 |
“... Elmore Leonard fans are going to love Stella’s entirely original contribution to the slice-of-criminal-life genre, down-and-dirty division ... This is the seventh novel from Stella (Mafiya, 2008), who has made the underside of the New York underworld his home.”—Elliott Swanson (Booklist)
“Set in New York City in 1973, Stella’s vibrant seventh crime novel catches the cadence and daily grind of organized crime grunts … Stella tosses an eclectic cast of characters into the mix … admirers of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins will be happy.” —Publishers Weekly
It’s the summer of 1973. Disco is King and the New York mob is at the peak of its power. John Albano, an out-of-work construction worker with child support and rent payments he can’t keep up with, is driving for a local car service when his quick hands and honorable nature place him in the middle of a perfect storm of danger. He’s just trying to make ends meet with a weekend stint counting heads and collecting the take at illegal screenings of the recently banned porno film, Deep Throat, for Mafioso Eddie Vento. But a devious ex-wife, her more devious ex-husband, the wiseguys behind the film (including one obnoxious wannabe with a frenzied beef for Albano), the Fleetwood Eldorado used in the opening scene of the porno film and a host of cops (both good and bad—including the deranged one Albano punched out) snowball into an often humorous, sometimes violent, action-packed page turner loaded with the masterful dialogue that earned Charlie Stella six *starred* reviews and countless comparisons to such masters of the genre as George V. Higgins, Donald Westlake, Elmore Leonard and Mario Puzo over the course of his six contemporary crime novels.
From Chapter 1
One of the men who’d paid to see the movie approached them. He was a heavyset bald man with thick black glasses. He looked at George first, then John. “Whatever happened the other guy?” he asked.
“What other guy?” John said.
“Tommy Porno,” the bald man said. “Guy used to bring the films. He was supposed to get me something. I left him a fifty-dollar deposit last month and he never came back.”
“Sorry, pal,” John said. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“And you are?”
John had dropped down to retie his sneaker laces. Annoyed at the question, he gave the bald man a hard stare. “Excuse me?”
“Just asking.”
“Okay,” Berg said. “You asked. Now leave the man alone.”
“The other guy took a fifty,” the bald man said. “He was supposed to get me a copy of the movie.”
John looked to Berg. “He serious?”
“Maybe that’s why he disappeared,” Berg said, “he was robbing people.”
“I gave him a fifty,” the bald man repeated.
“Then I guess you’re taking a powder for that fifty,” Berg said. “Tommy DeLuca hasn’t been around for more than a month now. I’d get over it, I was you.”
The bald man motioned at John. “Why I was asking him,” he said. “Maybe he knows the guy.”
“Got nothing to do with me what you did with Tommy DeLuca,” John said. “Sorry for your loss.”
The bald man frowned.
“Okay?” George said. “Go get yourself a beer you want. Tell them I said it’s on me.”
Still upset, the bald man walked away.
“I hope I don’t have a nickname,” John said.
“You kidding?” Berg said. “That nasty prick from the bar in Brooklyn used to ask ‘is Tommy Porno there yet?’ Now it’s Johnny Porno he asks for.”
John felt his jaw tighten.
“Screw’em,” Berg said. “Fuck’s in a name?”
“I don’t like it, for one thing,” John said.
Berg shrugged. “What’s his problem anyway, that guy the bar? Comes off like a real asshole.”
“Nick Santorra,” John said. “You’re right, he is an asshole.”
“I think Tommy DeLuca liked the name, tell you the truth. Got his rocks off being called that, Tommy Porno. This mope just now, the one DeLuca beat for a fifty? He’s probably not the only one. Maybe DeLuca did disappear for stealing.”
“He really call me that, Johnny Porno, the guy onna phone?”
Berg shrugged again.
“I got nothing to do with this crap outside of hauling it back and forth weekends,” John said. “I never even seen the damn movie.”
“You like magic acts you should,” Berg said. “See it, I mean. The star, Linda Lovelace, she has some humble tits and all, a crooked tooth or two, but she can swallow a telephone pole. It’s something everyman should get to see at least once before he dies, know what he’s missed.”
“That the line of shit you hawk this thing with?”
Things I'd Rather Be Doing interview here.
New Mystery Reader interview with Charlie Stella and Review of Johnny Porno here.
"Mr. Stella is a natural. As soon as I finished Johnny Porno I gave the book to my son so we could both be wiser-guys. Now I'm going to find all his other novels. He's a true master." --Dow Mossman, The Stones of Summer
“... Elmore Leonard fans are going to love Stella’s entirely original contribution to the slice-of-criminal-life genre, down-and-dirty division ... This is the seventh novel from Stella (Mafiya, 2008), who has made the underside of the New York underworld his home.”—Elliott Swanson (Booklist)
“Johnny Porno is in many ways a master’s class on how to write a novel ... The dialog flows so smooth you’d swear you were over hearing someone’s conversation... He drops you in the middle and lets the reveals of the narrative come naturally through the dialog... Bottom line is that Johnny Porno is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.”—Brian Lindenmuth (Spinetingler Magazine)
“Stella has fun with DEEP THROAT throughout the book, including the idea to sell fake autographed panties ... the book is so well-crafted and well-paced that it’s going to make more than a few best-of lists when the time comes. Stella never goes for the cheap outs, letting these characters develop over the course of his story ... Not only is it a throwback to the 1970s generation, but one that blows away most set in the present day.”—Bruce Grossman (Bookgasm)
"Stella’s novel is intricately plotted, with a cast of fully realised characters and a sly humour that runs just beneath the surface but never undercuts the reality of his writing. Johnny Porno is Stella’s seventh novel, and its his most mature and most convincing yet. If you haven’t discovered Stella yet (and if you haven't, what's your excuse?) you need to start, now." —Crime Scene Scotland
“Set in New York City in 1973, Stella’s vibrant seventh crime novel catches the cadence and daily grind of organized crime grunts … Stella tosses an eclectic cast of characters into the mix … admirers of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins will be happy.” —Publishers Weekly
“The book is Stella’s seventh, and first set in the past. He ably recreates 1973, peppering his text with enough contemporaneous details to keep the reader in the right era, but not so many that it reads like a term paper. As I’ve often said in situations like this, I kick myself for missing out on someone like Stella for so long, but that is ameliorated by the knowledge that I have six slabs of fresh crime fiction to tackle from this master.” —John Kenyon, Things I’d Rather Be Doing
“Charlie Stella has filled Johnny Porno with a wide variety of characters. There are mob enforcers, hit men, crooked cops, good cops, vindictive ex-wives, fragile FBI men, drug addicts, police informants, wannabe porn stars (and those who live like porn stars already), good girls, con men, good guys, cute kids, loyal mothers – and Johnny Porno, a man who hates the nickname he is stuck with and just wants a little respect for his efforts to do right by his son. This is a gritty, complicated story and it is not for the faint-of-heart or the easily offended. If books were rated in the manner of Hollywood movies, Johnny Porno would have earned at least an “R” rating for itself. But if you enjoy Soprano-style fiction, you will not want to miss this one.” —Sam Sattler, The Book Chase
"I must say that Charlie Stella is one of the best writers the crime genre currently has to offer. He's a natural wordsmith, putting down the way people really talk in a way that still reads smoothly — not an easy task. The fact that Stark House Press, who previously focused on reprinting "lost" pulp novels, chose Stella as their first original author — after author Ed Gorman recommended him upon reading the manuscript — says a lot about his peers' respect for him.”— Craig Clarke (Somebody Dies)
"When critics and readers describe him they invariably resort to comparisons with the greats of the genre--Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, and Donald Westlake ... a pitch perfect look at 1973 and the birth of the mainstream porn industry in a book packed with a wide cast of characters, numerous subplots, entertaining dialogue, enough factual/historical context for a documentary, and plenty of action. And if that's not enough for you, the novel is leavened with healthy doses of humor." —The Brothers Judd
"Another good job by Stella. Multiple characters and storylines all joining together at the end. Stella is good at pacing the story among the different characters and increasing that for the climax at the end." —Books Are For Squares.
“This is a hell of a novel. Epic, yet human scale... It s wonderfully fresh and alive.” —Craig McDonald, author of Head Games, Toros and Torsos and Print The Legend
“Psycho cops, bent cops, straight cops, Feds, wiseguys, good women, bad women,really bad women, guys on the make, gamblers, dumbasses, good guys, bad guys. This book's got 'em all (and more), and all so well-drawn that they seem like real people. There are also three or four plots going in, and they all converge in the final pages. I don't know how Stella managed to keep all the balls in the air, but he doesn't drop a one. Stark House's first original is a winner.”—Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodess series and several other novels
“Stella is of the George V. Higgins school and tells the story through compelling dialogue ... Like Higgins, Stella isn’t afraid to let action occur offstage, to be described by the principals after the fact. In Stella’s hands, this adds to the suspense, as he understands every overt climax lessens tension at its conclusion, while covert climaxes continue to ratchet it up.”—Dana King, (New Mystery Reader)
“Charlie Stella has a gift for nailing the colorful characters in this seedy little corner of New York. The dialog couldn’t be more authentic, and from page one I was transported to a hot, gritty landscape full of guys who say ‘yous’ and women who are used to being used ... I relished how the focus was on the guys at the bottom of the totem pole, and I got to see what happens to the drivers, runners, and climbers who associate with organized crime. It ain’t pretty.”—Rebecca Baumann, (Dirty Sexy Books)
"A plot whose pacing is as fast as a pack of greyhounds and at the same time, miraculously, as crazily and craftily constructed as a Marx Brothers movie or a Rube Goldberg machine. A hungry menagerie of good guys and bad guys at feeding time. A writing style that’s top-shelf. Some side-orders of Suspense. Romance. Black Humor. All seasoned liberally with Sex, Violence, Drugs, and Rock and Roll. What else will readers find in JOHNNY PORNO? A novel that shouldn’t be this much fun or pleasurable. That’s Charlie Stella’s real crime."—Lynn Kostoff, Author of Late Rain (Tyrus Books 2010), A Choice Of Nightmares (New Pulp Press 2010), The Long Fall (Carroll and Graf 2003)
"While Stella points to George V. Higgins as inspiration, I see comparisons to a couple of my favorite contemporary authors who I think also excel at dialogue, George Pelacanos and Richard Price. Through Stella, you can practically smell the garlic on the breath of the wiseguys trying to intimidate, strain to hear cops jerking each other around through hot dog stuffed faces, wince at the lunacy of an ex-wife going off the deep end, and nod approvingly when someone does a decent thing for Johnny. Why Stella’s books aren’t flying off the main table at the front door of Barnes/Noble and Borders is, in itself, a crime." --East Coast Don , Men Reading Books
“Johnny Porno is a terrific Nixon Era crime caper reminiscent of Elmore Leonard. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action and violence, and stars a seemingly hapless chump struggling to survive in a cesspool. With the fun look at pop culture in circa 1973 enhancing the plot, readers, especially boomers, will enjoy Johnny Porno’s New York joy ride.” —Harriet Klausner (The Mystery Gazette)
“… Charlie Stella’s JOHNNY PORNO is the man’s best yet, and I’ve been a fan of his work for years since someone slipped me an arc of CHARLIE OPERA in ’05.” — Russel D. McLean, Author of THE GOOD SON and THE LOST SISTER (From an Interview with CRIME SCENE NI (Northern Ireland))
“Johnny Porno is exactly that – a hard man chasing the tail that won’t pay for the tears. By first reminding us of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and then translating its rhetorical question into the vernacular of our romantically challenged times, Stella’s way with words does the near impossible; it finds a way from pornography to romance in the paradox of power and impotence peculiar to all of us: ‘Fuck’s in a name?’” — Len Wanner, University of Edinburgh.
Ed Gorman: “I was privileged to read Charlie Stella’s knockout novel Johnny Porno in manuscript. I mentioned it to Greg Shepard at Stark House and he said that while he might like it he wasn’t sure about publishing an original novel. He read it and changed his mind immediately: Here’s what Greg wrote today:
“Up until now I’ve resisted publishing anything that wasn’t a reprint of what I considered a classic or long-neglected mystery. But when Ed Gorman introduced me to Charlie Stella’s new book, I simply couldn’t resist. Johnny Porno is set in 1970’s New York when Deep Throat is being hustled around town by the mob and a guy named John Albano is just trying to get by. This book’s got it all: gangsters and wannabes, cops both crooked and not, hustlers and informers, crazy ex-wives and resourceful girlfriends; and crackling dialog that’s so real you can hear it. I couldn’t put it down. Because nobody writes mob fiction like Charlie Stella. He’s the real deal. And it’s a real pleasure knowing I’ll be working with him on Johnny Porno. Stark House Press steps out.” — Greg Shepard