Murder Takes Time by Giacomo Giammatteo

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     A string of brutal murders has bodies piling up in Brooklyn, and Detective Frankie Donovan knows what is going on. Clues left at the crime scenes point to someone from the old neighborhood, and that isn’t good.

     Frankie has taken two oaths in his life – the one he took to uphold the law when he became a cop, and the one he took with his two best friends when they were eight years old and inseparable. Those relationships have forced Frankie to make many tough decisions, but now he faces the toughest one of his life; he has five murders to solve and one of those two friends is responsible. If Frankie lets him go, he breaks the oath he took as a cop and risks losing his job. But if he tries to bring him in, he breaks the oath he kept for twenty-five years – and risks losing his life.

     In the neighborhood where Frankie Donovan grew up, you never broke an oath.  (-synopsis from Goodreads)

     The novel starts out with three best friends growing up in Delaware, just 30 miles south of Philadelphia.  Nicky “The Rat” Fusco, Frankie “Bugs” Donovan, and Tony “The Brain” Sanullo.  The three are thick as thieves until a gang fight gets deadly and Nicky takes the fall for everyone.  He’s sentenced to 10 years in prison.


     The book bounces back and forth between the past and the current day.  The characters in the story are well developed and we learn what happened to them in the past that makes them how they are today.  Tony is a mobster who is trying to stay away from the cops, Nicky gets out of jail and becomes a contract killer, and Frankie became a cop.  


     When bodies start showing up shot execution style along with dead rats and rat poop at the scene, Frankie is starting to suspect his childhood friend Nicky is the killer.  Frankie is soon in the middle of an investigation that could put all of his old friends from the neighborhood in jail.  Will Frankie keep that long ago oath of friendship and honor or will he adhere to the oath to uphold the law?


      Murder Takes Time is a book filled with love, hate, friendship, and murder.  There are some graphic, violent scenes and explicit language throughout the book.  There’s also the lingering question about what is right and what is wrong.  God plays a minor role in the book as well.


     I enjoyed the different story lines in the book that all came together at the end.  I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen, who was going to die, and who was getting out alive.  The only thing I had trouble with was the changing point of view.  The view point often changed in the middle of a chapter which left me momentarily confused.


      Overall, this was a book that made me want to keep reading until the end.  I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries or action novels.


I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.