Review: If You Don't Know Jake, You Should
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2011
"The Sound of Blood" will ring in your ears long after you've turned the last page.  What Mr. DeMaria has achieved is no small feat.  He has taken the saturated genre of crime fiction with its predictable cast of shadowy  creatures and imbued it with fresh life.  Every cliche of the noir detective is here -- single but sexually ambitious, deadly but prudent, worldly yet moral -- but the cliche is just the starting point.  The fast-paced evolution of private detective Jake Scarne and his new case with its intriguing characters explode the cliches and create something fresh and compelling.  If you don't think so, try playing golf with Jake Scarne, or worse falling in love with him.  The plots twists to a salsa beat of financial shennanigans, steamy sex, truly original violence and the existential reality of good intentions yielding bad results, and evil deeds creating opportunities for  sacrifice and decency.  Locales are as exotic as a Caribbean island, or as quirky as Staten Island.  Violence is endemic; love inevitable.  One can only hope, "The Sound of Blood" is the first of many Jake Scarne adventures.