This is dark, a little uneven, and has too much detail at times. Overall, it's a pretty good sci-fi mystery that is +20 years old. The author is talented and the book recommended.

I really appreciate the copy for review!

'Carlucci's Heart' is a dark and gritty thriller in a sci-fi setting. Danger is everywhere, and close at all times. It is a story full of secrets to be uncovered, an imbalance between richness and poverty (somehow it often comes back, and it always works for me), and don't you dare become ill. And what happens in the Core?

I loved being immersed in the story.

I was completely committed to a month of literary terrors, but had to make an exception for this one as soon as I was able to acquire it through Netgalley, because I just can’t resist Russo. One of my favorite science fiction writers, though far from prolific, so it is very exciting that his Carlucci novels finally got digitally released. Didn’t even have to wait that long. While, when the novels had originally come out, the fans had to wait years in between, the digital versions arrived in fairly quick succession, I read the first one in April, the second one at the start of October and, only fittingly, the last one, at the end of October. And to be fair, the cyberpunk noir futuristic world Russo has created for this trilogy is plenty horrific to be October appropriate in its own right. Despite all the technological advancements, the world has become an ugly place, permanently scarred by the financial disparity, the economically depressed areas (like much of Carlucci’s San Francisco) have become a sort of a jungle, humid, rainy, tropically hot, muggy and, without all the glorious nature of a proper jungle, outright hideous. And yet, to Frank Carlucci it is a world worth saving, a world worth living in and pursuing justice whenever possible and always helping those who can’t help themselves. This time it is a friend of his beloved daughter, someone who gets involved with a secret organization right out of the dirty locus of the Tenderloin district and then disappears. Carlucci, now a more or less desk bound lieutenant, can’t say not to his beloved Caroline and can’t leave a mystery unsolved, so he sets off to uncover a local murder and what turns out to be a global scale nightmare. Familiar characters will be revisited, new ones will be introduced, every one of them multilayered, fascinating and complex in their own right. And with Russo’s inimitable writing, the bleak futuristic world of his imagining will be as compelling of a place to visit vicariously as it would have been unpleasant to do in real life. Such a vividly rendered place, such accomplished world building. Gotta love it. Even though this is by far the darkest and most depressing of the dark and depressing by nature trilogy, it isn’t hopeless, not while Carlucci and those like him are watching over the city, trying to make a difference. There’s still an impression of characters looking in the muddy puddle of their world and seeing stars reflected. Something about an indominable quality of the spirit or a certain muscular blood distributing organ that might have inspired the title. And here’s a reveal appropriate to the end of a trilogy, Frank’s proper name is actually Francisco. Nothing more apt for a man determined to save San Francisco and its underprivileged over and over again. Although having paid such a heavy toll, it is probably a high time for Carlucci to have some rest a retirement is something he contemplates toward the end of the novel and something the author must have granted, since it is a trilogy and not a series. One well worth reading, in fact quite possibly some sort of an underrated genre classic. I can only hope these newly released ebooks will help more readers discover Russo’s talent. There’s so much to love about these stories and the writing is just awesome. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.