The Exceptions

Cristofano knows a good story when he writes one. So he’s sticking with the tale he told in his Edgar-nominated first novel, The Girl She Used to Be, about a girl in the federal Witness Protection Program and her would-be assassin. This time Cristofano adopts, à la Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Johnny Bovaro’s point of view. When Johnny, the third son of a crime boss in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, came upon the scene of a mob hit in one of his dad’s restaurants as a young man, he told a crooked cop that there were other witnesses present as well—a little girl and her parents—unwittingly condemning them to the life that will be familiar to readers of The Girl She Used to Be. Although Johnny grows up to become the one family member no other Bovaro understands, “the rebel” of the family, he is nonetheless eventually dispatched to clean up this loose end, which means unearthing and targeting the innocent family and their lovely daughter for assassination. Instead, he becomes obsessed with protecting the young woman, following her bleak existence as she exchanges one identity for another, until he can stand it no longer. As Johnny contemplates a different future than he’d ever envisioned, he struggles to overcome his indelible bonds to his violent family. An intriguing companion piece and a good read. Agent: Pamela Harty, the Knight Agency. (Aug.)