Holy Smoke Review

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(More customer reviews)Dario Trengoni and his childhood pal Antonio Polsinelli meet for the first time in years and discuss what each is doing and what is happening with some of their mutual friends from growing up Italian in South Paris. Dario insists "Anto" speaks the real language, Italian better than he so he asks a favor. Anto reluctantly agrees to writes a love letter for Dario to Madame Raphaelle ironically in French.
Not long after their encounter, someone shoots Dario in the head. Tonio as he known now is stunned to learn he inherited an Italian vineyard near Naples from Dario. He also finds out that his friend was a Taxi-boy earning his money as a gigolo. Tonio tries to locate Madame Raphaelle, but that proves a bit dangerous. So instead he travels to his new property only to find the wine stinks, the vines are worse, the locals already hate him, and a religious scam is in place. With the inheritance comes the Mafia and the Vatican, two of the toughest mobs in Europe, who expect Tonio to give each of them a 100 percent tithe.
HOLY SMOKE! This tale is a terrific twisted look at crime from the perspective of a small timer who is being squeezed by organized groups who want the whole action. Tonio is fabulous as a minnow suddenly swimming with sharks. Fans will appreciate his distinction between the two outside "mobs". The story line satirizes criminal behavior (a crime is defined by the state) to include organized religion as a subcategory of crime. Tonino Benacquista provides a delightfully droll dark thriller.
Harriet Klausner


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"Boisterous black comedy . . . funny and goodhearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink."—The Literary Review

"Much to enjoy in the clash of cultures and superstitions, even a tasty recipe for poisoning your friends with pasta. Detail like this places European crime writing on a par with its American counterpart."—Belfast Independent

Some favors simply cannot be refused. Tonio agrees to write a love letter for Dario, a low-rent Paris gigolo. When Dario is murdered, a single bullet to the head, Tonio finds he has been left a small vineyard near Naples. The wine is undrinkable, but an elaborate scam has been set up. The smell of easy money attracts the unwanted attentions of the Mafia and the Vatican and the unbridled hatred of the locals. Mafiosi aren't choir boys, and monsignors can be very much like Mafiosi.

Winner of three mystery prizes in one year, including the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière and the Prix Mystère de la Critique.

Tonino Benacquista, born in France of Italian immigrants, dropped out of film studies to finance his writing career. After being in turn a museum watchman, a train guard on the Paris-Rome line and a professional parasite on the Paris cocktail circuit, he is now a highly successful author of fiction and film scripts.

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Smoke & Mirrors, Inc.: Accounting for Capitalism (Cornell Studies in Money) Review

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(More customer reviews)Smoke & Mirrors walks the reader through the arcane, bewildering world of the modern corporation, showing how contradictions suffuse the accountants motives and corporate morality--or immorality in most cases. It is a basic introduction to the limits of numbers, whoever issues them, and highly critical of conventional wisdom. No review does justice to its subtle account of numerous basic issues, but it shows how one must be beware of fiction in today's global economy.
It is an excellent read, short and well-written, and very sophisticated regarding the corporate world. Its a basic read even for the most advanced analyst.

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Enron, Arthur Andersen, Parmalat, AIG: business headlines over the last few years have stimulated worldwide interest in accounting responsibilities and standards. Smoke & Mirrors, Inc., is a remarkable introduction to contemporary accounting and its central importance for the operation of modern capitalism. Beginning with the financial status of the eponymous fictional company—a fireworks manufacturer—Nicolas Véron, Matthieu Autret, and Alfred Galichon dissect the ways in which manipulation of financial reporting can convert a rotten balance sheet into a picture of robust financial health. After deftly establishing the ease with which accounting sleight-of-hand may paint a different and rosy financial prospect, Véron and his coauthors provide a brief history of accounting's emergence and its key concepts, focusing on the scope for manipulation (including a detailed account of some tricks with which Enron cooked its books). They then shift their focus to the political economy of various actors involved in the preparation, assurance, and use of financial information and the new challenges facing regulators as capital markets spread across national boundaries. The authors challenge standard beliefs that accounting practices are neutral and involve the mere reporting of objective data. They trace how different accounting rules, which alter the calculus of what counts as a "fair representation" of business dealings, can change economic behavior.For students of business finance, practicing accountants and businesspeople, and general readers who have followed a seemingly endless parade of financial scandals with disbelief, Smoke & Mirrors, Inc., provides a clear and concise overview of the use and abuse of accounting.

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