Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano

Product Details

Synopsis

As a child, Eddie Santiago grows up on the mean streets of his Puerto Rican neighborhood in Chicago, where he witnesses his father's murder. Now in his thirties, after serving ten years in a state penitentiary, Eddie is coming home. With prison behind him, Eddie plans to seek refuge in Miami Beach. But new trouble begins when Eddie and his old friend/gangster Little Tony are pulled over by two cops, who rob Eddie of his money belt, which contains his life savings. Convinced it was a set-up, Eddie is determined to recover what is rightfully his, all the while trying to reform his childhood friend.

Along the way, Eddie falls for a Mexican beauty with a past she is trying to escape. But his romance is almost cut short when he is dragged into a drug war, becomes a murder suspect, and is forced to participate in an ill-conceived casino heist.

Publishers Weekly

Serrano's vivid debut urban noir followsEddie Santiago, a Puerto Rican gangbanger just off a 10-year bit in Joliet for murder. Now in his 30s, Eddie hooks up with friend Tony Pacheco, who has returned to peddling dope and collecting protection money on Chicago's mean streets and who lobbies Eddie to help the old gang heist a casino riverboat flush with cash. Eddie, carrying 40G in a money belt, has a different plan: to go to Miami to join Chiva, his old cellmate from Joliet, and open a salsa recording label. But two bent Chicago narcs, Coltrane and Johnson, strong-arm Eddie and confiscate his cash. Broke and stuck in Chicago, Eddie decides to recover his money even while he tries to go straight. Whether he has enough decency and perseverance to do all of that while hanging with the crazy, bloody-minded Tony is just one of the questions Serrano expertly sets up. A dose of unsentimental romance helps Eddie along and puts Serrano in the same class as young noir-meisters Charlie Huston and Jason Starr. (Sept.)

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Biography

Daniel Serrano was born and raised by his mother in the tough streets of New York and Chicago. The eldest of three boys, Serrano witnessed gangs, crime, drugs, poverty, and even murder, as his family lived the urban Latino struggle. After drifting through menial jobs for years, he enrolled in the Weekend Program at Shimer College and studied the classics.

Serrano went on to earn a law degree from St. John's University. As an attorney, he has spent the bulk of his career advising politicians and alleged criminals. He is currently at work on his next book. Daniel currently divides his time between New York City and Puerto Rico, where he is hard at work on his next novel.