Book Review: Local Rich Pontieri’s Chilling Crime Novella, ‘Hotline’

By Kami-Leigh Agard

The question, “Are serial killers born or made?” runs rampant through local Rich Pontieri’s chilling new novella, “Hotline.” How can a single dad raising two girls be “The Bus Stop Killer?” What motivated his handsome, well liked and promising grandson to next take up the reigns and become the predatory “Hotline Killer.” From page one, Pontieri’s 124-page novella takes you on a journey through the most gripping, terrifying, and thought-provoking story about how family secrets never stay buried, but instead resurrect untold horrors and an unexpected generational legacy.

What’s even more gripping about Pontieri’s novella is that it’s so universal, one could imagine themselves as one of the victims.

The fascination with serial killers has been a part of our cultural zeitgeist for decades, spawning countless books, movies, and TV shows about the Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, just to name a few. However, Pontieri’s “Hotline,” almost suggests that becoming a serial killer could inescapably run in one’s DNA. Could it?

The book’s prologue kickoffs with this scene: a young woman is getting off from work, trying to reach her boyfriend on the phone for a ride. It’s pouring rain, and she is relieved to see a car pull up. Assuming that it’s a cab, she jumps in, not knowing that her ride will end with blood-curdling screams.

Then in chapter one, meet sisters—10-year-old Candy and 11-year-old Sam, who live with their dad, a cab driver. Their mom passed away a few years back, so dad was raising them as a single parent. One day, after school, while playing hide and seek, they discover in his closet large knives and a hatchet caked with dried blood, muddy boots, plus various I.D. cards of people they’ve never seen, much less heard about. Ironically, that same day they saw a news report about a woman’s body found mutilated in a wooded area of their town. In fear for their own lives, the sisters made a pact to forever keep it a secret—the discovery that their father was indeed “The Bus Stop Killer.” And that discovery changed the trajectory of their lives forever. However, here’s the first cliffhanger: Pontieri cunningly makes the reader wonder—what happened to their mother?

Fast forward, the sisters are now adults. Soon-to-be divorced Sam has a son, Robert Junior, affectionally called, “Buddy.” Buddy is described as handsome, well-liked, and smart enough to finish both his bachelor’s and master’s in psychology in four years, graduating valedictorian of his class to boot. He’s such a charitable young man that his first job after graduation is as a counselor at a suicide hotline center. Buddy is the apple of both his mom’s and Aunty Candy’s eyes. However, there’s a question that readers will wrestle with each turn of the page. Would Buddy have received his dead grandfather’s admiration for reasons only the two would understand? Killers who, in 19th century Emily Dickinson’s words, “Trespass the forbidden boundary between fiction/fantasy and reality.” And the ending will definitely leave readers pondering the power of DNA ancestry.

Pontieri writes in the bare bones approach of Earnest Hemingway coupled with the film noir director’s eye of Alfred Hitchcock. No flowery adjectives and passive sentences, just the facts and clues as if watching a true crime whodunit, “Murder She Wrote.”

Pontieri, a father of three, including Mikey, who is on the autism spectrum, has three published children’s books under his belt: “Mikey and Busty: Best Friends Forever,” and his sock puppet series, “Has Anyone Seen My Friend?” and “Has Anyone Seen My Christmas Stocking?” Plus, two more children’s books coming out this spring.

“Hotline” is his first published adult fiction novella. When asked why he decided to go this route, Pontieri boiled it down to his two loves: storytelling and writing.

“My imagination makes my hand go. I don’t overwrite. I write while listening to big band music,” Pontieri said. “My imagination is what kept the story going because it just kept rolling off my brain tongue, so to speak.

“I didn’t write this book to make a million dollars. Finishing ‘Hotline’ is an accomplishment for myself that I really put my heart and soul into, and I really want people to enjoy it.”

Although the setting for “Hotline” is in Ohio, Pontieri said a few of the characters’ names were a homage to folks he grew up with in Rockaway.

“I did a lot of research as far as the location, the potent cocktail of drugs given to the victims, and even the newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer. However, the names of the characters are named after people I loved in Rockaway,” Pontieri said. “The detective, Mike Ponce is named after my brother, Michael Pontieri. His colleague, Pete Murphy, is named after my brother’s best friend who passed away when he was 21. Buddy, he’s named after Rob Romas. Also, there’s the Plain Dealer reporter, Patrick Linal. These were my brother’s friends. I was like their Spider from ‘Goodfellas.’ I would go to the store while they were hung over. They have passed on, so, naming the book’s characters was a homage to them.”

As for how he would encourage anyone who dreams about writing a book but feels that they don’t have the credentials of a creative writing degree or any experience at all, Pontieri simply says, “Go for it.”

“If you have an idea, just write it down. I talk-text so many ideas to myself. Also, screenshot your ideas. Think about the guy who wrote ‘Jaws.’ He had an imagination and ran with it,” Pontieri said. “And once you start writing, enjoy it. If you’re not feeling it for the day, walk away. It’s a journey, not a race. So, if your book takes four months, a year, two years, just keep going. I’m working on my second adult book. Think ‘Goodfellas’ meets Major League Baseball. Hopefully, I’ll be done by next year. Again, I’m just using my imagination, enjoying the process; looking forward to the end result.”

Hot off the press, Pontieri’s “Hotline” is on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Also, the author is available for book club live readings. For more info, email: rich.pontieri@yahoo.com or visit Pontieri Publishing on Facebook/Instagram.