Charlie Stella’s latest, Joey Piss Pot, his tenth novel, is a modern-day crime tale set in New York, focused on internal warring within a Mafia family and an FBI operation to topple a crime syndicate. Through multiple related storylines, we learn that Carmine Montalvo, an incarcerated mobster with stage four lung cancer who might not survive long enough to complete his prison sentence, wants to get his wife’s infidelity under control. Doris, an aging beauty, has been unfaithful while he’s been in jail, and Carmine feels he needs to send a message for the sake of his reputation. He orders a hit, unconcerned if the crime can be traced back to him and ignorant of the repercussions. What he doesn’t know is that his promiscuous wife is also having an affair (one of many) with Jerry Galante, the trusted head of Carmine’s regime.
Meanwhile, Joseph “Joey” Gallo (also terminally ill) battles to keep his grandson, Chris, out of harm’s way. Chris is heavily involved with the Mafia, working with Giovanni Rapino, a 31-year-old hitman with criminality in his genes. Joey and his pal Artie Adler, a retired cop, believe that the wayward Chris is directly responsible for a recent double homicide, unaware of Chris’ real motives—his FBI assignment and his vendetta against the mobsters he holds accountable for the murder of his father. While Chris, operating undercover as Charlie Mazza, strives to keep his true identity secret and his family at a distance, his prying, headstrong grandfather can’t help but get involved, ultimately bringing danger to his extended family.
The heavily populated saga, involving a shady FBI operation, lies, deceit, misplaced trust, and numerous vendettas, requires intricate plotting and careful attention to character. Many have said it before, but there’s a blunt realism to Stella’s dialogue and a compelling rationale for his underworld characters’ pitiless behavior. Richard Lipez writes in an article in The Washington Post: “It’s too bad that virtually none of Stella’s best dialogue is repeatable in this newspaper. Like “The Sopranos” writers, Stella is a kind of obscene Ring Lardner, finding a lean, rancid poetry in his characters’ vernacular, and rendering it with flawless precision and humor.” With Joey Piss Pot, the prose is spare, the conversation sharp and colorful and thick with profanity, and when the action kicks in, the slick, graphic violence leaves a mark. Fans of underworld fiction will drink this up and hungrily hold out their bowl for more.
Pick up a copy from Amazon or directly from Stark House Press. For more about Stella, find him on his website here.
