Gunmetal Black

Serrano's vivid debut urban noir followsEddie Santiago, a Puerto Rican gangbanger just off a 10-year bit in Joliet for murder. Now in his 30s, Eddie hooks up with friend Tony Pacheco, who has returned to peddling dope and collecting protection money on Chicago's mean streets and who lobbies Eddie to help the old gang heist a casino riverboat flush with cash. Eddie, carrying 40G in a money belt, has a different plan: to go to Miami to join Chiva, his old cellmate from Joliet, and open a salsa recording label. But two bent Chicago narcs, Coltrane and Johnson, strong-arm Eddie and confiscate his cash. Broke and stuck in Chicago, Eddie decides to recover his money even while he tries to go straight. Whether he has enough decency and perseverance to do all of that while hanging with the crazy, bloody-minded Tony is just one of the questions Serrano expertly sets up. A dose of unsentimental romance helps Eddie along and puts Serrano in the same class as young noir-meisters Charlie Huston and Jason Starr. (Sept.)