A wildly pleasurable, perfectly written gritty crime drama.
The glitz and lasciviousness that only mid-century Las Vegas can impart is the colorful backbone of Maximum Rossi: A Las Vegas Crime Noir. Massimo ‘Max’ Rossi came to Vegas for a bachelor party but stayed for reasons he can’t clearly define. Although he’s far from the family business back in Boston, the family business is never far from Max. With plenty of mobsters holding a grudge or defending their turf, Max is always on someone’s radar. A tough guy, he takes all of this in stride. But when a rival turns up dead, Max is up to his ears in trouble with both the mobsters and the police. His best hope and his alibi comes in the form of a lovely dancer who just happens to be missing. With danger around every corner and few people to trust, the cards are stacked against him.
Maximum Rossi: A Las Vegas Crime Noir is a wildly pleasurable and perfectly written gritty crime drama. With the full complement of sin-city vices and seedy gangsters, Paul W. Papa does brilliant justice to the Crime Noir genre. All of the anticipated stereotypes are included, taking readers a trippy journey to a Las Vegas that most of us have only seen in black and white movies. While reading, I could practically hear a gravelly voice narrating Max’s thoughts: “I was Italian after all. I took a pledge to love the church, my mother, and a good meatball.” Rounding out the story are many distinctive supporting characters, like the ever loyal pit boss Bobby, making it endlessly entertaining. Replete with loads of action and pithy dialogue, Maximum Rossi: A Las Vegas Crime Noir is easy to love and hard to put down!
