Seranella, Barbara

Deadman's Switch

No Man Standing: A Munch Mancini Crime Novel

Munch Mancini used to be a biker chick who was handy with a wrench but had a few bad habits like booze, drugs, and bad taste in men. The heroine of Barbara Seranella's lively, engaging series of mysteries, Munch is trying to clean up her new life as a solid citizen and single mother by staying away from the temptations of her old one. But when her closest friend, Ellen, gets out of jail and learns just how badly someone wants the money she took from a man who tried to kill her, Munch can't turn her away. It's not like Munch doesn't have her own problems: she's being stalked by the mother of one of her daughter Asia's playmates, trying to resuscitate her moribund limousine business, and in the middle of moving into the first house she's ever owned. And now she's got a sullen stripper on her bad side, counterfeit money in her kid's toy box, a new lover who's also a cop, and a very strange guy who says he's her friend's father but might also be a killer who's staying one step ahead of every move she makes. This entertaining and well-crafted thriller should earn this highly original writer (Unfinished Business, Unwanted Company) a host of new fans. --Jane Adams

Against the odds, Munch Mancini pulled herself out of a dead-end life of drugs and booze, transforming into a high-class mechanic, the owner of a fledgling limo business, and a good mother to her daughter. But she hasn't forgotten her old friend Ellen Summers. Munch and Ellen were young and foolish together. But where Munch went straight, Ellen went to prison. Now, one day before her release, someone murders Ellen's mother and stepfather -- and the killer is convinced Ellen has something he wants.

Alone and frightened, she runs to Munch for help. Though Ellen's story doesn't add up, the danger proves to be most definitely real. Unwilling to trust the police for fear of sending Ellen back to prison, Munch embarks on a mission to find the killer and get her friend out of trouble one last time -- before trouble comes looking for her. With riveting action and one of the most unconventional and appealing heroines in all of crime fiction, Barbara Seranella delivers her best novel yet.

"A new Munch Mancini novel from the nationally bestselling author whose Unfinished Business was a Los Angeles Times ""Best Book of 2001"" Munch Mancini is a busy woman, what with her auto mechanic's job, her fledgling limo business, and single motherhood, but she hasn't forgotten her old friends: she's still close to Ellen Summers. Munch and Ellen were young and foolish together. They drank, they did drugs, they did other things they'd rather forget. But somewhere along the line, Munch went straight and Ellen went to prison. Now, Ellen is about to be freed form the California Institiution ofor Women. She'll have another chance to make a life. Or will she? Just a day before her release, her world falls apart when someone tortures and murders her mother and stepfather, Lila Mae and Dwayne Summers. Ellen may be the next target. Ellen has something the killer wants, and she's not about to give it up. Alone and threatened, she flees to Munch. Munch wants to help, but is Ellen telling her the truth? Too much of Ellen's story doesn't make sense, and what if helping Ellen puts Munch's eight-year-old daughter, Asia, at risk? That's where friendship stops and motherhood takes over. Where Asia's concerned, Munch takes no chances. Unwilling to confide completely in the police because the whole truth would send Ellen back to prison, Munch embarks on a mission to find the killer and to cut the best possible deal for her friend. Work, friendship,loyalty, motherhood, men, and even Munch's sobriety are all put to the test in the six harrowing days leading up to a heartbreaking showdown. Munch must ask herself some tough questions. If she comes through this one, she'll never take anything for granted again. With riveting action and one of the most unconventional and appealing heroines in all of crime fiction, No Man Standing is the best yet from a superbly gifted author. "

No Human Involved

A strung-out waif-cum-ace auto mechanic, Munch Mancini is trying to get clean and get her act together. But temptation and problems keep pushing her closer to the edge. Like the murder of her abusive father, "Flower George." The cops have her pegged for the crime, and now she's got to stay out of sight of a certain cop named Mace St. John. St first it's easy because Mace isn't looking that hard. But when his prime suspect becomes linked to the gruesome murders of several not-so-innocent women, the wearily homicide detective goes into overdrive. If Mace wants to solve these murders, he'll have to find Munch. And if Munch wants a new life, she's got to find a way to cut a deal. But as they will both discover, there's a precarious line between trust and betrayal--and the temptation to cross it may be too strong to resist.

No Offense Intended (Munch Mancini Novels)

Barbara Seranella's Munch Mancini--a 1970s ex-druggie and jailbird wrestling with her self-esteem and her future--was a blast of original air in the first book about her, No Human Involved. The only problem was that there seemed to be no way she could be as interesting or edgy ever again. Happily, it turns out that Seranella, a longtime car mechanic to the rich and famous of Los Angeles, is even better at tinkering with a word processor. No Offense Intended shows us a growing and changing Munch, while avoiding most of the traps that second books of a series can fall into.

It must have been tempting, for example, to have Munch team up again with Lt. Mace St. John, the thorny but eventually very sympathetic cop who helped her in the first book. But that would have diminished both her fragility and inventiveness, giving her someone too solid to lean on. Instead, we find Munch on her own when an ex-lover rolls into Happy Jack's Auto Repair in the San Fernando Valley to ask her to look after his baby daughter. And when that lover is found dead on the San Diego Freeway, mixed up in a biker gang's dangerous arms dealings, Munch does much of the dirty work on her own before linking up with a LAPD homicide detective.

Equally inventive is the natural way Seranella uses Munch's car repair skills to give the character depth and move the story along without making too much of it. Locked up in jail and needing to smoke and make a phone call, Munch persuades a reluctant guard to loosen up by telling her how to fix the ignition on her '67 Camaro Super Sport. The explanation is so wonderfully authoritative that the page (158) should be copied by anyone who owns that car. As for the rest of this moving and exciting book, you'll be passing it around a lot, as well. --Dick Adler

If only expert mechanic Munch Mancini could keep her life running as smoothly as the cars she repairs. A former substance abuser, Munch is doing her best each day to keep the sins of her past behind her, but it seems that there's always some old friend or temptation blocking her path. Like her ex-lover, Sleaze Garillo, a shady hustler who comes around looking for a favor.

When Sleaze drops out of sight under troubling circumstances--possibly as the victim of a sniper attack on the freeway--Munch can't help but get involved. The cops are after her for answers. But Munch doesn't have any--yet. Unlike the police, she's the only one with the friends and connections to find the truth. Of course that means revisiting the lingering characters from her past--friend and foe--and dealing with them once and for all. She's used to battling drug smugglers, bikers, and the law, but this time, she's facing the hardest fight of her life--protecting the baby daughter Sleaze left behind.

An Unacceptable Death (Munch Mancini Novels)

Unpaid Dues: A Munch Mancini Crime Novel (Munch Mancini Novels)

Munch Mancini's past catches up with her in this sixth adventure featuring the reformed bad girl turned garage mechanic and single mother--a series that's gaining fans with every new outing for a good reason--Munch is an authentically original creation with grit, wit, and determination, which often serve her better than her loyalty to old friends. Now one of those friends turns up murdered, and when homicide Detective Mace St. John finds Munch's prints and photo on the corpse's records, a bloody part of her past threatens to blow Munch and her daughter's future away. If that's not enough, the teenage son of another old friend turns up on Munch's doorstep, but of course it's no coincidence. By the time Sernaella ties a boy named Bug, a drug-fueled murder spree the cops have long since closed the books on, and a dead woman in a storm drain together in a fast-placed plot, she's brought another piece of Munch's history into sharper focus, making her hard-fought struggle to turn her life around even more interesting, involving, and inspiring. --Jane Adams

Munch Mancini is one of those fictional characters who jump off the page and into readers' hearts. Mechanic, limo driver, mom, Munch -- short for Miranda -- has lived a hard life and done it all: sex, drugs, you name it. But now she has her adopted eight-year-old daughter, Asia; she has a house; she has a job she loves. And she has trouble.

The battered body of her former pal New York Jane has washed up in a Los Angeles drainage canal. Munch's policeman friend Mace St. John runs the dead woman's prints: She's Jane Ferrar, but in her arrest report Mace finds Munch's photo and fingerprints.

What's the tie between the two women? Who killed Jane and dumped her in the ditch? And what is the significance of the baby doll tied to her arms? Munch tells Mace that ten years earlier she had used Jane's name to beat a drunk driving rap. She'll do what's necessary now to clear her record, but that's where she wants it to end. She wants no more police digging into her past. It's done. It's over. She's severed all ties with the people she used to know, especially Jane Ferrar and a dangerous man named Thor.

Or so she hopes. It's not that easy, though, to escape one's history. There are always reminders, such as the fifteen-year-old boy who shows up at Munch's door one day asking for help. He's the son of an old friend, and he's a kid, so how can she say no? But is he what he says? Is Munch wrong to bring him into the house with little Asia? Munch will do anything to protect Asia from harm. Anything.

Meanwhile, Munch's boyfriend, homicide cop Rico Chacón, is investigating a cold case of triple murder that may be heating up and heading straight toward Munch. Her whole new life may unravel unless she can stop a killer. And Munch's life with Rico may unravel too unless his other girlfriend leaves town -- soon.

With Unpaid Dues, Barbara Seranella, one of the most passionate and resonating voices in all of crime fiction, gives us a gripping and suspenseful novel about the debts we owe but can never fully repay.

"Munch Mancini is one of those fictional characters who jump off the page and into readers' hearts. Mechanic, limo driver, mom, Munch -- short for Miranda -- has lived a hard life and done it all: sex, drugs, you name it. But now she has her adopted eight-year-old daughter, Asia; she has a house; she has a job she loves. And she has trouble. With Unpaid Dues, Barbara Seranella, one of the most passionate and resonating voices in all of crime fiction, gives us a gripping and suspenseful novel about the debts we owe but can never fully repay. "

Unwilling Accomplice: A Munch Mancini Crime Novel (Munch Mancini Novels)

Munch Mancini and little daughter Asia are doing just fine. Munch rejoices in her job as an auto mechanic at the Brentwood Texaco. She and Asia have a house -- not in tony Brentwood -- and a dog, and Munch has been off drugs for years. She plans to stay that way. It's tough, though, when people from her old life resurface.

Such a person is Lisa Slokum, Asia's aunt. Lisa has always meant trouble, and why should now be any different? It seems she has bolted from the Witness Protection Program with her two daughters, fifteen-year-old Charlotte and eleven-year-old Jill, and she needs Munch's help.

Would that it were so simple. Munch will need to call upon Rico Chacón, a fine cop but not-so-fine boyfriend whose commitment to her on the nonprofessional side seems to be wavering. And before Munch can sort out her love life she must try on the role of auntie to Asia's new cousins -- not easy when the teenaged Charlotte goes missing and her mom, Lisa, lands in jail.

Why did Charlotte run away, and where is she now? Is she in danger of becoming one of Hollywood's lost street children? Does she have information about the recent death of school friend Steven Koon? And why was a lock of her hair found stuck to a piece of duct tape in a ransacked storage locker?

Munch must unravel the mystery of young Charlotte's complex life before it's too late to save her. To do that, she needs help from Rico, who's investigating the Koon boy's death. Will their professional alliance rekindle their romance? Should she take him back? Does he want to come back? Can she trust him?

With its pulsating suspense and penetrating look at family relationships and the universal need for love and affirmation, Unwilling Accomplice is the best yet from a versatile author whose passionate voice shines through her fast-moving prose.

Munch Mancini and little daughter Asia are doing just fine. Munch rejoices in her job as an auto mechanic at the Brentwood Texaco. She and Asia have a house -- not in tony Brentwood -- and a dog, and Munch has been off drugs for years. She plans to stay that way. It's tough, though, when people from her old life resurface.

Unfinished Business: A Munch Mancini Crime Novel (Munch Mancini Novels)

Miranda "Munch" Mancini is quite a woman. She's a recovering drug and alcohol abuser; she's a southern California auto mechanic; she's the sole proprietor of a fledgling limo service; she's a loving mother to her 7-year-old adopted daughter, Asia. Set in the early 1980s, Barbara Seranella's fourth Mancini novel, Unfinished Business, has Munch and her friend, detective Mace St. John, in hot pursuit of a serial rapist-murderer who's killed one of her clients, the socialite Diane Bergman, and raped another, the actress Robin Davies. Worse--for all concerned, including the rapist--the rapist has come close enough to Munch's daughter to pin a note to her coat, and now Munch is getting threatening calls:

The phone rang again. Asia reached for it.

"No," Munch said, with more force than she had intended. Asia jumped back. Munch picked up the receiver, tried to give Asia a comforting smile, and said "Hello?"

"You have a nice house," the strangely distorted voice said. It vibrated, sounding like the voice of that robot in that old television show Lost in Space. The cadence was slow, as if the speaker needed an extra moment to prepare each word. "But you really shouldn't take the same route home every day."

Munch Mancini finally has her life together.

A former drug addict and biker who lived rough on the streets, she's now a respectable mom with a regular job. By day, Munch is one of the Brentwood Texaco's best mechanics. By night, she drives a limo. Even better, she owns the limo, and at forty-six bucks an hour, it brings in some nice change.

Like tonight, when the meter metaphorically ticks as she takes in the view outside a cliffside Pacific Palisades mansion while the glamorous types inside drink champagne at a charity gala.

Munch sees things while she waits. Two people come out of the house. They argue. Munch senses a threat. Soon one of her customers will be murdered, another will be raped and tortured, and Munch will find herself trapped in the mayhem. She knows something important, perhaps from that night in the Palisades, perhaps from her work at the garage. Whatever it is, it's significant enough for her to become a target.

Munch has much to worry about already. There's her seven-year-old adopted daughter, Asia. Munch would sacrifice anything to keep her safe and secure. There's the current man in her life, Garret Dimond. He's perfect in many ways. She's always prayed for a lover who won't drive her crazy, but she also needs a guy who will keep her awake. Which brings her to Mace St. John, the cop who arrested her back in her biker days. Now they are friends, but Munch sometimes yearns for more. That's impossible. It won't happen. It mustn't. All is tested when they're thrown together in the hunt for a killer.

Vulnerable, courageous, unpredictable, Munch Mancini packs a powerfully entertaining punch in this riveting novel from one of the brightest new stars of crime fiction.

Straight from the top of the Los Angeles Times bestseller lists comes Barbara Seranella and her critically acclaimed Munch Mancini crime novels. A lady auto mechanic with a colorful past, Munch is drawn into the search for a rapist who works the Brentwood section of Los Angeles using electrical shocks to manipulate his victims. Two of the women are customers at Munch's garage: one, a philanthropic socialite, is dead; the other, Robin Davies, a starlet, survived but is severely traumatized. Then Robin goes missing, and Munch joins homicide cop Mace St. John, in the race to save her. Even as the rapist's focus turns toward her, Munch carries on with wit and courage, raising her wedding-obsessed seven-year-old, debating her future with her boyfriend, and struggling against an inappropriate attraction to the married Mace St. John.

Unwanted Company (Munch Mancini Novels)

Just when things seem to be going relatively well for recovering addict, ex-prostitute, ex-con, and whiz-bang auto-mechanic-cum-limo-service-magnate Miranda "Munch" Mancini and her 6-year-old adopted daughter, Asia, she encounters a world of good-intentioned hurt from an old druggie friend, Ellen. Fresh out of prison and just 16 days sober, Ellen is determined to get her life back on track. When things on the outside don't go according to plan, she turns to Munch, who does the right thing by offering Ellen a couch to sleep on and a part-time job as a limo driver. Before you can say "That Ellen, she's going to be trouble," that Ellen becomes trouble when she drives Victor, a Romanian diplomat with a taste for the seedier side of Western life, and Raleigh, a misogynistic and unscrupulous CIA agent, to Tijuana. And, naturally, she doesn't tell Munch.

Serial murder, mayhem, and numerous foreign and domestic intrigues follow in Unwanted Company, ex-mechanic Barbara Seranella's fast-paced third novel. Like No Human Involved and No Offense Intended, it features a cast of well-defined if invariably impaired characters, including Munch's refreshingly normal--that is to say, normally troubled without being psychologically tortured--pal Detective Mace St. John and his partner, the self-doubting Detective Cassiletti. Stylish, spare, and finely tuned, Unwanted Company is an early entry in what promises to be a long and happy run for Barbara Seranella (certainly) and Munch Mancini (please). --Michael Hudson

Miranda "Munch" Mancini has seen the worst of times, but she's still looking for the best. A recovering addict and auto mechanic, she's now a single mother and a fledgling businesswoman trying to run a limousine service. But being her own boss means she can't afford to turn down a client, even when a seedy government type offers her big money to drive around a foreign businessman...

The problems start when Munch promises to hire Ellen, an old friend fresh out of prison, as a driver. Next thing Munch knows, though, her friend, her client, and her Cadillac are missing in action, and the police are at her door.

With the custody of her adoptive daughter on the line and Ellen's life in Jeopardy, there's nothing Munch won't do to help her pal, police detective Mace St. John, solve the case. But if there's a brutal murderer on her trail, what can Munch do -- which won't get her killed -- to stop him?

Greatest Hits: Tales of Assasins, Hit Men and Hired Guns

Loaded with tension, charged with uncertainty, these four taut tales by New York Times bestselling authors bring their unsuspecting or hunted and fearful targets into the deadly sights of a hired killer's gun. Contents include: "Retrospective" by Kevin Wignall read by Charles Kahlenberg, "Karma Hits Dogma" by Jeff Abbott read by Rex Linn, "The Greatest Trick of All" by Lee Child read by Stefan Rudnicki, "Upon My Soul" by Robert J. Randisi read by Stephen Hoye and "Misdirection" by Barbara Seranella read by Gabrielle de Cuir.

Gabrielle de Cuir is a multiple recipient of AudioFile's Earphones Award. Stephen Hoye is an award-winning narrator who starred in the British TV series Crossroads and Shelley. Rex Linn is co-star on CSI: Miami. Stefan Rudnicki is an Audie award-winning narrator and Grammy award-winning audio producer.