The Dog Killer of Utica: An Eliot Conte Mystery

by Frank Lentricchia

Overview

“Vivid and unnerving . . . Eliot Conte is an instant original.”
—The Washington Post

Someone's shooting dogs in Utica . . .

Ex-PI Eliot Conte (“part Mike Hammer and part William S. Burroughs,” according to The Washington Post) thought he’d escaped the sordid underworld of long-established Mafia networks, unsolved crimes, and the specter of his political kingmaker father that make up the background in his gritty hometown of Utica, New York.

He’s returned to his old love, teaching American literature, and a new love, policewoman Catherine Cruz. But the peace doesn’t last long. 

First, one of Eliot’s students, a Bosnian Muslim, disappears, leaving a trail of texts and e-mails that suggest a terrorism plot underway. Meanwhile, the tightknit community is disturbed by a series of brutal murders of dogs. 

And no matter where he looks, the trail seems to lead back to secrets Conte hoped he’d buried forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612193380
Publisher:	Melville House Publishing
Publication date:	04/22/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Frank Lentricchia was raised in Utica, New York, to working-class, first-generation Italian-American parents. He’s the author of The Accidental Pallbearer, the first book in the Eliot Conte series, and seven other novels, and a number of highly acclaimed critical studies. He is a professor of American literature at Duke University.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/01/2014
Explosive behavior, loyalty, and a love of literature define Utica's Eliot Conte, a reforming alcoholic and part-time professor. A year after the murders of his two daughters, Eliot grapples with his newest challenges. Apparently, Homeland Security believes one of Eliot's students, Mirko Ivanovic, is a terrorism threat. At the same time, someone has just tried to kill his cop friend, Bobby Rintrona. Paranoia might be Eliot's middle name because he suspects Antonio Robinson, Utica's police chief, owing to an earlier incident. Then Mirko's parents are killed, and Eliot's fury is redirected. Bobby lives but his dog is killed, execution-style. Eliot's paranoia escalates as the body count, both human and canine, rises—and won't be quelled until he can confront the villain. VERDICT The pages sizzle with intensity in this gritty, operatic, and wholly engaging tale. No matter if readers are new to the characters (introduced in The Accidental Pallbearer), Lentricchia's crystal-clear prose spells it out. Reckless and passionate, his protagonist demands attention. I like partnering this densely woven mystery with crime thrillers by Ken Wishnia, Reed Farrel Coleman, and George Pelecanos.

Library Journal

02/10/2014
Lentricchia’s fast-paced if somewhat mild follow-up to The Accidental Pallbearer finds retired Utica, N.Y., PI Eliot Conte living on an inheritance, with time to indulge his passion for opera and teach a college course in English literature. Things take a sinister turn after the disappearance of a Bosnian Muslim student of his attracts the attention of Homeland Security, and a dark secret from Conte’s past connects to seemingly random acts of violence, including murder. Terse, screenplaylike prose propels the action through Utica’s mean streets (e.g., “5:30, sipping a second double-shot espresso in the kitchen”; “It’s Monday, his and Catherine’s date night, their eat-out night, but Conte cannot imagine eating, in or out”). Despite the title, the book, thankfully, contains no wholesale canine slaughter or graphic details of same. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Idiosyncratic yet gripping.”
—Wall Street Journal

“I have never read a book in a day...until I read this! The final page had my skin rippled in goosebumps... Fresh and compelling."
—Promoting Crime Fiction

“The Dog Killer of Utica — the second to feature Eliot — may hold particular appeal to those who like Chandler and Spillane, who have a dark sense of humour and a liking for the tough guy school of American fiction.”
—Crime Review

“Fast-paced… Terse, screenplaylike prose propels the action through Utica’s mean streets.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The pages sizzle with intensity in this gritty, operatic, and wholly engaging tale. No matter if readers are new to the characters (introduced in The Accidental Pallbearer), Lentricchia’s crystal-clear prose spells it out. Reckless and passionate, his protagonist demands attention.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“The story, which is told in the present tense for maximum suspense, is dark and tragic, and it’s nearly impossible to turn away from it. A terrific crime novel.”
—Booklist, starred review

“Lentricchia…writes great scenes and sentences, and several of the characters—especially a tough-girl bodyguard, a right-wing radio ranter and Conte’s precocious 13-year-old neighbor—are keepers.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Frank Lentricchia and The Accidental Pallbearer

“Frank Lentricchia’s new novel ranks as entertainment of a high order—funny, fast-moving, and hot-blooded. It’s also the kind of novel that will appeal to readers who like their fiction to carry depth and range.”
—Don DeLillo

“Bravissimo!” 
—Lisa Scottoline, author of Accused

“The Accidental Pallbearer is a brilliant piece of fiction, and a page-turner to boot, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best writing in America today.”
—Jay Parini

“The Accidental Pallbearer deserves to be read alongside the best literary detective fiction of our time. Lentricchia’s protagonist is the antihero par excellence—you can’t put him down, either physically or emotionally.”
—John R. MacArthur, publisher, Harper’s 

“Gripping, complex . . . Utica here functions much as the Swedish town Ystad does for Henning Mankell in his books about Wallander . . . An excellent start for these Eliot Conte books. Can’t wait for the next one—and the cable-TV series.” 
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Full of bits and pieces of authentic Utica history, altered and molded into a totally fictional story that is fast-paced and thrilling, scene after scene. It has the hard-bitten diction and action of ‘Film Noir.’ ” 
—The Utica Observer-Dispatch

“There’s a Quentin Tarantino masculinity to this story of a private investigator known for solving knotty problems in not-quite-lawful ways.” 
—The Charlotte Observer

“If you like your crime very noir, very hard-boiled and very American, then this is the novel for you.” 
—The Telegraph (London)

“Lentricchia captures the feel of upstate New York (Richard Russo territory) and of Italian American culture within a familiar genre, with predictable grit and wit.” 
—Booklist

“The terrific writing, clever plots, bleak humor, and colorful characters recommend this to fans of gritty noir crime fiction.” 
—Library Journal (starred review)

From the Publisher

2014-04-02
Dogs aren't the only victims of upstate New York's latest murderer, but they're certainly the most perplexing. For alcoholic college professor Eliot Conte (The Accidental Pallbearer, 2012), who finds Herman Melville even more perplexing than the cases he once worked as a private eye, this new mystery is as overwhelming as a great white whale. Even if someone has a grudge against Detective Robert Rintrona, the Troy cop who partnered with Detective Catherine Cruz before she moved into Conte's place in Utica, why, after wounding Bobby, would the shooter go on to kill his dog, Aida? Why would someone fatally shoot Utica police chief Antonio Robinson's Jack Russell terrier and not his wife, Millicent, who was walking the dog at the time? And what could this wave of attacks on the canine community possibly have to do with the disappearance of Mirko Ivanovic, Conte's star student, a Bosnian Muslim who's suddenly suspected of terrorism? Readers worried that the violence may remain low-stakes will find reassurance in the rising human body count, beginning with bigoted liquor store owner Freddy Barbone and continuing when Mirko's parents, placed under arrest by Homeland Security, apparently commit suicide in the cell they've obligingly been given to share. Lentricchia (Literature/Duke; The Book of Ruth, 2005, etc.) writes great scenes and sentences, and several of the characters—especially a tough-girl bodyguard, a right-wing radio ranter and Conte's precocious 13-year-old neighbor—are keepers. Just don't expect a rush of satisfaction when this scruffy, elegiac dance comes to an end.

Kirkus Reviews