Jimmy BenchPress Author:Charles Stella, Charlie Stella Jimmy Mangino figures hes overdue. Already hes done two stretches in the joint. But hes back, and hes still a good earner for the family. You got a loser you need to lean on, Jimmy lends his strong arm, and he doesnt flinch at murder, not for the Vignieris. He also bench-presses four hundred pounds. Jimmy wants to b... more »e a made man. Alex Pavlik wants to take Jimmy down. Pavlik, the edgy Polish cop who tailed Eddie Senta in Charlie Stellas enthusiastically reviewed debut, Eddies World, has been transferred to Organized Crime from Homicide, where his short temper, keen sense of justice, and too-ready prizefighters fists have proved to be a volatile combination. Tough-talking, taut, and craftily plotted, Stellas second novel takes Pavlik and his new partner, another New York police detective, John DeNafria, into the shifty world of Jimmy Bench-Press when wannabe-mobster Larry Berra hires Mangino to collect on a bad loan to a sixty-three-year-old Italian barber with a Cuban girlfriend. Jimmys got his fingers in any number of illegal pies, from extortion to murder, among purveyors of drugs and porn. Enough to get a man made, maybe. "Fresh, fast, and darkly funny."Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Readers may be reminded ... of George V. Higginss underworld thrillers.... Stella stacks up well against the master. "San Diego Union Tribune« less