Official Review: Il Fantasma by Kent Hastings

[Enigma]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Il Fantasma" by Kent Hastings.]

I honestly thought I was about to read some sort of fantasy novel. Looking at the title, I wouldn’t have given the book a second look. Thankfully the novel is a fast, action packed vigilante thriller.

After a heavy prologue with many names and places which just wasn’t needed for the start of this tale, we get to a beautiful wedding scene straight out of a scene from The Godfather, along with the gun downed family. Only a twelve-year-old girl, Micaela survives the killing and is kidnapped by the family that murdered hers. Move forward 23 years we learn about the Task Force called ‘City Guard’ that was created to concentrate on removing the gangs for the streets of Serenity. We learn about each member and their past and what landed them in the role.

The vigilante then shows her face. We already know who this is and her vow to remove the scum off the street; her revenge to kill all those connected with her family’s slaughter. She has also changed her name to Chelana.

IL Fantasma is a well written and researched book, detailed enough to imagine each scene unfolding on the big screen. Some parts of the book are heavy. It isn’t a book I could read in one sitting.
There are two different places where the author describes the scene and then repeats it in another characters P.O.V this seems redundant to me and would be better to mix both or just have one person’s P.O.V rather than a repeat.

Another vigilante is thrown in the mix but he’s more like a hired assassin and you know whom he’s been hired to kill. I love the twist the author throws in regarding this character. It makes him almost likeable.

The only way the girl can conclude her revenge is by joining forces with Wade, an ‘old school cop’. Both Wade and Chelana horrific past are highlighted and the reader gets to understand why it’s so important for the two to meet.

Most memorable quote: “It smelled of vomit, cigarette smoke and marijuana: a real lowlife’s pot-pourri.”

I gave the book a three out of four star rating as it was a good read but not excellent. There were too many P.O.V’s throughout the story which will confuse the reader and the story also flicks from past to present often which can also make the reader lose the flow.

The book is beautifully written and well researched and anyone that loves a good Mafia type vigilante thriller will really enjoy this book.

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[khastings]

Thank you for the review. I hope you enjoyed your time with the book.

[kwamemeloy]

Yearning to have a read of this book. Thanks.