Bright Futures

by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Book Overview

Lovable everyman Lew Fonesca, the man who makes things work in Sarasota, takes on the case of 17 year-old Ronnie Graeill accused of bludgeoning to death an eccentric wealthy politician whose most recent crusade was against a college financial-aid program.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765318288
• ISBN13: 9780765318282
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Emotional Numbness Is Relieved by Occasional Tingles of Life

To me the best mystery novels are those where you are more interested in the characters and what's happening to them than in solving the mystery. Mr. Kaminsky easily passes that test with Bright Futures. In fact, I almost found myself wanting to simply read a novel about Lew Fonesca and his circle of friends and supporters. Lew Fonesca is an imaginative fictional creation who makes this series special. He's a man who had an ordinary happy life in Chicago . . . until his wife was killed by a hit-and-run driver. He retreated into just surviving as a process server in Sarasota (where he landed when his car died there). But people keep reaching out to him, needing his help with finding people to solve problems and wanting to get closer to him. Emotional numbness keeps them at a distance. But in Bright Futures, the numbness starts to dissipate . . . at least in tiny amounts and at occasional moments. It's fascinating and provides much promise for future books in the series. Sometimes we change because everything is changing around us: "With a Chicago Cubs cap on my head and in need of a shave, I came 1,044 miles looking for the end of the world and settled in an office at the rear of a Dairy Queen parking lot in Sarasota when my car broke down forever. Now the DQ is gone, replaced by a bank. The less-than-shabby, concrete block two-story office building I live and work in will be torn down in a few days." While Lew is getting ready to move, Victor Woo, the man whose car killed his wife is sleeping in one corner of the office. Lew has forgiven Wood, but Victor won't leave. Seventeen-year-old Greg Legerman, a student at the Pine View School for the Gifted, hires Fonesca to find the killer of Philip Horvecki, a superrich former real estate developer who opposed special help from the government for bright kids. Legerman is convinced that his friend, Ronnie Gerall, who was found covered in blood at the scene of the crime didn't do it. Before very much time passes, two other people are trying to hire Fonesca to work on the same case. The investigation is quickly complicated by someone taking pot shots at Fonesca . . . but hitting other people. What's that all about? In addition, the book takes a surreal turn when characters appear who have worked as actors, feeding Fonesca's fondness for quoting old movies. I began to look for Kafka in the wings at this point. But the book begins to refocus around the unexpected relationships that each character has had with the others . . . that aren't very widely known. Once the relationships begin to emerge from the shadows, solving the murder isn't as tough as it once seemed. At another level, Bright Futures is also about the spiritual emptiness of our affluent society that simply wants more, more, more! That part of the novel works well, also. Bravo, Mr. Kaminsky!

Lew and Ames Are Back On The Trail!

Stuart M. Kaminsky's Lew Fonesca mysteries are comfort reading for me, meant for lazy rainy days or for weekends when I can read late into the evening. The puzzles are fair, and the mysteries are intriguing enough, but it's the people and the problems Lou faces that really capture my attention and emotions. A few years ago, Lew Fonesca lost his wife in a tragic hit and run car accident in Chicago. Lost, he got in his car and drove until he ended up in Sarasota, Florida where he works as a process server and some time off-the-books private investigator. Usually the cases he ends up with are too small for big-name detectives and annoyances for the local police. There's not much money in them, but Fonesca doesn't need much money. Better than that, having a low price tag doesn't mean the mystery is second-rate. Another one of the great features of the series is that devoted readers get to see Fonesca grow and change as he grapples with emotionally-charged issues that threaten to shatter him completely or draw him out of his shell. His depression over his wife's death still lingers and I don't think it will ever completely go away. His illness lends him a childlike innocence that is endearing and makes readers feel protective. In this latest case, Fonesca gets hired by a couple of high school students to clear friend of theirs who is accused of murdering Phillip Horvecki, a local politician who is against the way the local high school offers curriculum for bright students. The case pretty much looks open and shut, but the students are insistent and finesse the feels he has no choice. He thinks he's just going to look around a little, assure them that their friend really did do the murder, then give them their money back. I was intrigued by the case but only because I was waiting to see what the author would do with it. I knew from experience that all was not what it seemed. Then the case turns weird as an ex television actor picks Fonesca up at gunpoint and takes the private investigator to see D. Elliot Corkle, the grandfather of one of the boys who hired him. Corkle is a multimillionaire who made his fortunes selling weird gizmos on television. He's one of those interesting characters that Kaminski writes so well, and that Florida seems to show a bumper crop of. Just like the television actor character, Kaminski has a blast writing the dialogue as well as the characters' personalities. On the way back, a little more curious but still definitely thinking there's nothing to the case, Fonesca nearly gets killed when someone shoots a pellet gun at the car and causes a wreck. The ex television actor/bodyguard takes the worst of it, possibly being blinded in one eye. Later, Darrell, Fonesca's little brother, get shot and hospitalized by the same pellet gun. Now that the case has turned more turned more personal, for me as well because I like the characters, Fonesca starts hitting the bricks harder. Ames McKinney, the Sam Elliott sou

Another Lew Fonesca winner !

I have just finished reading all of the Lew Fonesca books back to back. They have been a nice series of books to read and I would recommend them to any mystery fan. I normally don't like to say 'but'..however, all the titles in this series have been in first person with the exception of the last title 'Always Say Goodbye' . Since I was reading them in sequence it was strange to go to third person but in the latest we are back to first person. At the beginning of 'Bright Futures' (page 50)Lew gets a cell phone as a housewarming present from a constant series regular, Adele. Then 57 pages later he talks about getting his cell phone as a birthday present from Flo Zink another series regular. Just a little thing I know but who is proof reading this ? Makes you pause and think did I read this wrong and then go back to look and realize, well, maybe, Lew is confused and forgot his cell phone was from Adele. He is depressed. Other than that, really, love reading about Lew Fonesca and all the wonderful characters who inhabit is world..both good and bad. Enjoy !

Reading a Stuart Kaminsky book is like having your favorite comfort food for dinner

Private investigator Lew Fonesca is a complex man. The Sarasota, Florida, detective arrived in the Sunshine State as a grief-stricken widower whose wife had been killed in a hit-and-run accident in Chicago, Illinois. Fonesca left his job as an investigator with the State's Attorney of Cook County, packed his grief and personal belongings in his car and headed south. He drove as far as Sarasota, where he moved into a small apartment overlooking a Dairy Queen. Never obtaining a Florida private investigator's license, Fonesca considers himself a process server or, as he likes to describe it, a man who finds people. Sometimes the individuals he locates are criminals. BRIGHT FUTURES is the sixth Lew Fonesca novel from the pen of Stuart M. Kaminsky, a prolific mystery writer who, like Fonesca, migrated from Illinois to Florida. While serving as a film and film history instructor at Northwestern University, Kaminsky authored his first mystery and introduced readers to Toby Peters, a Hollywood detective who numbered movie stars of the '40s as his clients. Sixty novels later, Kaminsky is still going strong and Fonesca is the fourth protagonist he has presented in mystery series. In addition to the aforementioned Peters, he regularly sends his audience to Moscow for the adventures of Chief Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov and returns to the streets of Chicago for the cases of Detective Abe Lieberman. For his efforts, Kaminsky has been honored with the Grandmaster Award from the Mystery Writers of America. When readers last encountered Fonesca, he had come face to face with the driver of the car that struck and killed his wife. Now that individual, Victor Woo, has come to Sarasota and is actually living with Fonesca in the building at the rear of the Dairy Queen parking lot. Alas, the Dairy Queen has been torn down and replaced by a bank, and Fonesca's residence and office meet the wrecking ball in the opening pages of BRIGHT FUTURES. These goings-on are the backdrop for the request of two high school students for Fonesca to assist them in proving that their classmate, Ronnie Gerall, charged with the murder of Phillip Horvecki is innocent. Agreeing to look into Gerall's case, Fonesca soon finds himself meeting a cast of unique characters who will test his abilities as well as his sanity. Along the way he will encounter repeated gun shots, blackmail and a few cases of stolen identity. All in a day's work for someone who is not a private investigator, but merely a man who finds people. Regardless of the locale, Kaminsky exhibits a remarkable skill in portraying neighborhoods and communities. To some degree, he almost makes his mysteries travelogues. In addition, his characters are presented as real people, albeit sometimes very quirky real people. In BRIGHT FUTURES, the characters range from the high school students who first hire Fonesca, to an ex-actor who now has the opportunity to bring the enforcer roles he played in movies and television to rea

"I'm entering a new phase."

Forty-three year old Lew Fonesca has been living in Sarasota, Florida for four years. He is a process server who subsists on a shoestring budget and has almost no material possessions. In "Bright Futures," by Stuart Kaminsky, Fonesca is hired to find out who murdered the fabulously wealthy and much-hated Philip Horvecki. The police have a young man in custody named Ronnie Gerall, who was found at the scene of the crime covered in blood. However, there are those who believe that Ronnie is innocent and they would like Lew to uncover evidence to exonerate him. Since the tragic loss of his beloved wife, Catherine, Lew has tried his best to become a recluse, but for some unaccountable reason, people like him. His usual coterie of friends and acquaintances are on hand in this, the sixth novel in this wonderful series. Among them are: Ames McKinney, who may be old, but he watches Lew's back and can handle a weapon; Lew's "little brother," fourteen-year old Darrell Caton, a smart-mouthed African-American kid who finds that spending time with Lew can be as exciting as hanging out with drug dealers and gangbangers; Sally Porovsky, a social worker whom Lew has been dating for over two years; and octogenarian Ann Hurwitz, Lew's therapist who uses unconventional methods to bring her patient out of his depression. Kaminsky, delivers big-time with witty, fast-paced dialogue, a wild plot that requires a score card to follow, and a wonderfully weird cast of characters. The mystery, which makes little sense, is overshadowed by the surreal atmosphere where anything can happen and often does. Nothing is as it seems in this tale of greed, lust, and betrayal. Lew risks his life and even those of his friends when he starts investigating, but he forges ahead anyway. He interviews the deceased's many enemies, asks Dixie Cruise, a waitress/computer hacker, to do some digging on the Internet, and uses his sharp intelligence and unerring instincts to gradually close in on the truth. Along the way, Lew makes significant emotional progress. He no longer lives under a black cloud and even jokes around a bit, has close friends that he actually wants to keep, and is finally ready to face the future with a semblance of equanimity. Although "Bright Futures" is warm-hearted, funny, and compassionate, it also has a serious side. The author explores the ways in which some individuals sow the seeds of their own destruction, while others protect and nurture the ones they love. Everything isn't necessarily coming up roses for the balding little man in the blue and red Chicago Cubs baseball cap, but as his psychiatrist tells Lew, "I think it is time for you to have a new beginning."