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Book Nook: The Friendship of Criminals, by Robert Glinski

Once or twice a week I attend a meeting. It takes place in my recliner, usually late a night. I feel compelled to attend. Let's call this meeting to order. Repressing my guilt I open the next book and smile as I say say to myself again: hello, I'm Vick, and I'm a crime fiction junkie.

Crime fiction, I cannot get enough of this stuff. I read widely, all kinds of fiction, and lots of varied non-fiction. But now and then I need to pause for something that is purely a guilty pleasure. I consider this genre to be my literary dessert. It is like walking in to a store that has 1000 ice cream flavors. There are so many different writers and books to choose from. You could read this stuff 24/7 and never run out of books to read.

One recent discovery is a novel called "The Friendship of Criminals" by Robert Glinski. Glinski is an attorney and he practiced law in Philadelphia. While he was there he had the opportunity to go through the transcripts of wiretapped conversations that the government had obtained while attempting to create prosecution cases against members of the city's criminal underworld. Glinski was able to discover first-hand how these people speak to one another. It certainly gives him an advantage when it comes to writing dialogue for some his characters.

This novel tells the story of an underworld war between two ethnic crime organizations. One is Polish, the other is Italian. This book is a fabulous read and the showdown at the end gave me chills. My recliner was rocking well into the night.

Vick Mickunas introduced the Book Nook author interview program for WYSO in 1994. Over the years he has produced more than 1500 interviews with writers, musicians, poets, politicians, and celebrities. Listen to the Book Nook with Vick Mickunas for intimate conversations about books with the writers who create them. Vick Mickunas reviews books for the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News Sun.