Barbara Seranella Unacceptable Death

Unacceptable Death

Barbara Seranella

Dunne, Jan 2006, $23.95, 256 pp.

ISBN 0312347987

Ex junkie, ex-con, ex prostitute Munch Mancini finally has her life together and it is a good one. She makes a decent living as an auto mechanic, has a side business as a limousine driver, totally adores her adopted daughter Asia and owns her own home. She is in love with police officer Rico Chacon and the two plans to get married very soon. Munch is not afraid to think of their future even though Rico is working undercover in a dangerous operation that he won't ever tell her about.

Word comes from her police officer friend Mace St. Josh that Rico was murdered and that she should be prepared to talk to Internal Affairs. Munch learns that his survivor pension and death benefits are up being withheld pending an investigation. The department claims that Rico in the company of two drug suppliers was shooting at police officers. Munch knows Rico was clean and she becomes a police informant to prove that Rico was working the right side of the law. This proves a dangerous position to be in because she is caught between cops with their own agendas and two Mexican drug traffickers who seek cocaine that was stolen from them.

Munch is the poster child for the bad girl turned honest citizen who obeys the laws and stays clean. Her ability to act the part of a criminal is only one of the reasons the police use her to find out what happened to Rico. She goes along with them because if she finds evidence he was a good cop, they will publicly exonerate him. Barbara Seranella has written a heart-wrenching thriller that looks at the politics behind police actions.

Harriet Klausner