An Unacceptable Death

by Barbara Seranella

One thing about Miranda Mancini that has never changed is the name everyone knows her by---Munch. But the child abused by her father and sent into prostitution, the young girl who stole money because... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312347987
• ISBN13: 9780312347987
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Coke, anyone?

People can and do change. No one knows this better than author Barbara Seranella, who worked for 20 years as a car machanic. Unless it's protagonist Munch Mancini, former heavy drug user who is now straight. She spent the first 25 years of her life on the wrong side of the law, and now she seems destined to be manipulated into helping them. An Unacceptable Death begins on a very sad note, as Munch's cop/fiance Rico is shot to death. Some people on the force are trying to get her to believe that he was a bad cop, a dealer. This is the first Seranella novel I've sampled, and I've been most pleasantly surprised by its quality. She's a smart, talented writer who approaches crime from a different perspective, that of someone who once fell to rock bottom but now is doing the best she can to raise her adopted little girl. Munch is no PI, but she does know her way around the seamier side of LA, and her instincts are trustworthy. Discovering what happened to fiance Rico, and why, is Munch's objective, for she knows in her bones that he was not a crooked cop. But the other players in this deadly game are interested only in forwarding their own agendas. The question remains largely unanswered until the novel's end. Seranella takes her readers along on Munch's emotional and dangerous quest, deftly avoiding the maudlin as the truth comes gradually to light.

A POWERFUL MYSTERY SUPERBLY READ

Those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Miranda "Munch" Mancini are in for a treat and a surprise. She's nothing like the conventional female crime fighters; in fact, she's not very much like a "conventional" gal at all. She's a recovered drug addict and prostitute who now makes her living as an auto mechanic and limo driver. And, in the hands of Barbara Seranella, a writer with a gift for creating gritty but appealing characters in painterly detail, she has become one of the most popular protagonists in crime fiction. With the opening of Seranella's eighth in her Mancini series we find Mancini in Santa Monica where she lives with Asia, her nine-year-old daughter. She's in love with a cop, Enrique "Rico" Chacon , who's on undercover detail charged with ferreting out narcotics dealers. To get an idea of who Mancini is, this is the way her neighborhood is described as she strolls along the sidewalk with Rico: "If she had lived in a nicer neighborhood, she would have warned her neighbors that this vatto-looking guy was really a cop and in disguise. But between the bikers across the street, the houseful of probably illegal aliens next to them, the crazy okie next door with the in-bred daughter, and the alcoholic divorcee on the other side, it was probably safer for all concerned to say nothing." Sounds like a savvy gal who can handle just about anything, doesn't she? There is one thing that she definitely cannot handle and that's the death of Rico. He's shot by fellow cops during a soured drug bust. Then, when officials hold back Rico's pension from his family and accuse him of corruption, she comes out fighting. Enlisted by a detective friend to work in secret among the drug hustlers, she's the one who is now undercover in order to find out exactly who the bad cops are. That's a dangerous game, even for someone who knows that terrain as well as Mancini does. But, she's going to avenge Rico and clear his name, whether it kills her or not. Anna Fields, winner of several AudioFile awards gives a sharp narration. Her voice is strong, firm, nothing soft about it, which is pinpoint casting for this powerful mystery. - Gail Cooke

Series remains excellent read

The time is 1986 - Ronald Reagan is President - Munch Mancini, the series heroine, continues to lead a clean life with her adopted daughter, and steady job as a mechanic. She happily is planning her wedding to Rico, her cop fiance, when she receives word that Rico was killed under questionable circumstances. Munch, seeking to clear Rico's name of any doubt that he was a clean officer, gets caught in a 'sting' with DEA with drug lords. Munch retains her integrity, having learned hard lessons in the past. This book comes to terms with the loss Munch and her daughter Asia feel and the process as the reason for Rico's death is solved. Very moving yet not saccharin. The series has maintained its integrity and is true to reality and characters.

Well done!!

I hate when authors kill off the major love interest. But I do appreciate when the author does it well and the protagonist's reaction is convincing. Seranella has created great characters in Munch, her daughter Ellen, with excellent and realistic interaction between the two, and Munch's friend Ellen. I particularly liked that even the villains had balance as characters. The story is well balanced well sorrow, humor, determination and tension. For me, this was one of the better books in the series.

heart-wrenching thriller

Ex junkie, ex-con, ex prostitute Munch Mancini finally has her life together and it is a good one. She makes a decent living as an auto mechanic, has a side business as a limousine driver, totally adores her adopted daughter Asia and owns her own home. She is in love with police officer Rico Chacon and the two plans to get married very soon. Munch is not afraid to think of their future even though Rico is working undercover in a dangerous operation that he won't ever tell her about. Word comes from her police officer friend Mace St. Josh that Rico was murdered and that she should be prepared to talk to Internal Affairs. Munch learns that his survivor pension and death benefits are up being withheld pending an investigation. The department claims that Rico in the company of two drug suppliers was shooting at police officers. Munch knows Rico was clean and she becomes a police informant to prove that Rico was working the right side of the law. This proves a dangerous position to be in because she is caught between cops with their own agendas and two Mexican drug traffickers who seek cocaine that was stolen from them. Munch is the poster child for the bad girl turned honest citizen who obeys the laws and stays clean. Her ability to act the part of a criminal is only one of the reasons the police use her to find out what happened to Rico. She goes along with them because if she finds evidence he was a good cop, they will publicly exonerate him. Barbara Seranella has written a heart-wrenching thriller that looks at the politics behind police actions. Harriet Klausner