The Deal Master

The Deal Master
Gerard F. Bianco
iUniverse
ISBN: 0-595-37839-0
Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewed by Shannon Frost

New York City detective, William Gillette, has just stumbled into the case of a lifetime. Heading up a special task force created to catch the serial killer, “Sonny Boy”, who gruesomely murders young women, it is one of those cases that can either make his career, lifting him from the shadow of his celebrated detective father, or break him.
True to his gumshoe ways, Gillette is devoted to his work to the point of obsession, but determination and passion can’t make evidence appear in a case that leaves victim after victim dead with no answers as to who or why. Enter Jonathan Hamlin. A figure of such complexity and charisma, the reader can’t help but be as intrigued by him as much as the characters in the book are. With the enigmatic Jonathan’s assistance, Gillette finally begins to get somewhere with the case, but the more questions he gets answered, the more questions he has, and the more things begin to unravel, the more tangles he sees, leaving him with the reader at his side trying to play catch-up to a mystery that may be larger than just Sonny Boy.

The staunch detective so consumed by the desire to catch “his man” that he sees little else may be a well familiar character, but author Bianco manages to touch Gillette with a humanness that brings makes him very sympathetic. The details of detective work are well done without being overbearing with the novel focusing more on the emotional aspects of the investigation, than the technical. With the intricate weavings of plot and character, The Deal Master, is one thriller that refuses to relinquish its mystery until its unusual and unexpected conclusion.