No Human Involved

Q: What book(s) surprised you by the impact it had on you?

-from Susan

A: So many, for so many different reasons, at different times in my life. Maybe the thrust of the question is crime fiction books, so I’ll go with that. Casting about in my mental bookshelves for something that fits…

I know! Barbara Seranella’s first mystery, NO HUMAN INVOLVED. Let me quote the review by Poisoned Pen, which gives readers who don’t know her work a sense of the book: “Every so often a first novel is so strong, so original and so well written that it is obviously the beginning of an important career. Seranella has written such a book.”

There’s no one quite like Munch Mancini, a drug addict, motorcycle gang’s mistreated “old lady,” ace auto mechanic, slouching away from anything like authority or the law. Her troubles are grim, and grimy. She doesn’t want people to like her, just to leave her the hell alone. And I could not get enough of her.

While I waited impatiently for the next in what became a series, I learned more about Barbara Seranella, and that staggered me. She had a past a little like Munch’s, had turned her life around, pushed herself to become a writer. Then I met her and was completely wowed. Modest, articulate, generous, honest, always working on her craft. 

So, she and her Munch Mancini series with its look at a rough life affected me then and have stayed with me for decades. Sadly, she died of a disease probably brought on by her former lifestyle, but in the end she lived the life she wanted and triumphed.