesting enough diversion that's easy to pick up and put down meaning that you can still have a life whilst reading it instead of being consumed utterly as I frequently am with other books.

[Nez · Rating 3 out of 5]

>....>.. VAMPIRES WAS COOL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> HEHEHEHE