Download PDF Suitcase Charlie John Guzlowski Books

Product details Paperback 328 pages Publisher Kasva Press LLC (December 17, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1948403048

Suitcase Charlie John Guzlowski Books Reviews

• Full disclosure I was a colleague of John Guzlowski at Eastern Illinois University for two years in the mid-90's.
  
  John Guzlowski is an amazing poet, and as with his poetry this novel wastes no words; evoking place and time, but also mood and mind-set and the tensions of life in a big city rocked by violence.
  
  As a resident of Chicago's near North Side for over fifteen years, I can attest to the accuracy of the author's detailed glimpses into the corners of the parks of the city, the convent houses and shotgun bungalows, the bars and street corners where his world-weary detectives ply their trade.
  
  To say that this novel is about race, immigrants, and hatred would be an understatement. Yet it's also a novel about hope, about redemption, about peace. And it's a ripping good detective novel besides.
• An excellent crime thriller -- I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. The characters, settings, and social circumstances depicted in this novel all smack of veracity; I felt I could easily have been reading a nonfiction memoir written in the third person. While SUITCASE CHARLIE certainly delivers as a gripping detective novel, it also delivers a deeply disturbing glimpse into how racial and ethnic prejudices and propaganda can become dangerously institutionalized in society and internalized by individuals. Most crime thrillers are "read once and pass on to someone else" for me, but I'll be keeping this one to read again -- there's far more here than just finding out whodunit.
• Chilling and evocative of pure evil sum up this gripping detective tale. This book has a lot to recommend it. There are believable characters who speak in realistic and compelling dialog. There are poetic, and at the same time, grueling set pieces that fix the reader in place and time – the arrest and brutal beating of suspect comes to mind, as does the race through the park for a sadist named, ironically, Joey Roses; and of course, the discovery at the start of the book of a ghastly crime. The book moves swiftly and concludes in a believable and virtually inevitable way given the metaphor of WWII brutality and viciousness that is alive and well in 1950s Chicago. The detective heroes, and there is no other name for them despite some pretty un-heroic actions, are themselves debased by a world turned lawless and vicious at nearly every step. I highly recommend the book, and be sure to park your timidity at the curb.
• This story is gritty-so much so that the scenes I pictured in my head were all in black and white. The crimes are gruesome and not for the faint of heart. The cops are world-weary veterans of WW2, accustomed to the worst humankind has to offer before they begin exploring a depraved series of child murders. John Guzlowski explores the criminal world and tough neighborhoods of 50's era Chicago-a world he knows well. But he also knows the poison of antsemetism and intolerance. In Suitcase Charlie he puts the reader on notice that these horrors have survived the war and have followed refugees to Chicago's parks and neighborhoods. The murder of a young black girl is tossed aside like yesterday's newspaper and the lie of the Elders of Zion is alive and well. The detectives must face administrative paralysis and their own growing dread and horror as they try to prevent another murder. I was reminded more than once of M, the brilliant German film about the hunt for a child killer.
  
  Suitcase Charlie is a unique and tightly paced thriller. Mr. Guzlowski has created a world of horrifying crime, tough men and even tougher justice. This novel will not disappoint.
• ...but it's hard to see why people like this book so much. It's mostly overworked noir, the characters are stereotypical, and the portrayal of Chicage after the war is one-sided. Maybe it's because the author has an agenda (and I'm not saying it's a bad one), and books with an underlying agenda are often somewhat stilted.
• I bought and read this last year. At that point, I would probably have given it four stars, but now I want to give it five.
  Why? Because most genre novels I read last year are dim memories, but I retain recall scenes and the major plot points of this one.
  You could say it got under my skin!
  It is definitely noir, gritty and dark. The characters and the setting are true to the time -- don't expect any surface political correctness -- but there is a overall sensibility that allows the reader to see the the views of the author's characters are not necessarily his views.
  Character, action, and setting are stronger than plot, yet the plot is good; some readers will guess the end early, but not too early.
  
  This is also clearly the work of a poet. This doesn't mean it is "poetic," in the conventional sense of elevated, wordy language.
  Rather, it is vivid and gripping, without one word wasted.
• This Chicago-based book about a serial child-killer traced by two inept and habitually abusive detectives will probably please only those readers who are familiar with Chicago and delight in muse about its geography and cultural features, even if superficially. There is not much mystery in the mystery, let alone thrills in the "thriller,"and key plot elements are preposterous. All I can grant the author is he managed a surprise ending. The author is, however, an accomplished poet, and I'd suggest readers interested in Chicago's Polish-Americana look to those works.
• I loved this mystery, I have not read a good mystery in a very long time! This book makes you want to check your doors and windows at night!! Love mysteries where you know nothing about the killer or killers until the last pages! Keeps you turning pages! I hope that this author will keep writing mysteries, because he knows want he's doing! Thank you for a great thriller!