Got a Bone in Your Throat?

Bone in the Throat –by Anthony Bourdain

Mystery

372 KB / 304 pages

Footnotes/Endnotes: No

Illustrations: No

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

4 Stars

Murder mysteries are not my usual genre when I reach for fiction; however, I'd just finished reading Kitchen Confidential (see below) and enjoyed it, so added Bone in the Throat to my Kindle. While it's not the story I would have given to my Sunday School Teacher as a child, it is a story I'd have shared with my Drill Instructor.

This is his first novel and I think he did a pretty good job. It's set in a mobbed up restaurant in New York City. The language is a tad rough for the genteel set, but perfect for the story. I gave it 4 stars more for the publisher than the author. When it was translated from paper to electrons, a lot of formatting was lost, quotation marks dropped, the symbol for the British Pound found it's way into the story as a double, lower case 'l', nothing serious, but enough times (once is too much) to be irritating and cost points – for the publisher, not the author!*

If you are a lover of metaphor, don't bother with this one. Bourdain tells the story straight out, with no creative flowery stuff. When he talks about the sex, it's straight out about the sex. When he talks about the murder it's well described in a few words, not drug out for paragraphs and pages. If the 'F' word offends thee, don't read this. But, do get a life.

Tommy is the sous-chef at the Dreadnought Restaurant. His dad disappeared when he was a kid (assumed mob hit) and his uncle, a wannabee Wise Guy, takes him under his wing and helps his sister, Tommy's mother, raise him. Tommy wants nothing to do with the mob or his uncle, he wants to be a chef, and avoids his uncle as much as possible. But Uncle Sal is, after all, family. And then Uncle Sal needs Tommy to do a favor for him, payback for the help, a simple favor that won't get him in trouble or cause him grief. Yeah. Right.

Tommy and his drugged out boss, the Chef, are now caught in the midst of an FBI operation, drug rehab and threats, Mob mentality, and, well, for a fun read, pick up the book. As stated above, this book does not fall into my usual fiction genre, and until I finished the last chapter, I wasn't sure I'd pick up another Bourdain novel, but I will.

Oh, and if you don't recognize at least one of the Mob Guys, you need to read or watch more news!

*OK, maybe I should change to a 5 star. I received a Kindle Fire, and the formatting is perfect! Why it is good on the Fire and not my older Kindle, I don't know.