Every High School has a bully—at least one that makes life hard on everyone else while the teaching staff never notices a thing. Often it is High School where the deviant mind first shows up and begins to explore the nature of evil and its seductive power. Unchecked then, it isn’t surprising when that same deviant mind makes the papers years later as a result of criminal activity often horrific and appalling.
In the here and now, Johnny Style is a private detective, lonely and broke on New Year’s Eve. When turned down by the right lady for the right now, Style begins to head back to his office for no real reason other than he has nothing else to do. After a couple of encounters with various people along the way, he finds an old friend by the name of Jimmy C. on the stoop in front of his office building. Jimmy C. has been savagely beaten with his lips sewed shut and is very near death. Style manages to cut his lips apart and Jimmy C. tells him that Santana Santiago did it over a drug debt before passing away in his arms.
This isn’t the first time Santiago has killed someone close to Style. Johnny Style and Santana Santiago have clashed since High School when Style, new to the area and the school, inadvertently got into Santiago’s way. When Style began dating Anita, Santiago’s girlfriend, it made things personal and something never man has ever gotten over. What should have been over by graduation instead has turned into a sort of blood feud with Santiago taking his growing rage and need for vengeance out on Style’s friends. Style hasn’t been able to stop him and finally, Santiago seems ready to finish the game, once and for all.
Written in the stylistic style of the old pulp fiction novels, this 165-page read was very fast and very good. While I, as a reader, am not a fan of the use of flashbacks, the nearly 100 page continuous flashback in this novel works and works well. By doing so and in such great detail, the author not only provides a foundation for this book as to how it all began for Style but for the planned series as a whole.
With such a cast of unique characters as well as a strong, complex protagonist, this book is well worth reading. Assuming the author lives up to the potential and unique style of his voice, this should be the start of a very enjoyable series.
It Isn’t Easy Being Johnny Style
Patrick K. Jassoy
Booklocker
March 2003
ISBN # 1-59113-152-9
Large Trade Paperback
176 Pages
$13.95
Material supplied by the author at the time in exchange for my objective review. Sadly, since the above review was written in 2003, it seems that the author has not published another book.
Patti Abbott was unavailable today to collect links, so for the complete list of books for Friday's Forgotten Books surf over to Todd Mason's always excellent blog, Sweet Freedom.
Kevin R. Tipple (c)2011
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