NOVEMBERS by Norman Cristofoli
Paperback ISBN 9798886937572 $23.95
E-book ISBN 9798886937589 $4.50
Published by Austin Macauley Publishers
A brutal murder occurs in the opening chapter; it’s graphic and painful and relentless: remember those first 20mins. in Saving Private Ryan? Yeah, that relentless. And what an intriguing start to this engrossing crime mystery from Toronto author & poet Norman Cristofoli. In the first book in a series featuring Det. Sergeant Aristotle Boyle, Cristofoli grabs the reader by the throat and doesn’t let go as he takes us through the seamy underworld of bondage & domination and sado-masochism, and the drudgery of his investigation – life as a real detective is not all tv cop show glamour. All the procedures of evidence gathering, suspect elimination, motives, and of course, sex, drugs and …well, you get the idea. Each character Cristofoli writes is fully fleshed out (I loved his description of a woman’s “butterscotch hair”), and he sets each scene with easy-to-visualize surroundings; Toronto neighbourhoods are familiar to us and the reader may want to head out and retrace Boyle’s steps and those of the mysterious killer. Maybe a murder/mystery walking tour could be in the future?
Our hero is not perfect, he’s been written as a man with numerous inner demons as well as a penchant for attractive, sexy women. The reader can “feel” the heat between him and female characters who may be on the wrong side of the law…or at least just rubbing up against it.
Novembers makes for an enthralling read, and will keep your attention down to the closing chapters…will Boyle find the killer? His investigation becomes an obsession, leading his team through the twists and turns of this intricately planned homicide with just a handful of clues. Stir in Boyle’s love of Greek philosophy, Ouzo and Cuban cigars and you have a recipe for the ultimate crime mystery!
About the Author
Norman Cristofoli began his creative career as a young man writing poetry in the city of Toronto, Canada. In 1984, a-top of Mount Snowden in Wales, he made the transition from a person who wrote poetry to a person who is a poet. He has published several chapbooks of poetry and prose and produced two audio compilations of his spoken-word performances accompanied by musicians. He was the creator and publisher of the Labour of Love literary magazine for twenty-five years, and in 2020, he published his play, The Pub, followed by his first major compilation of poetry entitled Relinquishing the Past. Novembers is the first in a series of murder/mystery novels.
For more information, please visit https://www.austinmacauley.com/us