Praise for Jim DeFilippi’s BLOOD SUGAR
(from HarperCollins, available on Amazon.com):
“BLOOD SUGAR is a suspenseful, often hilarious thriller.” (Newsday)
“This wacky tale finger-pops its way to a perfect ending.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A first novel and a good one. DeFilippi serves up suburban procedures with style.”
(Kirkus Reviews,)
“A damn good one. The novel’s emotional range is from the grimly horrific to the absurdly
comic. All of it works. There’s an important new voice in the field.” (Mystery Scene
Magazine)
“DeFilippi carefully mixes unconventional characters, bizarre plotting, and off-the-wall language…jaunty tone and unexpected twists.” (Library Journal)
“Jim DeFilippi’s BLOOD SUGAR is, happily, one of the few mysteries I’ve read that truly surprised me. And not just once.
We’re quickly drawn into DeFilippi’s bizarre world, heavily loaded with snappy, tough dialogue. Read this book.” (The Vermont Times)
“Following in the footsteps of his greatest influences, George V. Higgins and Elmore Leonard, DeFilippi has found a niche in the world of detective thrillers.” (The Catholic Tribune)
“This book has a distinct quality. It works, it hooks you.”(Burlington Free Press)
“BLOOD SUGAR has a great cast, fine dialogue and a plot that strikes hardest at the least likely characters—raising the stakes higher than most mystery novels would dare. DeFilippi has trashed the formula for first mystery novels.” (The Valley News)
“In the gritty, street-wise tradition of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Elmore Leonard, Jim DeFilippi has written a
terrifically entertaining novel…Joe LaLuna is one of the best fictional detectives I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading and relishing mystery novels.” (Howard Frank Mosher, author of STRANGER IN THE KINGDOM)
Praise for DUCK ALLEY by Jim DeFilippi
(Paper and ink edition available from The Permanent Press)
“The story is excellently paced and imaginatively told, in a series of flashbacks, imaginary scenarios and straightforward narrative
sections, all enlivened with vernacular dialogue. DeFilippi’s novel is as much about emotions as it is about actions, and it delivers a jolt of a surprise ending that entirely fits the plot’s milieu.” --Publishers Weekly
“Jim DeFilippi’s story of a boyhood friendship become a lifelong bond, ending in one’s death and the other’s death-in-life, for me is A Separate Peace in blue collars—a wonderful book.” --George V. Higgins (The Friends of Eddie Coyle)
“DeFilippi creates a surprisingly fresh novel, a meditation on communication and on silence…full of texture. The Long Island
setting is evoked vividly but with admirable restraint. A sleeper that could find its natural audience among fiction devotees.”
--Booklist
“Recalling the happy summertime of youth in the ‘50s, summons Coke bottles, friendly drunks, fussy moms, baseball games on the radio and harmless pranks.” --Kirkus Reviews
“A terrific tale…a superbly crafted novel.” -- Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Duck Alley is the moving, funny, ultimately tragic story of two buddies growing up in the 1950s. The plotting is ingenious
and makes this book a page-turner, but it’s the dead-on portrait of childhood that really sets this novel apart. DeFilippi captures the combination of casual cruelty, peer pressure, intense loyalty and vivid imagination of childhood. His bits of dialogue are inspired. Readers will (be) swept up in the narrative flow and the wonderful character depictions.”-- Philadelphia Enquirer
“A gripping tale of friendship and fate. It left me thinking for days.”--Vermont Times
“Duck Alley is rich with scenes of Jones Beach, high-school culture and, of course, the old neighborhood…stitched together with threads of discrete, peppery dialogue”-- Newsday
“Colorful and often hilarious anecdotes…are expertly interlaced with current events to reveal the complexity of a friendship. The unexpected aspects of the novel are a few crucial and heartbreaking plot twists, as well as the skill with which DeFilippi wrings out profound insight.” --Austin Chronicle
“Inspired Long Island dialogue, often laced with humor. The dialogue is right on, and so are DeFilippi’s descriptions of youthful lunacy. Duck Alley is a meditation on loyalty and betrayal. The plot reigns in the end, however, when DeFilippi delivers a
more-than-satisfying twist.” --The Burlington Free Press
“The book is a solid tale of friendship, lies, and loyalty without the stereotypical, sugar-coated, happily-ever-after
ending.” -- Inside Pulse.com
“Jim DeFilppi is an odds-on, smart money choice to be among the best crime novelists.” - - The League of Vermont
Writers
“The book contains a real sense of the scrappy, back-lot existence of these 1950s kids. The episodes have the authentic patina of cherished memory. DeFilippi’s creation is strong enough to be genuinely unsettling, and to make readers grateful for the glimmer of redemption offered in its final pages.” --Seven Days
“DeFilippi captures the comfort and intimacy of a lifelong friendship. Duck Alley is a page turner. With great conversation,
timing, and references to the times, it is well worth the trip. A great job.”-- Winooski (VT) Eagle
“A book that grabs readers quickly and doesn’t let go. The writing is precise and pithy and rings true.” – Library Journal
“As I closed Duck Alley I breathed, ‘Whoah. That was good.’” – The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
“A male story, told from a male’s point of view, yet that point of view is so sensitive it becomes universal.” – Cyber
Oasis
“With sensitivity and depth…every bit a thriller as (much) as a tale of innocence, trust, and loyalty. The book is thoughtful and thought-provoking.” -- Colchester (VT) News Magazine
“A must-read!” –The Optimist
“Emotional. Intense. Nostalgic. Real. The story is filled with emotion, action and has a great punch in the end, will take you at a great pace and is deftly told. An irrefutable good read!” –- About.Com
Nominated for The Hammett Prize.
“They can all go scratch, it’ll always be Duck Alley.”-- Mary Hicks, lifelong resident.
Praise for THE FAMILY FARM (Brown Fedora Books)
“The tension mounts quickly, and the prose is rare. Sometimes lyrical and sometimes brutally concrete.” --Seven
Days
“DeFilippi is an author who can tackle any subject and can turn it into a psycho-social critique or a descriptive saga or human frailties.”---Alex Canton of BOOK JUNKIES
Praise for BUF (Brown Fedora Books)
“BUF was great. I’m humbled.” ---Alex Canton of BOOK JUNKIES
“An absolute laugh-a-minute riot.”---Wistfulskimmie’s
(from HarperCollins, available on Amazon.com):
“BLOOD SUGAR is a suspenseful, often hilarious thriller.” (Newsday)
“This wacky tale finger-pops its way to a perfect ending.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A first novel and a good one. DeFilippi serves up suburban procedures with style.”
(Kirkus Reviews,)
“A damn good one. The novel’s emotional range is from the grimly horrific to the absurdly
comic. All of it works. There’s an important new voice in the field.” (Mystery Scene
Magazine)
“DeFilippi carefully mixes unconventional characters, bizarre plotting, and off-the-wall language…jaunty tone and unexpected twists.” (Library Journal)
“Jim DeFilippi’s BLOOD SUGAR is, happily, one of the few mysteries I’ve read that truly surprised me. And not just once.
We’re quickly drawn into DeFilippi’s bizarre world, heavily loaded with snappy, tough dialogue. Read this book.” (The Vermont Times)
“Following in the footsteps of his greatest influences, George V. Higgins and Elmore Leonard, DeFilippi has found a niche in the world of detective thrillers.” (The Catholic Tribune)
“This book has a distinct quality. It works, it hooks you.”(Burlington Free Press)
“BLOOD SUGAR has a great cast, fine dialogue and a plot that strikes hardest at the least likely characters—raising the stakes higher than most mystery novels would dare. DeFilippi has trashed the formula for first mystery novels.” (The Valley News)
“In the gritty, street-wise tradition of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Elmore Leonard, Jim DeFilippi has written a
terrifically entertaining novel…Joe LaLuna is one of the best fictional detectives I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading and relishing mystery novels.” (Howard Frank Mosher, author of STRANGER IN THE KINGDOM)
Praise for DUCK ALLEY by Jim DeFilippi
(Paper and ink edition available from The Permanent Press)
“The story is excellently paced and imaginatively told, in a series of flashbacks, imaginary scenarios and straightforward narrative
sections, all enlivened with vernacular dialogue. DeFilippi’s novel is as much about emotions as it is about actions, and it delivers a jolt of a surprise ending that entirely fits the plot’s milieu.” --Publishers Weekly
“Jim DeFilippi’s story of a boyhood friendship become a lifelong bond, ending in one’s death and the other’s death-in-life, for me is A Separate Peace in blue collars—a wonderful book.” --George V. Higgins (The Friends of Eddie Coyle)
“DeFilippi creates a surprisingly fresh novel, a meditation on communication and on silence…full of texture. The Long Island
setting is evoked vividly but with admirable restraint. A sleeper that could find its natural audience among fiction devotees.”
--Booklist
“Recalling the happy summertime of youth in the ‘50s, summons Coke bottles, friendly drunks, fussy moms, baseball games on the radio and harmless pranks.” --Kirkus Reviews
“A terrific tale…a superbly crafted novel.” -- Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Duck Alley is the moving, funny, ultimately tragic story of two buddies growing up in the 1950s. The plotting is ingenious
and makes this book a page-turner, but it’s the dead-on portrait of childhood that really sets this novel apart. DeFilippi captures the combination of casual cruelty, peer pressure, intense loyalty and vivid imagination of childhood. His bits of dialogue are inspired. Readers will (be) swept up in the narrative flow and the wonderful character depictions.”-- Philadelphia Enquirer
“A gripping tale of friendship and fate. It left me thinking for days.”--Vermont Times
“Duck Alley is rich with scenes of Jones Beach, high-school culture and, of course, the old neighborhood…stitched together with threads of discrete, peppery dialogue”-- Newsday
“Colorful and often hilarious anecdotes…are expertly interlaced with current events to reveal the complexity of a friendship. The unexpected aspects of the novel are a few crucial and heartbreaking plot twists, as well as the skill with which DeFilippi wrings out profound insight.” --Austin Chronicle
“Inspired Long Island dialogue, often laced with humor. The dialogue is right on, and so are DeFilippi’s descriptions of youthful lunacy. Duck Alley is a meditation on loyalty and betrayal. The plot reigns in the end, however, when DeFilippi delivers a
more-than-satisfying twist.” --The Burlington Free Press
“The book is a solid tale of friendship, lies, and loyalty without the stereotypical, sugar-coated, happily-ever-after
ending.” -- Inside Pulse.com
“Jim DeFilppi is an odds-on, smart money choice to be among the best crime novelists.” - - The League of Vermont
Writers
“The book contains a real sense of the scrappy, back-lot existence of these 1950s kids. The episodes have the authentic patina of cherished memory. DeFilippi’s creation is strong enough to be genuinely unsettling, and to make readers grateful for the glimmer of redemption offered in its final pages.” --Seven Days
“DeFilippi captures the comfort and intimacy of a lifelong friendship. Duck Alley is a page turner. With great conversation,
timing, and references to the times, it is well worth the trip. A great job.”-- Winooski (VT) Eagle
“A book that grabs readers quickly and doesn’t let go. The writing is precise and pithy and rings true.” – Library Journal
“As I closed Duck Alley I breathed, ‘Whoah. That was good.’” – The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
“A male story, told from a male’s point of view, yet that point of view is so sensitive it becomes universal.” – Cyber
Oasis
“With sensitivity and depth…every bit a thriller as (much) as a tale of innocence, trust, and loyalty. The book is thoughtful and thought-provoking.” -- Colchester (VT) News Magazine
“A must-read!” –The Optimist
“Emotional. Intense. Nostalgic. Real. The story is filled with emotion, action and has a great punch in the end, will take you at a great pace and is deftly told. An irrefutable good read!” –- About.Com
Nominated for The Hammett Prize.
“They can all go scratch, it’ll always be Duck Alley.”-- Mary Hicks, lifelong resident.
Praise for THE FAMILY FARM (Brown Fedora Books)
“The tension mounts quickly, and the prose is rare. Sometimes lyrical and sometimes brutally concrete.” --Seven
Days
“DeFilippi is an author who can tackle any subject and can turn it into a psycho-social critique or a descriptive saga or human frailties.”---Alex Canton of BOOK JUNKIES
Praise for BUF (Brown Fedora Books)
“BUF was great. I’m humbled.” ---Alex Canton of BOOK JUNKIES
“An absolute laugh-a-minute riot.”---Wistfulskimmie’s
