Dead Cat Bounce by Norman Green

Dead Cat Bounce
By Norman Green
Harper
$13.95
ISBN 0-06-085169-4
Trade Paperback
Mystery Thriller

Say “Hello” again to the three fellows to whom you were introduced in Norman Green’s first novel, Shooting Dr. Jack: Stoney, Fat Tommy, and Tuco. Even though it wouldn’t surprise you to find these guys feeling quite at home in an episode of The Sopranos, all three are otherwise occupied and up-to-their-necks in adventures and problems in Green’s latest excellent caper, Dead Cat Bounce.

First of all, there is Stoney, and—putting it mildly—he is having problems. After years of over-indulgence in substances that are not so good for his health and are even more devastating to his family life, this tough guy from New Jersey who has had a long record of questionable affiliations with all sorts of wise guys is now several months into his recovery program. His A.A. sponsor Benny encourages him simply to go to meetings, work the program, and take one day at a time. But for someone like Stoney, that’s not so easy. He and his wife are split up (and she is not in a mood for forgiveness or reconciliation), he sees his daughter and son only rarely, and he is not sure how long he can stay sober. Getting drunk is beginning to seem like a very good idea.

When his seventeen-year-old daughter Marisa travels from her home in Jersey to see Stoney at his borrowed apartment in lower Manhattan, Stoney quickly finds out that there are big problems at home, and he needs to do something fast, especially as it relates to a certain Charles David Prior of Alpine, New Jersey, a man who seems to be getting a little too close to Stoney’s family. So, in an effort to check out and thwart the wealthy but enigmatic Prior, Stoney enlists the services of a couple of private investigators (one of whom disappears from the job after being frightened off rather quickly by a murder, and another who is brutally, forcibly, and permanently removed from the job when too much is discovered). As a backup to his P.I. strategy, Stoney wisely calls upon Fat Tommy Roselli (a.k.a., Tommy Bagadonuts) and a young fellow known simply as Tuco.

Fat Tommy is a remarkable man who loves, “in no particular order, young women, [ . . . ] fine food, fat women, [ . . . ] good wine, middle-aged women, expensive cars, the company of competent men, [and] women with gray hair who still know how to take care of themselves.” Loyal, stubborn, and well-connected, Fat Tommy is in a very good position to help Stoney; moreover, Fat Tommy can call upon further specialized assistance from lots of friends, including the restlessly romantic and remarkably intuitive Tuco, a nineteen-year-old fellow from Brooklyn Heights who has unlimited potential in the extra-legal world dominated by thieves, liars, and con-artists.

Together, Stoney, Fat Tommy, and Tuco begin working on the Charles David Prior problem but they soon make some startling discoveries. All is not as it seems back home across the Hudson in New Jersey. Marisa hasn’t exactly been very honest with Stoney, Prior is more dangerous than anyone could have at first imagined, and an alarming accumulation of seedy characters and brutal crimes means that Stoney and his friends need to move quickly because everything—absolutely everything that is important to Stoney—is now at stake. So, using an elaborate operation (one that would have impressed the gang in The Sting), Stoney and his cronies—with the help of few well-chosen accomplices—target the egocentric and dangerous Prior. But the already considerable dangers escalate into even more harrowing circumstances, and soon everything is on the verge of spinning wildly and murderously out of control.

Well, that’s enough of the plot preview. Let me wrap this up by saying that Norman Green’s Dead Cat Bounce is one of the very best crime-caper, mystery novels of the past several years. Quite simply, Green’s novel is a topnotch, fast-paced, and compelling story of greed, murder, revenge—and forgiveness. Stoney, Fat Tommy, and Tuco are wonderfully engaging characters who deserve an encore, so let us hope that we’ll see more of these guys from this skillful author who claims to be at home in New Jersey, now working hard on his next novel.