Cast A Deadly Shadow (audiobook) – Roger Granelli
With Cast a Deadly Shadow Roger Granelli has followed his exciting series of Palermo Stories with a full-length novel that is a fast-moving tale of murder, betrayal and lust.
Continuing their never-ending fight against the Mafia, detectives Carpanini and Bracchi have captured their longtime target, the gangster Bardolini, setting off a dramatic chain of events in which dangerous men of the Sicilian underworld get involved – each one with his own agenda.
Carpanini’s marriage is on the rocks, and Bracchi has a heart-rending choice of devotion over duty, and the redoubtable duo are in their tightest spot ever – threatened by three different Mafia entities, all trying to gain the upper hand, as the story twists and turns towards an explosive final climax.
My thanks to Anna at Midas PR for the opportunity to join the blog tour and for providing a review copy of the story.
Cast A Deadly Shadow is only available as an audiobook and I listened through the Audible App. I did receive a review copy for the purpose of the tour but when the book released last week I also picked up a copy through the Audible Store (I like to nudge up the narration speed through the app).
Although I read a lot of crime stories I seldom get to enjoy a tale about the Mafia families so I took to Cast A Deadly Shadow with huge anticipation and I splurged on the book. Running time is over 8 hours, I got through it over two days. To put that into perspective, at present I normally only listen to an audiobook for around 30 to 45 mins per day. I got a bit caught up in this one!
Italy is the setting and we are in the company of detectives Carpanini and Bracchi. They have secured the arrest of one of the Mafia’s biggest thugs who had turned his fists on his girlfriend only to have her call the police and reveal his location. Carpanini and Bracchi are escorting their prisoner back to Palermo when the Mafia henchmen catch-up with the cops on the train. A shoot-out ensues and the fallout has repercussions for the rest of the book.
After the incident on the train one of the shooters targets the police to get revenge for the twarted plan. Carpanini and Bracchi have to deal with the emotional fallout and we see how high tension events (a staple of crime thrillers) should and does have ramifications for those involved and hos it impacts upon those they are close to.
But organised crime doesn’t stay quiet for long and soon the police are dealing with a robbery – protagonists heavily armed and casualties high. A kidnapping, which made for quite uncomfortable listening as we follow the kidnapper narrowing in on his target and there needs to be a rescue attempt to have us racing towards the end of the story.
I found Cast A Deadly Shadow to be well paced and nicely told. It held plenty of twists and thrills but the quieter moments were well covered too and the author made the characters engaging and well defined for a new reader/listener.
As ever an audiobook is reliant upon the narrator. Cast A Deadly Shadow has Andrew Wincott taking us through the tale. No complaints over his skills to deliver a well told and dramatic story – as I indicated I got caught up in this story and listened for hours in a single sitting. One thing which did strike me as odd was the fact all the Italian gangsters had a broad (thick?) London accents. It slightly distracted from the fact events were taking place in a totally different country; when locations were mentioned it brought the anomaly back to my attention. Minor quibble and, as I previously stated, the narrator is very good.
All in – good fun was had. Enough action to hold me, not too many characters and events to make it confused and over the top. Definitely a thumbs up – enjoyed my time with this listen.
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