Review - Weepers by Nick Chiarkas @chiarkas

Woo Hoo, lucky me. I won Weepers by Nick Chiarkas…and Nunzio’s Way…in a giveaway.

MY REVIEW

It was 1951. Angelo and his father were walking the snowy streets in a New York City housing project, when his life was changed forever. His father disappeared and the seven year old boy felt he should have done something. This coming of age story kept getting better and better, the more I read.

The boy already knew the first rule of the jungle: If it moves away from you, it’s food: it it moves toward you, you’re food.

“By the time a boy hits his teens, he’s either prey, predator, or he has mastered his environment…respected by the weak and the predators.”

I can’t imagine growing up in such an environment and I can see why a child’s world can become so brutal so early in their life.

A priest, a Mafia boss, a police detective and Angelo, a gang member form an unlikely union.

Weepers made me think of West Side Story. I can see why it was voted best mystery novel. There is so much I would like to share, but I won’t. The more I read, the more involved I became in the characters lives, and I want you to find out about them for yourself. I immediately went into Nunzio’s Way, and………..well, that’s another story.

I checked out Nick Chiarkas’ bio and saw why the story felt so real to me. Be sure and take a look. He knows what he’s writing about.

GOODREADS BLURB

BEST MYSTERY NOVEL – JOHN E. WEAVER EXCELLENT READS AWARD & READERS’ FAVORITE WINNER – YA COMING OF AGE CATEGORY
The 1957 murder of an undercover cop in a New York City housing project has unexpected ties to the unsolved disappearance of a young father walking home in those same projects with his son, Angelo, on Christmas Eve six years before. The only witness to the cop killing is Angelo, now 13, while on his way to seek his own revenge in the early morning hours. The killers know he saw them. A series of gripping events forge a union between a priest, a Mafia boss, a police detective, and Angelo, a gang member. In the end, Weepers shows us that the courage of the underdog despite fear and moral ambiguity will conquer intimidation.

Weepers has received finalist status for the Best Novel of 2016 by the Public Safety Writers Association(PSWA), the Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) best mystery/thriller novel of 2015, the Best Young Adult Novel for 2016 by Bookvana, and the Best Crossover (Mystery & Young Adult) for the 2017 Best Books Award.

ABOUT NICK CHIARKAS

Nick Chiarkas grew up in the Al Smith housing projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

When he was in the fourth grade, his mother was told by the principal of PS-1 that, “Nick was unlikely to ever complete high school, so you must steer him toward a simple and secure vocation.” Instead, Nick became a writer, with a few stops along the way: a U.S. Army Paratrooper; a New York City Police Officer; the Deputy Chief Counsel for the President’s Commission on Organized Crime; and the Director of the Wisconsin State Public Defender Agency.

On the way to becoming an author, he picked up a Doctorate from Columbia University; a Law Degree from Temple University; and was a Pickett Fellow at Harvard. How many mothers are told their children are hopeless? How many kids with potential simply

Website / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Bookbub