The Exceptions

July 2, 2012
Cristofano knows a good story when he writes one. So he’s sticking with the tale he told in his Edgar-nominated first novel, The Girl She Used to Be, about a girl in the federal Witness Protection Program and her would-be assassin. This time Cristofano adopts, à la Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Johnny Bovaro’s point of view. When Johnny, the third son of a crime boss in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, came upon the scene of a mob hit in one of his dad’s restaurants as a young man, he told a crooked cop that there were other witnesses present as well—a little girl and her parents—unwittingly condemning them to the life that will be familiar to readers of The Girl She Used to Be. Although Johnny grows up to become the one family member no other Bovaro understands, “the rebel” of the family, he is nonetheless eventually dispatched to clean up this loose end, which means unearthing and targeting the innocent family and their lovely daughter for assassination. Instead, he becomes obsessed with protecting the young woman, following her bleak existence as she exchanges one identity for another, until he can stand it no longer. As Johnny contemplates a different future than he’d ever envisioned, he struggles to overcome his indelible bonds to his violent family. An intriguing companion piece and a good read. Agent: Pamela Harty, the Knight Agency.

August 15, 2012
In Cristofano's (The Girl She Used to Be, 2009) latest, an all-American suburban family stumbles upon Mafioso justice in New York City's Little Italy. Arthur, Lydia and Melody McCartney only want breakfast. What they find is the bloody aftermath of Don Tony Bovaro settling a score with Jimmy "the Rat." The family flees, but 10-year-old Jonathan, the Don's son, idly copies their car's license plate number and naively relays it to the police, who come questioning. The McCartney family enters the Federal Witness Security Program. Meanwhile, an empire is endangered, and its emperor is in peril. The murder case is dismissed on a technicality, but the McCartneys become a target of revenge. Thus begins Edgar Award nominated Cristofano's psychological thriller; a tale of vengeance and love. Spurred by mob-logic, the job eventually falls to Jonathan, a mission made relatively simple by the mob's manipulation of a gambling-addicted government computer specialist with the capacity to trace the McCartney's whereabouts. Initially, Jonathan and his cousin are dispatched to Wisconsin to eliminate the McCartneys, but for reasons he cannot fully understand, Jonathan cannot kill Melody, even as he tries but cannot prevent his cousin's murder of her parents. He is sent after her again, and again, but instead of killing Melody, he becomes her protector, soon comprehending her innocence and fragility, loneliness and vulnerability. A love grows that he cannot admit. Cristofano gives veracity to crime-family life while creating protagonists as cinematic characters; Melody in her beauty and vulnerability, John in his duality, his propensity for violence contrasted against a passion both redemptive and fraught with hope that he might escape the bloody norms of crime-family life. To suggest the novel is The Godfather rendered by Nicholas Sparks does it no justice, for Cristofano can ratchet up dramatic tension and then send readers off on a tangent, only to once again draw nail-biting scenes. Unique premise, empathetic characters, believable villains, all beautifully played out as a tale of the limits of love and loyalty.

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August 1, 2012
Jonathan Bovaro was born into a Mob family, but he's never quite taken to its violent ways. All the same, he doesn't want to end up sleeping with the fishes. So when young Melody Grace McCartney and her family witness one of the Bovaro clan's murderous episodes, Jonathan, along with his cousin, accepts the dubious assignment of doing away with the witnesses. The pair meets with only partial success. The mother and father are slain, but Melody remains alive. For the next two decades, Jonathan follows Melody's every move, admiring her from afar as she blossoms into a lovely young woman. Of course, falling in love with the enemy is a big Mob no-no. The two eventually unite, and Jonathan has the nerve to bring Melody home to his less-than-avuncular father. Much drama ensues, and eventually the two must part waysthen they're back together (you get the idea). Bovaro is the quintessential conflicted soul, and Cristofano's tale of a goombah with a heart starts with a bang but fizzles a bit along the way. Still, it offers a nice twist on the standard Mob thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)