Back to Brooklyn

Kelter (Out of the Ashes) doesn’t surmount the Himalayan obstacle he’s set for himself in this sequel to the acclaimed film comedy, My Cousin Vinny; the characterizations of the leads by Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei were so vivid that translating them into prose would be a challenge for anyone. Attorney Vincent Gambini and his fiancée, Lisa Vito, have returned home to Brooklyn after their success in clearing two murder defendants in Alabama. Vinny is soon representing another client in a homicide case: Theresa Cototi, an exotic dancer, who has been charged with killing her boyfriend, Samuel Cipriani, by pushing him off a roof. Since Cipriani’s brother is a deputy mayor, the prosecution is headed by the Brooklyn DA himself. The plot isn’t memorable, and Kelter relies on cheap jokes: for example, Vinny repeatedly mispronounces NYPD detective Nirmal Parikh’s last name as “prick.” The Brooklyn idioms Vinny and Lisa use also work much less well on the printed page. Still, many fans of the movie will enjoy Vinny and Lisa’s further adventures. (May)