Review: 4 7/8 out of 5 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 1, 2014
You know what I hated most about this book? The one tiny, little thing that kept it from being a full-on 5-star? The introduction!Seriously, DO NOT tell me that it "starts out a little slow." DO NOT tell me that the first book in the series got sidelined because you "didn't like the way it played out." NEVER tell me that s***. It's like Tom Cruise or Dustin Hoffman apologizing for being short! Who gives a damn? And, in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter? It reeks of false modesty, only in Giammatteo's case, I know there's not much "false" about it.I actually thought the book started out just fine, and where it sllloooowed doowwwn, was in the middle of the book, where the reader knew a lot more than the cops, and the narrative plucked excruciatingly at the curled edges of the plot. I had my head in my hands wondering how in the world they were going to reveal enough to understand what was happening. Let me rephrase that: I had my head in my hands wondering, even when I wasn't reading the book. When it was bedtime and I should be fast asleep, I lay there wondering if I had stopped reading just a page or two shy of some enormous breakthrough.I'm a reviewer. I read books and books and books. Some are great books. Some are horrible; but the vast majority are middle-of-the-roaders. I would bet you race cars to tiddly-winks that what Giammatteo considers mediocrity would blow most of them out of the water.Was every Dustin Hoffman film a winner? Did Al Pacino (5'7") win an Oscar for the Godfather? No. (He won it for Scent of a Woman.) But who frigging cares? TALENT makes big men out of mice. TALENT covers a multitude of sins, of which Necessary Decisions has none. I get it, Dude. From a big Italian family, you learn to keep your head in the game; to not think of yourself as some Big Shot. Well, man up, Giacomo, 'cause, ready or not, you're riding a comet's tail. Clear?