TOM PICCIRILLI - YOU'D BETTER WATCH OUT (2011)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

After his brutally violent cop father kills his mother in a heinous fashion on Christmas day, a young boy is raised on the streets of Brooklyn to become the deadliest hitman for the Mob. But even while he carves out a life and reputation for himself dispatching enemies of the syndicate, the hitter is planning his revenge against those who helped to make him what he is. From the cruel mob family to his own murderous old man, who sends threats and taunts from the safety of his jail cell. As the time approaches when his father will be free again, a Christmas nightmare of bloody retribution begins to unfold.

Employing the unique, darkly humorous, and powerful noir voice that is his trademark, Piccirilli once again demonstrates why he's become a must-read author for admirers of both crime and horror fiction.

Short, but gripping and violent and tense and really, really good.

A boy becomes a man and all the way through his adoloscence and into adulthood he's preparing for the day his father is released from prison for killing his mother. True to say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though our hero does retain the capacity to love.

One of the best novellas I've read from Piccirilli. 

4.5 stars from 5

Read - (listened to) May, 2022

Published - 2011

Page count - 53 (1 hr 52 mins)

Source - Audible purchase

Format - Audible