Finally Found the Dang Book: "Eddie's World" by Charlie Stella

Finally Found the Dang Book: Eddie's World by Charlie Stella, 2001, 078670893X

I grabbed this to take on vacation after Crider did a plug on a different Stella book. I finished this book a couple weeks ago but could not find the damn thing. It showed up when my wife was cleaning. This is Stella's first novel and is pretty good.

Eddie is a former full-time crook who still has one foot in the crime world as a loanshark. The rest of his work is temping as a word processor for different places in Manhattan. Eddie is connected to a mob boss but Eddie was never a "made" guy or even a whatevertheycallguyswhoworkitfulltimeforthemob. Eddie got into the word processing career as a way out of crime. But, Eddie likes certain aspects of that life: he has friends in the there, there is money there, he has always done it, there is some excitement, etc.

Eddie's marriage to a flaky gal is in trouble and he is planning a burglary with his pal Tommy. Eddie doesn't need the money but 15k is 15k and the burglary is a favor to a friend, Sarah. Eddie met Sarah while on a temp job and she offered the burglary as a way to get even with her boss. Eddie and Tommy hope to score about 15,000 bucks out of the boss's desk before he uses the cash for an illicit diamond deal.

Meanwhile, Sarah is boinking a recently released con who is on an FBI tether. The Con is working for the FBI to set-up other crooks (a minor drug dealer for instance) for the FBI and figures to make a buck by stealing Eddie's score by grabbing the cash and the diamonds.

Eddie doesn't get the cash because the Boss, the diamond salesmen, and Sarah meet for the sale and are all murdered by the Con who takes the diamonds as well. The triple murder happens in an upscale area and the heat is on to catch the killer. Eddie and Tommy steal some computers in the burglary and the cops connect the murder to the burglary to the computers to Tommy.

Eddie already knew of the Con's existence and goes looking for him. The cops go looking for Eddie. Tommy panics. Eddie's wife sleeps with her boss. Con tries to set-up Eddie to get killed by some Russians looking to buy the diamonds. Eddie's wife and his teenage son are in danger. Scummy FBI guys look the other way when Con does bad. Tommy is killed. Eddie comes to the rescue of wife when Con shows up. Eddie gets away with a minor charge and six months county time.

The books is much better than my woeful description; there is more to the story and the characters and plot are all interesting. No dull moments.

A good bit of humor between Eddie and Tommy, Eddie and his nutso wife.