Blind Moon Alley

Starred review from June 9, 2014
Florio’s compelling second Prohibition-era mystery finds Jersey Leo, the mixed-race albino who was the unlikely hero of Sugar Pop Moon (2013), back in Philly, tending bar in a speakeasy known as the Ink Well. Life is smooth until a childhood friend, Aaron Garvey, asks Leo to visit him on death row the night before he’s due to be executed for murder. When Garvey explains he was framed, Leo agrees to help. Meanwhile, Leo has to protect the Ink Well, and stay out of the hands of dirty cop Jack Reeger, who wants to execute Garvey personally. Old crush Myra Banks joins Leo as he, his ex-boxing champion father, and a group of loyal friends fight to win this dangerous game. Florio has an unerring feel for the era and people, and we believe in these characters. Readers will cheer for Leo, a tough guy with a heart of hurt. Agent: Elizabeth Evans, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

July 1, 2014
A reluctant shamus gets in deep with a crooked cop, an escaped convict and a two-faced woman he can't get out of his mind. Philadelphia, 1931. Jersey Leo, who tends bar at a speak-easy called The Ink Well, becomes the toast of the town after rescuing a kidnapped boy. Jersey, also known as "Snowball" because he's an albino with blond hair, learns that notoriety can have a downside when Aaron Garvey contacts him with a desperate plea. Jersey was Garvey's only childhood friend. Now that he's on death row for killing a cop, Garvey invites Jersey as the single permitted visitor for his last meal. Naturally, there's a catch. The site of Garvey's crime is a joint he owns called the Red Canary, run by his gal Myra Banks, who also dates all the way back to Jersey and Garvey's childhood, when Jersey had a crush on her. Because Jack Reeger, the dead cop's violent partner, is hassling Myra constantly and bleeding her for protection money, Garvey fears for her safety and wants Jersey to "send him a message"-that is, kill him. Jersey demurs but can't resist checking out Myra at the Red Canary. Once Jersey lands on Reegers' radar, he becomes a target as well. And the whole situation gets a major shake-up when Garvey escapes from prison. Jersey's second caper (Sugar Pop Moon, 2013), which finds room for several quirky characters in its crannies, is hard-boiled enough to remind readers of Hammett and Chandler.

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June 1, 2014
Jersey Leo has only three good memories of childhood: his father, a boxing champion, who raised him; schoolmate Aaron Garvey, who protected Jersey from bullies intent on tormenting a mixed-race albino; and classmate Myra, who suffered similar treatment because she had a clubfoot. In the sequel to Sugar Pop Moon (2013), Jersey comes to the aid of both Myra and Garvey. Reluctantly, he concludes that he must bring down a corrupt, sadistic police detective without being dismembered by Philadelphia's most violent gangster. Florio's Prohibition-era dialogue is appropriately hard-boiled. The Ink Well, a tiny basement speakeasy where Jersey tends bar, softens the edges of a hardened city, . . . a place an albino can call home. It's also a place that serves an Aunt Roberta, a stupefying cocktail of absinthe, brandy, gin, vodka, and blackberry liqueur. But it is Jersey who makes Blood Moon Alley shine. Unflawed heroes are uninteresting, but Jersey's flaws are as obvious as his shimmying eyeballs (a common affliction of albinos) and scorched skin. Even so, Jersey abides.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)