Smiling Wolf

Third prize in the Creative Writing Class
An earnest effort but if you want good, cliché free writing, engaging and well drawn characters and an interesting plot line you'll need to avoid this little oddity. Okay if you're on holiday in another country and it's the only book available in English.

A KILLER PLOT...
A friend of mine recommended this book, thinking that I would enjoy it as it was both a mystery and a vampire story. Although it was an odd melding of genres, I have enjoyed the Anita Blake, vampire hunter, series of books by Laurell Hamilton, so I thought I would give the book a try. As it was by an author with whom I was unfamiliar, I admit that I was prepared to be disappointed. Instead, this plot driven book, peppered with intriguing characters, moved along at a brisk pace, and I found myself reading a book that I simply could not put down! Frank De Nardo, a former NYPD homicide detective, is now a private investigator in New York City. When he is approached by the father of a well-known author to investigate his daughter's mysterious disappearance, De Nardo unknowingly takes on a missing person's case that could have life or death consequences for him. Drawn into the shadowy netherworld of a seemingly shady, yet powerful character named Dracol, De Nardo finds himself becoming embroiled in a bizarre world that he never knew existed. As the body count mounts, the only question is who will come out on top, Dracol or De Nardo? Those who enjoy mysteries, police procedurals, or simply vampire novels, should enjoy this fast-paced, plot driven book.

I adored this book...
I feel compelled to address the posting here of TJ Epps. I found his critique so far off base, so mean-spirited and untrue, that I had to respond. On the cover of the edition of SMILING WOLF there was no mention of Gore Vidal or Robert Graves, however, I would readily liken Carlo's writing style to James Cain, Chandler, and Daschle Hammett . Carlo's writing is terse, with a sense of the street naturally woven into the narrative. TJ gleefully cites examples of improbabilities, each of the mare false and without merit. He talks about a photograph of a woman found in the river, wondering how a photograph could be given to the media,considering the girl's decomposition. What Carlo wrote was that a photo of the girl while she was still alive was given to the press. Personally, I love this book. It dragged me into a netherworld I knew nothing about. Personally, I found it so believable that it gave me nightmares. Like other readers here, I read the book in one sitting, it was so compelling-- interesting and original. Both my husband and I can highly recommend the book and wee are both hopeful it will be made into a film. We especially liked when the story moved to Rome, Italy. BRAVO, PHILIP CARLO.

Not his genre, nor his medium
Promising premise with a jacket blurb comparing Carlo's writing to Gore Vidal and Robert Graves. Too bad I mistook its sarcasm. Philip Carlo has no first-hand knowledge of the scene he's portraying. His brandishing of secondary sources betrays his belief that his reader's must know less than he does. For instance, this clumsy elucidation: Club Blood is described as "'hot; all kind of weirdos -- vampire freaks, heavy-metal stars, Satanists, tops, and bottoms -- hang out there.' [Tops are sexual sadists and masochists are known as bottoms.]" Thanks, Dr. Phil. What's that in that paragraph opposite? Oh, an unnecessarily verbose geography lesson: "...Dracol was a suspect in the disappearances of women in three different countries -- in the cities of Berlin, Paris, and Madrid." Glad he makes it clear he's not talking about those three towns in Ohio, a state that also has many others such as Toledo, Lima, and Athens. More beloved than his use of the dash as all-around punctuation, is the chaining together of often redudent modifying cliches to stumble before or drag behind any given noun. As a stylistic tic it made me want to scream for him to make up his mind and pick one. More cluelessness as De Nardo, our hero, describes a 1-BR condo he picked up on Central Park West in the 1980's "before the prices around there became ridiculous." During that period, I lived in a Westside condo on Broadway that at $1.2 mil was no bargain. Solely to further the narrative, the protagonist prepares to discover clues on a body that are sure to have been missed by the morgue's pathologist, because, as he explains, "I'm good at what I do." Apparently going to medical school is strictly for those who aren't as capable. And while were on the improbable, try this: the bloodless body of a girl from New Orleans is dragged from the river. Despite the disfigurement that bloating and and hungry fish do, the picture is run in the paper, where the girl's mother identifies her. Her bifocals must have had that special enhance function you get by clicking your computer keys loudly for a few seconds in bad cop dramas. Forgive me if these seems like nits, but when every third line runs through your head like glass shards glued to string, reading becomes a painful slog to tiring to continue. If this is really the successor to Vidal and Graves, then suck me dry and throw me to the eels.

vampire murder drama
This is a damn good author. Carlo writes with a flow that kept me hooked and I started and finished this book in the same day. All the characters in this vampire murder drama are well developed. The sexy woman is erotically described and the main character, De Nardo is perfectly set in this story. I can see DeNiro playing the movie version of this book. Good read!