Wednesday, March 28, 2012

"Rizzo’s Daughter"

Lou Manfredo, author of Rizzo’s Fire and Rizzo’s War, worked in the Brooklyn criminal justice system for twenty-five years. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Brooklyn Noir.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Rizzo’s Daughter, his third novel, and reported the following:
The Page 69 Test for Rizzo’s Daughter catches Sgt. Joe Rizzo in the midst of a tense, high pressure investigation into the car-jacking of a young mother and child. Although the case is secondary to the broader theme of the book, the page manages to prove reflective of the novel’s essence.

In this, the third of my Rizzo trilogy, the narrative tension and general pace of the over-riding story line has been considerably increased from the earlier two books. The ancillary investigation captured on page 69 serves as a good barometer for the novel itself: Quicker, crisper and more power punched than its precedents, the book represents a gear shift which I had long planned. One example, Rizzo no longer has a rookie partner to mentor. Instead, he is teamed up with the savvy, seasoned Sixty-second Precinct veteran, Detective First Grade Mark Ginsberg. Sadly, we don’t see too much of Mark on page 69, but trust me on this: He’s a guy to watch, an extremely entertaining character. I had a great amount of fun playing Mark against Joe Rizzo, and I hope my readers will have a similar experience.

On a personal note, as much as I’ve loved watching Joe work over the course of the first two novels, Rizzo’s Daughter has become my favorite. The ultimate verdict, of course, as always, lies with my readers. I’ll await their feedback and hopefully they’ll agree that Rizzo’s Daughter is a solid, fast read with a stark and darker tone.
Learn more about the book and author at Lou Manfredo's website.

The Page 69 Test: Rizzo's War.

Writers Read: Lou Manfredo (April 2011).

My Book, The Movie: Rizzo's Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue