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It is October, 1999, in Arizona and Joya Bonner loves her job as an investigative reporter. Her live-in boyfriend is a police detective. Their two careers could create some problems into their relationship but they agree not to discuss their daily activity at home to avoid arguments.
Everything is going fine until Mafia hit-man Sammy (the Bull) Gravano walks into a diner where Joya is interviewing a college student about some suspicious activities at a college. She knew the FBI has hidden the mobster somewhere under the Witness Protection Program because he'd told the FBI what mob boss John Gotti was up to, and now she knows where.
Joya ends the interview with the college student and starts doing some research on Sammy. She has big plans to break the story that the Mafia kingpin is hiding out in Arizona, not caring about what might happen to him and his family once the news breaks. She is so excited about her big discovery that she blurts it out to her boyfriend, the detective. He begs her not to write the story because the police know that Sammy is in town and were doing some investigating of their own. The police believe that Sammy is selling drugs across the country with the help of his son and they need proof to arrest him. After making a deal with her newspaper publisher and the police Joya agrees not to publish the story as long as she alone can write about it all once the mobster was arrested.
Meanwhile, back in her hometown of Northfield, North Dakota, a group of teenagers due to graduate high school in a few months were having a big secret party of their own on the loft of a barn. They were going to celebrate their graduation by trying drugs. These were mostly good kids but one of them, Johnny Roth, bought some Ecstasy from the local drug dealer, Darryl, known to the town as Crabapple. It was common knowledge that Darryl sold drugs to high school students and was starting to get elementary students to buy from him too. Though the sheriff was asked to arrest Darryl, he refused to do any investigating, saying that no one had any proof that Darryl was committing a crime.
At the party, the kids were all high and having a good time. They were reassured by Darryl's claim that no one had ever died from Ecstasy until Johnny's girlfriend, Amber Schlener, collapsed and died. Then Johnny fell from the loft and ended up with broken bones and was in a coma for weeks. Darryl ran out of the barn into his car and kept driving until he was out of town, where most people hoped he would stay.
But within a month or so Darryl did return, which proved to be the worst thing that he could have done for himself and for Northfield.
Back in Arizona, Joya is having relationship problems with her boyfriend. But she puts these aside when she hears of Amber's death. Joya is shocked that drugs were being used in her home town and suspects that her story about Sammy the Bull and Northfield's drug situation are connected. Her reporter's instincts tell her that she had to find out the truth about the mobster and how his activities in Arizona affected what was going on at home.
FUNERAL HOTDISH by Jana Bommersbach is an excellent novel. The author successfully tells two separate stories and weaves them together in a riveting tale. The book takes the reader into a small town where everyone knows each other and most importantly, cares for each other. They will do whatever needs to be done to protect their fellow townsfolk even if it means hiding a few secrets from outsiders.
Though the author even includes the recipe for a funeral hotdish at the end, this debut novel by the author of several true-crime books is no cosy. This is a story of revenge in a place where people are proud to be law-abiding citizens. It's also a very moving and sad tale of what can happen when a close-knit town is filled with grief and has no idea how to deal with it.
Here is one terrific story to be read slowly and carefully. You will find yourself grieving along with the main characters and feeling sorry even for drug dealer Darryl.
§ Sharon Katz has been reviewing books for RTE for many years. She lives in Brooklyn.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, February 2016
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