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Serrano's vivid debut urban noir followsEddie Santiago, a Puerto Rican gangbanger just off a 10-year bit in Joliet for murder. Now in his 30s, Eddie hooks up with friend Tony Pacheco, who has returned to peddling dope and collecting protection money on Chicago's mean streets and who lobbies Eddie to help the old gang heist a casino riverboat flush with cash. Eddie, carrying 40G in a money belt, has a different plan: to go to Miami to join Chiva, his old cellmate from Joliet, and open a salsa recording label. But two bent Chicago narcs, Coltrane and Johnson, strong-arm Eddie and confiscate his cash. Broke and stuck in Chicago, Eddie decides to recover his money even while he tries to go straight. Whether he has enough decency and perseverance to do all of that while hanging with the crazy, bloody-minded Tony is just one of the questions Serrano expertly sets up. A dose of unsentimental romance helps Eddie along and puts Serrano in the same class as young noir-meisters Charlie Huston and Jason Starr. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.

Verdict: Here's proof that street lit is not limited to African American characters or readers. Debut novelist Serrano adds a Latino flavor to the genre with this intricate, Spanish-slang-laced story about a Puerto Rican parolee's journey from jail cell to Chicago's rough streets as he encounters betrayal, police corruption, casual sex, and stunning violence. The tense plot will grip readers, who will clamor for Serrano's next work. For street lit collections and collections serving Hispanic populations. Background: After serving ten years in a penitentiary, Eduardo "Eddie" Santiago is released, and his lifelong friend Tony Pacheco escorts him back to Chicago. But two cops bust Eddie and rob him of his moneybelt, stuffed with $40,000 in cash earned from a lucrative pot business on the inside. Vowing to recover his money, Eddie also becomes ensnared in a reckless plan to rob a casino while falling for a Mexican beauty with a past.--Rollie Welch, Cleveland P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.