Review: Cassie, Corruption and Chaos in this Brilliant Book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2012
Armando's Daughter by R J Blute is a tongue-in-cheek, fast-moving novel. It's a story in which tough women play a leading role. The title gives the hint. Armando thinks he is a wheeling and dealing gangster, but he's outdone by his daughter Cassandra and his hard-as-nails Italian mother, Nonna. But oddly the two women don't like each other. As Nonna says: "I still a no like a you! But a you familia!"Cassie asks her father to kill her mother Nicole's new boyfriend, Milton. (Armando and Nicole are divorced.) However, it isn't long before the story shoots off in all sorts of other directions too. There are corrupt city politicians involved who plan to shut down all the city's swimming pools at the start of summer. Nonna, the only Catholic in a Jewish run nursing home, has some inside information about them. You can never predict what's going to happen next from one aptly named chapter to the next in this book. There are sexual encounters, a lot of swearing, plenty of violence and several deaths, but not the ones you thought would occur.The book is well structured and the characters are fascinating. The plot sweeps you along with it in its crazy wake. It's laugh aloud funny in places, gasp with horror and surprise in others. All the characters get up to no good, from slipping laxatives into coffee to murder. It has huge entertainment value and is well worth a read.The author has a website at [...]