The Superman Project
A Chico Santana Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A. E. Roman brings New York City and its eccentric characters to life in this second in the original and energetic Chico Santana series.
After a series of low-paying jobs, Chico Santana, PI, is living in his tiny office on 149th Street in the Bronx. He's in an absolutely foul mood when Pablo Sanchez and his mother drop in, seeking help for one of Chico's old childhood pals----the handsome and charismatic Joey Ventura. Chico has not seen Joey since Joey disappeared from St. Mary's Home for Boys, headed for Tahiti. He ended up, instead, on the island of TSP---The Superman Project.
The Superman Project peddles German philosophy, Hinduism, and American comic book mythology as a method toward self-improvement, but its members are hiding more than a few secrets. The leader of TSP is a man named Father Ravi. One of his daughters, Gabby, who is also Joey's wife, is missing. Joey was accused by the TSP leaders of killing Gabby and has fled the police. Pablo and his mother insist he is innocent.
Compelled to believe in his old friend, and by the promised payment of a very valuable Superman comic, Chico investigates the competing interests in the organization, falling for a beautiful suspect and trying to look out for a friend's troubled niece in the process.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Roman's excellent second Chico Santana mystery (after 2009's Chinatown Angel), another hard-boiled whodunit, finds the endearing New York City PI in bad shape, reduced to living in his small Bronx office on the eve of a divorce from his wife of a decade. Then 18-year-old Pablo Sanchez, "about 250 soft pounds of fat," and Pablo's mother, Esther, who's "wearing an old Obama for President' campaign button," walk in the door. Pablo needs Chico's help tracing a missing couple: Brooklyn artist Gabby Gupta and her husband, Joey Valentin, with whom she was at odds and thus the NYPD's prime person of interest. Joey happens to be a childhood crony of Chico's. Pablo, a janitor working for a spiritual self-improvement center known as the Superman Project, is convinced that forces out to destroy the project framed Joey. Despite himself, Chico begins to buy into the conspiracy theory, especially after someone murders Esther. Roman keeps the action moving all the way through a wicked sting toward the end.
