Street Hungry: A Mystery

by Bill Kent

Shep Ladderback, the Philadelphia Press 's aged obit writer, mentors the young Andrea (Andy) Cosicki, fledgling journalist and daughter of the late political fixer,Benny the Lunch Cosicki. Ladderback (who knows everything about everyone in the city) wants Andy to cover the death of a street fruit and vegetable salesman, which seems to him to be suspicious. But Andy has a date for lunch at the Loup Garu, a so-hot-you-can't-get-a-reservation-for-three-months...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312308477
• ISBN13: 9780312308476
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Like Carl Hiaasen at his best

STREET MONEY was mostly about new reporter Andy Cosicki, but happily STREET HUNGRY gives equal startime to Shep Ladderback, a virtuoso obituary writer who is wise and understanding of human nature yet tortured by anxieties that make him shut his eyes in panic when he's forced to venture out on the street. Kent backs up his well-drawn reporters with a host of other absurdly believable Philadelphia Characters. When individual oddities bring people together in outrageous situations, Bill Kent brings to mind Carl Hiaasen at his best. STREET HUNGRY was a delight from beginning to end.

Fantastic, intelligent mystery

Street Hungry is another book in the series with great characters, an obit writer and an eager (and we know beautiful) reporter, anmd daughter of Benny the Lunch (what a name!) who falls into stories and resolves them with spirit and wit. It's a terrific read. The prose is two cuts above what you get in the genre, you slip into the story and move through a well-developed atmosphere as you follow an intricate, absorbing and utterly believable plot. I'm eager for the next in the series!

Kent raises the bar

With "Street Hungry," Bill Kent raises the bar. His writing style is getting more comfortable with each book, like a worn pair of jeans or a favorite lambswool sweater. His memorable characters border on the surreal, but in a homey, believable sort of way. Like an expert surgeon, Kent dissects the hearts and minds of his characters to let us view the inner workings that make them human. "Street Money," Kent's first Philadelphia based mystery was a joy to read, but with "Street Hungry," his prose reaches new levels of literary merit.Bill Kent--keep the adventures of Andy Cosicki and Shep Ladderback coming.

Fascinating who-done-it

On the streets of South Philly, "Weight" Wisnitz sells fruits and vegetables out of a truck at cut rate prices. He's been a fixture in the neighborhoods for years so when he suddenly keels over and dies, one of his regular customers thinks enough of him to call obituary writer Shep Ladderbook of the Philadelphia Press. Shep writes a nice obituary for the colorful man who made an impact so many lives.A few days later, Ladderback's assistant, Andy Casicki is eating lunch with her mother at the upscale restaurant Loup-Garou when a famous restaurant critic keels over in the same manner as Wisnitz. Andy and Ladderback learn that there have been similar deaths in the city, which raises the obituary writer's curiosity. He investigates the deaths and learns that they lead back to a free clinic, an ambulance company that is always late delivering the bodies, and a generic drug company ready to go public.STREET HUNGRY is a fascinating who-done-it with so many interrelated sub-plots that is takes the full length of the novel to finally understand how they are linked. The protagonist, a man who has been on top at the paper game for four decades, is a likable character whose contacts developed over forty years allow him to track a story back to its source. Bill Kent looks at the seamier side of life and turns it into a gritty and dark expose of the human condition.Harriet Klausner