Bella: A Novel

Steve Piacente
CreateSpace (2010)
ISBN 9781451571615
Reviewed by Amanda Wesley for Reader Views (6/11)

Isabel Moss has been married to tennis pro Hank Moss for three years now and they have a wonderful daughter.  After the tragedy of 9/11 and losing his sister in the Trade Center, Hank decides to give up his tennis career and enlist in the military. In the beginning stages of war, Hank was blown up by a grenade in Afghanistan.  Isabel gets a call that sends her looking for the truth - a call that will forever change her life... Hank wasn’t killed by the enemy.

Danny Patragno is a Washington, D.C. correspondent for a Florida newspaper who is stuck in this 9 to 5 rut and maybe a little jaded.  Danny gets cornered into meeting with, what he calls, a grieving widow who is too sad to take the truth for face value.  Things change for Danny as he listens to Isabel’s story and starts to believe her and even wants to help find the truth.  We follow Danny into the heart of corrupt military cover ups, seedy politics and cut-throat investigative journalism.

Danny’s personal life also takes a turn for the worse.  His son is screaming out and rebelling. Danny’s wife comes home one day to tell him that she has betrayed him. His life seems to be falling around him, so, in a moment of weakness he takes comfort in the one person who has been plaguing his thoughts for a while now, Isabel.  Could something really be there or was it an act of jealous revenge?

One anonymous source leads this duo into a chase for the truth, but not without dead ends and sacrifices to be made.  This book will have you asking the famous five W’s:  Who? What? When? Where? And, most of all, Why?

Steve Piacente strips his characters down to the basic forms and shows everyone what they are made of. “Bella” is smart and witty with an edge that you just don’t get with most books.  Each character is perfectly flawed and each has such a human feel to them that it’s hard not to believe that they are truly living this story.  Piacente grabs you somewhere between the heart and stomach and doesn’t let go.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an intellectual mystery, who remembers the events that fateful day in September, or who has loved or lost someone during war.  Male romantics will also enjoy this story because it has a heavy dose of masculinity with just a little bit of a soft side.  “Bella” is a strong and smart debut novel.

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