Anthony Flacco

I have never read a book like this in my life. When I finished, I wanted to crawl into a ball and sob but also wanted to throw up at the thought of everything that little boy had to suffer. I'm still shaken up by the book that my stomach is still churning several hours after finishing, but I wanted to write this review while my feelings were so raw.

Unfortunately, I had no idea what the Wineville murders were. My knowledge of them unfolded only as I kept turning the page. My horror at show more Sanford's story increased from page to page, and yet I kept reading. I wanted to make sure that he survived, to find out how he was found, and to make sure that devil incarnate burned in hell for what he did to those boys. The need to make sure Sanford was okay kept me reading long after I knew I should have stopped. I don't do horror stories, and this was that much more horrific because it is a true one.

Flacco does a tremendous job of presenting the story from Sanford's point of view. Visceral and haunting don't even begin to cover the adjectives to describe the book, while the emotions that run through the reader as Sanford struggles to assuage his guilt at the experiences his uncle forces him to have run the gamut from denial to horror and back again. The first-person narrative makes the story that much more powerful. Thankfully, just at the point where the reader cannot possibly take any more evil, Flacco transfers to a third-person narrative and describes Sanford's rescue and recovery. Such a hellish book ends on a note of hope that someone so abused that he feels guilty about what he was forced to do can lead a life of normalcy and become a well-beloved model citizen. Sanford's redemption proves that there is still good in the world even after the reader questions this very idea in the beginning.

I received this book as part of the BBAW giveaway from Sterling Publishing. I am glad I read it but I can't help but feel that I lost just a bit of my naivete at learning the full story of what went on in Wineville, California in the 1920s. It is a story that is going to haunt my dreams for a long time to come. show less

----A Cop, A Kid, and An Earthquake---

Anthony Flacco’s The Last Nightingale is the first installment in a historical suspense series featuring San Francisco’s policeman Randall Blackburn and a 12 year old orphan named Shane Nightingale, that together match minds to catch a serial killer terrorizing the town during the heyday era of the city’s infamous shady section called the Barbary Coast.

While the city shivers and shakes during it’s worst earthquake in 1906, adopted Shane show more Nightingale is hiding in a pantry closet. He is not there to protect himself from the quake, he is silently imprisoned, frightened to breathe as an unknown killer is just outside that door hideously murdering his family. For almost two days Shane is held captive behind the door, afraid to come out due to his own fear that the murderer is still there, and out of shame for not coming to the rescue as his mother and sisters were brutally slain. But as the earthquake’s fires creep up to Shane’s home, he is forced to leave the shelter of his pantry closet and venture out, do or die before he is trapped in the flames.

Sergeant Randall Blackburn is on a serious murder case, attempting to hunt and track down the elusive Surgeon, a perp that appears to be a woman hell-bent on slicing and dicing the good men of San Francisco. Told by his superiors to find this killer or else, circumstances have Blackburn introduced to the adorable and charming Shane Nightingale, a boy with talented deductive skills that would have Sherlock Holmes turning on his heels in wonder.

The complex plot that offers up unforeseen twists and turns that involve who the murderer is, the strange motive, and the shocking truth as to how Shane is related, allows this fabulous suspense novel to keep the reader glued to the page from start to finish without coming up for air. There is not a lot of action here, and I wouldn’t say the level of suspense was of the “on the edge of your seat” variety, yet this is still an excellent novel offering up a ingenious story of crime blended with a history lesson of early San Francisco and a cast of loveable characters that will return in the sequel The Hidden Man. I found this literary mystery both frightening and charming, and I eagerly await reading the next installment. Full ranking of five stars! show less

Detective Randall Blackburn does not like his new assignment. After 19 years on the San Francisco police force, the homicide detective has been given a job babysitting. It is nine years after the great San Francisco earthquake, and the city is starting to renew itself. The Panama Canal has just been completed, and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition is about to draw multitudes of tourists into the rebuilt San Francisco. The famed mesmerist J.D. Duncan has been engaged as the premiere show more attraction, and Blackburn, along with his adopted son, Shane Nightingale, finds himself assigned as a bodyguard to the increasingly paranoid stage performer.

J.D. Duncan is known the world over as a master hypnotist. When he takes to the stage, his command of the crowd is complete. The only thing Duncan is unable to control is his own mind – he is caught in the ravages of Alzheimer’s, a disease newly identified, which robs him of his ability to remember much of his life. He combats his symptoms with an elixir that offers him flashes of clarity in between moments of mania. When strange coincidences start to increase, he becomes convinced that someone is trying to kill him, but he can’t afford to show too many of his secrets to Detective Blackburn.

As Blackburn and Nightingale attempt to guard the performer against his unknown assailant, Blackburn’s adopted daughter, Vignette, has a mystery of her own to solve. Betrayed in her attempt to attend police officer’s training in disguise, Vignette cannot help but believe Blackburn’s fiancé, Janine Freshell, is not at all what she seems. As Vignette probes underneath the woman’s perfect exterior, she uncovers a devastating secret. As the connections between Miss Freshell and J.D. Duncan begin to become clear, the lives of everyone involved depend on whether or not Blackburn and Nightingale can piece the clues together in time.

Former screenwriter Anthony Flacco is a gifted author and storyteller. His descriptions of event and place allow the reader to see perfectly the action as it unfolds. In fact, for some readers, his descriptions might be too good, as some of his death sequences are several pages long, and extremely graphic. The action of the novel unfolds gradually, building suspense in each chapter, so the reader is eager to turn each page to see what will happen next.

The Hidden Man is Flacco’s second novel featuring Randall Blackburn and Shane and Vignette Nightingale – it’s predecessor, The Last Nightingale, took place nine years before the events of The Hidden Man, when Shane and Vignette were still children. Readers familiar with the preceding novel will be captivated to see how the characters have grown, but The Hidden Man is fully readable as a stand-alone novel.

Flacco’s depiction of the unusual blended family is brilliant. Each of his main characters is amazingly complex, and it would be nearly impossible to choose one as a favorite. His secondary characters are equally interesting, and he spends time giving each emotions and motivations that bring them fully to life. Within the confines of a mystery, Flacco is also able to explore themes such as a woman’s place within society and what makes a family truly a family, adding depth and richness to an already well-told story.

The Hidden Man is an excellent novel which should enjoy a wide readership. I highly recommend it to fans of mystery and suspense, as well as historical fiction and family dramas. I sincerely hope Flacco has plans to continue this series, because I can hardly wait to read the next adventures of Randall, Shane and Vignette.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Elizabeth Schulenberg, 2008 show less

Flacco's screenwriting skills come to good use in depicting both the San Francisco earthquake and its aftermath. These scenes are excellent, as are the ones showing a police force and city government rife with corruption. The setting really kept my attention. The relationship between young Shane and Blackburn is also well-done, and I can see it working well in future books.

Where my attention began to wander was with the author's sometimes awkward writing style, which could have benefited show more from closer editing. There is also quite a bit going on with The Surgeon, whose identity is revealed early on. Perhaps there's too much going on. Besides the motivation for the way he kills his victims, there is motivation for why he chooses the Nightingale family. A subplot in which the killer wants to bring plague down on the city is superfluous and could have been left out altogether instead of being allowed to get lost in the narrative. The Surgeon is even after another character in the book. The plot needed to be streamlined a bit, which would have improved both the feeling of suspense and the story's believability.

The Last Nightingale is strong on setting, but lacking a bit in storytelling power. On a side note, the digital edition of this book could use some editing, with several instances of Blackburn's name being misspelled as well as the name of a department. show less