Fool's Gold

An unseemly haste that reveals too much too soon blunts the effectiveness of this second novel by the author of The Vespers Tapes (titled Blood Confession in paper), in which brutish mobsters and a fresh South Philly/Atlantic City setting offer otherwise fine entertainment. Paul Fante, a woodworker, destroyed his family by underestimating the violence with which loan shark Freddie Whale pursues tardy clients. But that was in the past. The present has Paul jogging with Claire Lawrence and falling in love again. Claire's father is planning a theft of valuable coins. So is low-level hood Benny Bean. Both target the house of a known mob figure. But while Claire's dad is aware of his victim's identity, Benny is blissfully in the dark. Claire's abduction caps events in which Whale features centrally: as pal of the coin-collecting mobster and putative boss of Benny, who turns out to be the muscle Whale set on Paul's family. All this is made clear at the outset, along with the presumption that Paul will eventually triumph. But while DiBartolomeo eliminates suspense from his story, his colorful characters invest the tale with comic brio. (Mar.)