In a Small Town by Marc A. DiGiacomo Review! and Giveaway!!!

Synopsis:

The shotgun blast catches Detective Matthew Longo by surprise. His world unravels into a nightmare that seemingly won't end. Murder, rapes, pedophiles, the small town of Hutchville, N.Y. is changing. It is up to him to make a difference. While partner Donny Mello is in Italy attending a funeral for a family member who is connected, to say the least, a beautiful F.B.I. agent waits to question him about his family business. Can Matt keep from answering the Agents questions? More importantly, can he hide a potentially career-ending secret from his community, his brother, and most especially Agent Cynthia Shyler?

Excerpt:

Chapter One Not In Our Town I can’t get it out of my mind. The lightning that exploded from the end of the barrel. The ripping orange flash off the black steel. The smell of gunpowder. The sound, like an M-80. And the pain—the fucking searing pain. It is permanently scorched into my memory. Everything but his face. The face I didn’t see haunts me every second. All I remember are those ultra-white Reebok sneakers as he ran away. The fucking coward would have shot me in the back, but I turned around and caught the blast in the chest. I didn’t have time to pull my Glock.The shot knocked me to the ground. I thought I was having a heart attack—I couldn’t catch my breath. Then I understood what happened, and reality hit: I was going to die. It seemed to take minutes rather than seconds, but I managed to radio into headquarters. The response from the good guys was impressive, to say the least. They saved my life. Cops from my own town and others surrounded the scene. I knew they would come. When a cop gets shot, they all come, and with one thing in mind—to find the bastard who pulled the trigger. Things grew foggy. I saw blue uniforms scurrying around the scene while white-clad EMTs lifted me onto the gurney and loaded me into the ambulance. I could hear people talking about me—reporters, other cops, curious residents. “Detective Matthew Longo…Only 29 years old, been on the force nearly 10 years…Shot in the fucking chest and shoulder. No wife or children. Parents live in town; Hutchville lifers. Oh yeah, the town is going to go batshit over this.” Blood oozed from my left shoulder. My friend and paramedic Scotty Franks hovered over me and placed direct pressure on my wound. Even through my fog I could tell he was holding back tears. My shoulder was on fire. I never wore my bulletproof vest unless making entry on a search warrant, or if a hot pursuit was coming my way; then I quickly threw it over my shirt. I was lucky I had it on that night. Maybe someone on the other side was looking out for me. I fell unconscious even with all the shouting around me. I dreamed of my funeral and who would be there. I saw myself in the blue box surrounded by a sobbing crowd of familiar faces. My parents looked horrible. My poor mother clutched her bible and rosary beads. My dad kept his eyes glued to the floor, angry and broken. My little brother Franny, in full uniform, stood near my casket at full attention, his white gloves damp from tears. Donny was there too, trying to keep it together. I heard Scotty screaming for me in the distance. The poor guy loved me, but why was he screaming my name, spitting all over my face, at my wake? Maybe I should have had a closed casket. Suddenly I felt him slapping me. I awoke and found myself back inside the ambulance. Scotty took a deep breath, in and out, and said, “Okay Matt, okay. Don’t do that again.” The pain was relentless, and I couldn’t help but cry. Scotty put a needle into an IV line in my arm and the pain vanished almost immediately. “Don’t give me morphine Scotty,” I managed to whisper. “It killed my grandparents.” Then I lost consciousness again, falling into a world between life and death. I heard someone screaming in the night. Was it me? It was too dark to see. Where’s Donny? I really needed him now. Was I dreaming again or was this some delusion of reality? I slapped myself and felt a sharp sting, jolting me awake. It has been three weeks of hell living inside this apartment. My social life has been placed on indefinite hold. The phone rings constantly but who cares? I don’t answer. The window shades are drawn. I don’t know if its day or night, and I don’t give a shit. Thankfully, the wound has been healing well. But I look at my shoulder and am repulsed by the scar and missing flesh. People say scars are sexy but this one may be the exception. My left arm is still in a sling. At times, the pain is still unbearable. The Percocet I’m still taking makes me pass out. The sink is loaded with paper dishes and plastic cups. Last week’s dinner from my mother sits on the kitchen table still wrapped in tin foil, and the smell is starting to ferment in my kitchen. I can hear my Dad’s deep voice in my head: “Why don’t you pull it together and clean up around here? You’re making your mother nervous.” She’s nervous? I can’t help laughing. Hey Dad, your oldest son was almost shot dead in the same small, safe community where we played Little League baseball. Mind if I take a week or two to let that one sink in? Only cops—and maybe some of their wives—realize how dangerous police work can become in a millisecond. Parents of cops usually choose to ignore the reality—it’s too difficult to accept that a life-or-death choice awaits their son or daughter at any moment. A bank robbery turns into a shootout; a wanted felon gets pulled over for a broken tail-light and decides suicide by cop is his only way to avoid a lengthy jail sentence. As a detective, this is my everyday reality. This isn’t supposed to happen in a small town. We’ve never had a police shooting—never. In fact, the last time we had any kind of criminal shooting was ten years ago, and it was a domestic dispute between a father and his cheating son-in-law. These old-school Italians are no joke.

My Review:

I do not like cliffhangers, actually I take away a star, because to me the book is not finished. With that being said I could find no other faults with this book, and since it is blatantly stated that it is a series, then I will only be taking away half a star! The life of a detective is a dangerous one. Matthew is in the line of fire, will he ever find out why? I really liked the other characters in the book, and at a certain point when Matthew was being visited I actually giggled. He puts his foot in his mouth and it is perfectly timed. I was surprised by the way the book progressed and I was shocked by certain characters and their "ties" to other characters. This was more than I expected, and I will definitely be reading more by this author. The book was a very easy read, and it only took me a day to read it. There were some questions answered at the end, but there was also a cliffhanger. Overall this was a great mystery and thriller! I am giving this book a 4/5! I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own! I also liked the true to life depression that the author wrote into the book!

Interview Questions:

1. Will the sequel have a subplot?

2. since book 1 is 176 pages, how long do you think book 2 will be? longer or shorter?

3. Why did you pick Italy for your partner to travel to?

4. Is Cynthia Shyler in book 2?

5. How small is the town, and what town did you think of while writing the book?

6. What would you like to tell my reader about your book?

1. The sequel will have a subplot, but it will be nothing like what occurred in the first book. I am in the middle of book two right now and it is developing into something that even has me completely shocked. As the writer, one would think I am in control of the story line, however sometimes the characters dictate which direction the plot will take. 

2. Well, page count for me is not that important. What is important is keeping my readers engaged. With the way book two is developing it appears that the page count will be slightly higher, quite possibly in the 200 page area. But I don’t want it to be too long—as an avid reader I sometimes get frustrated when a well-known author writes a 400 page novel that loses me somewhere in the middle.

3. Italy is a big part of my heritage and as a new writer it made sense to start with what I know. I always wanted to travel to Italy and hope that this series takes me there for the research, of course.

4. Special Agent Cynthia Shyler will appear in the second book. The reader will definitely get to know her better and so will Detective Matt Longo. But that is all I will say about their relationship for now.

5. Hutchville, New York is a fictional town that I created which has some similarities to the town I worked for as a police detective. That town is called Harrison, N.Y., and is a wonderful community within Westchester County. Harrison is approximately twenty square miles and has a population of about twenty five thousand residents. There is a high Italian American population within Harrison that boils over into the Hutchville story line. Naturally as a Harrison native and former police officer my experiences and perspective draw heavily from it, but a lot of what’s in the book is a combination of things I witnessed firsthand as well as accounts from my fellow police officers in neighboring small towns.

6    6. If you are a fan of crime novels, you just found a very unique story. Even though the book is fiction there are chapters that are modeled after true events that I experienced firsthand. This is the book for someone who wants to read what real cops deal with on an everyday basis. So much       Hollywood fluff has been injected into television shows, and some people believe the stories they watch on “C.S.I.” are real and truthful. Evidence is never ready in forty five minutes nor does a police officer ever draw his weapon with his/her finger on the trigger. This book offers a reader an inside look at the life of a police officer and the possibilities of crime inside a small town. Oh, and the cat story, that one is true! Enjoy!

My Giveaway:

I can giveaway 1 ecopy of "In a Small Town" to one of my lucky readers! Usa Only. Good Luck 

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Book Details

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Published by: Infinity Publishing
Publication Date: 9/21/2012
Number of Pages: 176
ISBN: 0741478862 ** This is the first book in a series **
This book contains: Excessive strong language, Graphic violence, & Explicit sexual scenes

Author Bio:

The author is a retired and highly decorated police detective who worked for an affluent community within the State of New York. He has worked with numerous police agencies at the local, county, state and federal levels on various investigative assignments. He currently resides in New York with his wife and three children.

Websites & Links:

 

Thank you to Marc DiGiacomo and Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for generously offering this book to me for review. If you'd like to join in on an upcoming tour just stop by their sites and sign up today! All opinions are my own!

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