Nick Chiarkas

The Weepers series by Nick Chiarkas got even better than Weepers, Book I, in Book II, Nunzio’s Way. I have grown to love these characters, no matter what bad things they do. The series raises that age old question, nature or nurture. Are we a product of our environment? I cannot imagine what it would be like growing up in the housing projects, wondering, every time you step out your door, is this the day I die?

The Prologue will give you a glimpse into Nunzio Sabino’s life to catch you up, as told by Father Joe to Father Casimiro, a new man in town. Nunzio had been in love…It is tragic, heartbreaking, and brutal. It also explains why Nunzio trusts few people. He was thirteen and the five of them, Nunzio, Father Joe, Pompeo, George and Nick, meet every Tuesday, even to this day.

“Does Nunzio ever worry about some ambitious hooligan wanting to take over?”

“Nunzio is the top lion. He is constantly watched by the ambitious and the aggrieved. He can’t show weakness. He can’t let a single insult – especially a public one – go unchecked. Continued leadership requires constant vigilance and no margin of error. None.”

Angelo, I have been with him since he was seven years old, struggling to find his place in the violent world he lives in. He will have to fight for it, maybe even kill for it, and everything has a price to be paid.

I do love an author who isn’t afraid to kill off his characters, even some that I have come to care about. He took me by surprise and I was even a little ticked off. Well done.

Nick Chiarkas brings to light many problems that persist to this day. I felt their need to kill or be killed. If you read his biography, I think you will get the same impression I did. That the Weeper series feels all too real. Gang warfare in the 1960s…has it changed?

Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. I knew a lot of the characters from Weepers, so I was already involved in their lives, but Nick Chiarkas too me to a whole new level. The violence, the brutality, the love, loyalty and betrayal, the flawed characters that stole my heart, I will not soon forget.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Nunzio’s Way by Nick Chiarkas.

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It was 1951. Angelo and his father were walking the snowy streets in a New York City housing project, when his life was changed forever. His father disappeared and the seven year old boy felt he should have done something. This coming of age story kept getting better and better, the more I read.

The boy already knew the first rule of the jungle: If it moves away from you, it’s food: it it moves toward you, you’re food.

“By the time a boy hits his teens, he’s either prey, predator, or he has mastered his environment…respected by the weak and the predators.”

I can’t imagine growing up in such an environment and I can see why a child’s world can become so brutal so early in their life.

A priest, a Mafia boss, a police detective and Angelo, a gang member form an unlikely union.

Weepers made me think of West Side Story. I can see why it was voted best mystery novel. There is so much I would like to share, but I won’t. The more I read, the more involved I became in the characters lives, and I want you to find out about them for yourself. I immediately went into Nunzio’s Way, and………..well, that’s another story.

I checked out Nick Chiarkas’ bio and saw why the story felt so real to me. Be sure and take a look. He knows what he’s writing about.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com… (meer)

In Nunzio's Way, book two of the Weepers Series, author Nick Chiarkos transports the reader back to the 1960 Two Bridges neighborhood of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, for an intriguing dark noir crime thriller that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

In Nunzio's Way, the story that began in Weepers, book one of the Weepers Series, continues in 1960 revolving around the activities of powerful mob boss Nunzio Sabino. Nunzio is still the most powerful mob boss in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but there are Mafia turf wars and growing tensions among the rival street gangs, and a political power-play for the mayoral race that keeps Nunzio busy holding onto his domain. And if that isn't enough, there is a simmering undercurrent of danger coming to the neighborhood when a female assassin wants revenge for the murders of her family, and she is targeting Nunzio and Angelo's father Mac with the assistance of the Satan's Knights street gang. Can Nunzio keep his domain safe, or will it come crumbling down when the assassin seemlessly infiltrates the neighborhood?

In Nunzio's Way, author Nick Chiarkas weaves a slow-building and suspenseful dark gritty noir tale that follows the latest danger that comes to the Lower East Side neighborhood that mob boss Nunzio Sabino controls. The reader is kept in suspense as turf wars, murder plots, and power struggles among the rival street gangs explode when a female assassin comes seeking revenge with Nunzio and Mac as her targets. This multi-layered story also brings the reader up to date with fifteen year old Angelo Pastamadeo's leadership in the Weepers street gang, when they are caught up in a power struggle with the Satan's Knights street gang.

The reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly descriptive plot. It is a story that is a tangled web filled with enough drama, secrets, deceit, corruption, motives, suspects, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion.

This was a really intriguing story to read! The author transports the reader to a richly vivid description of the 1960 Two Bridges neighborhood (between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge) where he grew up in the Al E. Smith Housing Projects, for a dark and gritty noir style crime thriller that will keep the reader turning the pages.

The story provides a fascinating storyline and a cast of characters the engages the reader, suprising twists and turns, and danger around every corner, especially when there are people who don't want the truth to come out. I found myself so caught up on following Nunzio's story intertwining it with Angelo's coming of age trials and tribulations within the relationships between neighborhood street gangs. You can't help but hold your breath as Nunzio fights to keep his power intact, while also trying to stop the assassin from killing him. The surprising conclusion will leave the reader exhausted!

Nunzio's Way will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Tours.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/11/nunzios-way-by-nick-chiarkas-...… (meer)

In Weepers, book one of the Weepers Series, author Nick Chiarkos transports the reader to the 1950s Two Bridges neighborhood of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, for an intriguing dark noir crime thriller that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

On Christmas Eve of 1951, seven year old Angelo Pastamadeo and his father Mac were walking home through their Lower East Side neighborhood with a cart full of presents, when Angelo walks ahead of Mac, and when he turns around only to find the cart is there but Mac is gone. Angelo gets scared when he sees a pack of the Satan's Knights street gang walking through the projects, and hurries home to tell his mom Anna that dad disappeared.

Fast forward to 1957, Angelo is now thirteen and is at the age to enter a street gang. Over the years since his father's unsolved disappearance, Angelo has planned to get revenge on the Satan's Knights for his dad's disappearance. Late one night he is a witness to a murder of an undercover cop in the projects by the Satan's Knights who see him, and he knows it's time to start a street gang with his friends so that they can navigate and survive the dangers of the neighborhood from rival street gangs.

Meanwhile longtime neighborhood friends Father Joe Bonifacio and mob boss Nunzio Sabino look into the unsolved disappearance of Mac Pastamadeo, and if his disappearance has a connection to the recent murder of the undercover cop by the Satan's Knights street gang.

In Weepers, author Nick Chiarkas weaves a slow-building and suspenseful dark gritty noir tale that follows the journey of thirteen year old Angelo Pastamadeo as he deals with his guilt over the unsolved disappearance of his father, and learns to conquer his fears and survive the danger of the neighborhood, with the help of his family, Fr. Joe and "Uncle" Nunzio Sabino. Add in the investigation of Mac's unsolved disappearance and the connection to the murder of the undercover cop by Fr Joe and mob boss Nunzio Sapino, and the reader is kept in suspense as the disappearance unfolds with a surpise ending that will simply stun the reader.

The reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly descriptive plot. It is a story that is a tangled web filled with enough drama, secrets, deceit, corruption, motives, suspects, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion.

This was a really intriguing story to read! The author transports the reader to a richly vivid description of the 1950s Two Bridges neighborhood (between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge) where he grew up in the Al E. Smith Housing Projects, for a dark and gritty noir style crime thriller that will keep the reader turning the pages.

The story provides a fascinating storyline and a cast of characters the engages the reader, suprising twists and turns, and danger around every corner, especially when there are people who don't want the truth to come out. I found myself so caught up on following Angelo's journey of learning to survive the dangers of the neighborhood and the rival street gangs, and Fr. Joe and Nunzio's investigative pursuit of putting the pieces of the puzzle together and solving the disappearance of Mac Pastamadeo. I was absolutely stunned by the conclusion!

Weepers will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/11/weepers-by-nick-chiarkas-book...… (meer)