The Washington Post
The fun never stops. Nor does it ever quite make sense. There are put-ons of the put-ons, send-ups of everything from PC language to mobsters, TV interview shows to tough-guy detectives. The events come in a barrage intended to scramble the brain until, at the end, Disaster explains it all and reveals how neatly he has manipulated the chaos and the reader's attention to his, and Sally's, advantage. By then I didn't much care. Looking for mystery? You won't find it here. Looking for comedy? Give it a read. — Paul Skenazy
Publishers Weekly
The world of the private eye and the spy gets spun for the 21st century in Dezenhall's broadly comic romp, in which Jackie Disaster protects the reputations of corporate clients under attack. Born Giovanni De Sesto, Jackie picked up his moniker as a kid boxer fighting in Golden Gloves and has grown up to head Allegation Sciences, with offices in an Atlantic City casino. Hired by Sally Naturale-kind of a mutated Martha Stewart from Jersey-after a woman claims she lost her unborn baby from drinking one of Sally's soy milk products, Disaster heads out to discredit the accuser and make the daffy Sally look as untarnished as possible. Dezenhall (Money Wanders), who once worked in the Reagan White House and currently is president of a crisis management firm, seems to be extrapolating the action from his popular nonfiction book, Nail 'Em! Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses (1999). The undercover scenes with Jackie and his crew, known as the Imps, are great entertainment, with the Mafia hovering in the shadows and that Jersey setting, where "the Rocky movies had once been to the Delaware Valley what the Koran is to Islam." But the more realistic moments-Jackie's romance, problems with his father and raising his orphaned niece as a single dad-don't quite click amid all the clowning. This novel provides lots of fun in a Carl Hiassen mode. Agent, Kristine Dahl at ICM. (June 16) Forecast: A blurb from Janet Evanovich will signal readers that the novel is set in territory in which Stephanie Plum would feel right at home. The author's background as a real-life protector of corporate reputations makes him a natural for the talk show circuit. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Giovanni DeSesto, otherwise known as Jackie Disaster, runs a firm in Atlantic City dedicated to crisis damage control. He and a select group of likable scoundrels investigate a contentious woman who claims that some tainted soymilk caused her to abort spontaneously. The soymilk company's owner worries about the effects on business, but Jackie catches the flack when three guys invade his house and attempt to kill him. Apparently, something sinister is going on in the south Jersey Pine Barrens, something besides phantom crickets and giant balloon bats. Dezenhall's second novel (after Money Wanders) should win many readers with its inventive plot, comically exaggerated characters, jaunty tone, and intermittent jocularity. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Jackie De Sesto, known ever since his boxing days as Jackie Disaster, has retired from the ring to run Allegation Services, an Atlantic City crisis-management firm, from rooms overlooking the gaming floor of the Golden Prospect Casino. Golden Prospect, under the management of the luscious Angela Vanni, the gone-legit daughter of a dead mafioso (Money Wanders, 2002), is his main client, but even the constant need to fend off the scams of made men like Frankie Shrugs and Petey Breath Mints leaves him and his Imps--the Damon Runyonesque trio consisting of Teapot Freddy, the Lord, and Nate-the-Great--time to salvage other images. Right now he’s bent on refurbishing millionaire Sally Naturale’s reputation, tarnished by a lawsuit Murrin Connolly has brought against her and her company that claims their organic soy milk caused her miscarriage. According to pollster Jonah Eastman, discrediting Murrin is the way to go, but they also have to show Sally eating humble pie, because Cricket Crest, her ne plus opulent enclave in South Jersey’s Pine Barrens, has made the deprived masses unsympathetic to her. From this point on, disasters pile up quickly and satisfyingly--including the destruction of Cricket Crest and the disappearance of Sally--although it takes Jackie and the Imps a while longer to see through the despicable alliance between Frankie Shrugs and Bebe, Sally’s slithery brother, and to understand the reason for all those chirping crickets at the enclave. Barbed and cruelly witty: Jackie Disaster is the best thing to come out of Atlantic City since saltwater taffy. Agent: Kristine Dahl/ICM
