Amazon Mike Manno's official website Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Five Star First Editions ISBN-10:  1594143870 Type: Fiction Pages: 258 Copyright: June 2006 When a young nun, the daughter of a despised newspaper publisher, is killed by a bomb planted in her dad’s car, the state police is called to investigate and Detective Sergeant Jerome (Stan) Stankowski is assigned the task. Unfortunately for Stan, the Attorney General’s office sends its former star prosecutor, the now burned out and persnickety Parker Noble, to assist. To Stan’s dismay, the local officials assume that Parker, a deputy attorney general, is in charge of the operation. Intimidated by Parker, Stan tries to take charge while silently wondering if his days as a detective are numbered. Trying to re-gain control of the investigation, Stan utilizes the assistance of one of the dead nun’s friends, the flirtatious Buffy Coyle, whose interest in Stan may be greater than her interest in helping the police. Complicating matters for Stan, Buffy had recently been fired from the newspaper by her friend’s father. Confusing investigators is the fact that the nun’s visit was a surprise, known only to her family and a neighbor. To add to their troubles, the father suffers a seizure at the scene. A mayor under attack by the paper, a police chief with a mysterious four year gap in his resume, a contractor whose development was blocked by the publisher, a gay group angry at the newspaper for “outing” a gay teacher, and a man whose life was ruined by one newspaper photo, all become suspects in the effort to solve the crime.   Excerpt “Lies, Miss Coyle?” “No, not lies. Worse! Half-truths. Winborn and that damn newspaper of his would tell just enough of the truth to make it impossible for someone to defend himself. Winborn was good at that. . . .” There was a long pause. I could almost see the hate bottled up in her. I let her sit still for a minute. I cleared my throat, then asked her, “Did you know that Mr. Winborn died this morning?” I watched for her reaction very closely. Buffy Coyle was obviously a pretty little girl, and by little I mean just that, tiny. But today, whatever attractiveness she might have had was overshadowed by her venom. “Good,” she cried. “I’m glad.” There was another pause, then she looked relieved. Her prettiness started to return. Her face, once drawn and tense, relaxed. She allowed herself to slump back into her chair. Now there was a twinkle in her eye when she returned my glance. Her small chest heaved as she inhaled. Extending her lower lip beyond her upper, she blew a wisp of hair from her eyes as she exhaled. Then she smiled. “Wanna celebrate?”

Mystery Scene Magazine
She borrowed her father's car, as daughters will. Only daddy's car had a car bomb. Now the daughter's dead. But who was the intended victim, father or daughter? All fingers appear to point to the father, the despised and outspoken publisher of a hard-hitting newspaper, rather than to the visiting daughter, a young nun. Sifting through the suspects becomes the job of Detective Sergeant Jerome ("Stan") Stankowski of the Special Investigations Unit, and Parker Noble, former prosecutor for the Attorney General's office.

Manno's Midwestern whodunit makes for a steady, engrossing read as the likeable, dogged detective, and the eccentric former prosecutor make the rounds of suspects. The considerable number of suspects manages to camouflage the true villain until Manno adroitly ties up the case with a satisfying, if not unique, conclusion. Manno brings a personal expertise in law, politics, real estate, and the newspaper business to this story's characters and circumstances, as well as charming warmth, wit, and underlying wholesomeness.



I Love a Mystery
MURDER MOST HOLY is a mystery concerning a car bombing that killed a beloved nun while she was visiting her father, the despicable newspaper editor of the Independent. State Police Detective Sergeant Jerome (Stan) Stankowski, recently jilted by his girlfriend, and Parker Noble, a former star prosecutor now with the Attorney General’s office, are paired for the investigation.

Persnickety Parker intimidates Stan as the different approaches between lawyer and police officer is parlayed into a humorous partnership. Stan is attracted to frisky, flirtatious Buffy, a friend of the dead nun, Anna Marie Winborn. Buffy recently worked at the Independent, but disagreed with the ethics of the editor and quit, only to be blackballed and unable to find work. The editor suffers a heart attack as a result of the shock of the car bombing that killed his daughter.

The paper has attacked the mayor, a gay schoolteacher, who committed suicide as a result, a contractor and a car salesman, who lost his family as a result of the paper publishing a photo of him leaving a brothel. The two sleuths also discover the police chief has a shady past and Buffy has turned gumshoe in her attempts to “help” solve the crime, despite her role as suspect. Stan is smitten.

MURDER MOST HOLY is a well-written book and sports a light touch with wit similar to that of Robert Parker. The humorous dialogue and deft handling of the murder meets Agatha Christie’s chaste standards. As the TV commercial states, “Try it, you’ll like it.”


Cirme Spree Magazine
Detective Sergeant Jerome (Stan) Stankowski is having a rough week; his fiancée has jilted him. So when the phone rings early Sunday morning, on what was to have been the first day of his honeymoon, Stan’s first inclination is to leave it unanswered. But he does answer it, and is drawn into a murder case that will both baffle and challenge him. A young nun in this small Midwest community has been inexplicably murdered with a pipe bomb. The first challenge Stan has to face in the investigation is the fact that he’s partnered with a crabby former State Prosecutor, Parker Noble. Noble is an egotistical fussbudget, whose primary interests are his next meal, his ageing dog, and making Stan’s life miserable (at least that’s the way Stan sees it).The next challenge is that there’s absolutely no discernible reason for the young woman to have been killed. Her father, Chuck Winborn, on the other hand, is a different story. The publisher of the local newspaper, he’s used his ‘bully pulpit’ as a battering ram to control events in the community, and has a long list of enemies. Unfortunately, he can’t aid the investigation, because upon learning of his daughter’s death Winborn suffers a fatal seizure. So Stan and Parker are left to work the case with no assistance, and a motley crew of suspects: the local police chief, the mayor, and a prominent building contractor are only the most obvious candidates. The longer Stan and Parker work the case, the more suspects they find. This entertaining debut novel is reminiscent of Dylan Schaffer’s writing. Stan Stankowski is a likeable protagonist, and his relationship with the ever-cranky Parker Noble makes this a better-than-average first novel. I’ll be watching for more books by this author.