Richard Kuklinski is one scary guy - even if a tenth of what he claims to have done is true. I saw the forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz interview him in The Ice Man and the Psychiatrist and was completely fascinated with Kuklinski which is why I bought and read The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo.

If it wasn't for the subject matter (and I'm dubious as to the accuracy of the content), I wouldn't have lasted 50 pages of this book. It is so poorly written, repetitive and corny. If all you need to do to get published is transcribe audio tape, then pad the story out with poorly constructed metaphors and mashed cliches, not to mention the ".... ....."s (no that wasn't a mistake, Carlo actually uses strings of periods to add um.. tension? thought? meaning?) it's no wonder everyone (JK Rowling, Dan Brown / ok cheap shot - they don't transcribe audio, but they do write poorly) is doing it.

By half way through The Ice Man, I was wishing I'd highlighted text so I could go back and count how many times information was repeated and how many of the same cliches appeared. I would like to know exactly how many times "stone cold killer" was used to describe someone, or the description of Kuklinski's habit of clicking his teeth (left side of the mouth, if you please) was mentioned - I would like to know if Kuklinski actually said "and i made that clicking sound out the left side of my mouth right before I killed him" in the taped interviews or did the author apply that "tell" to each murderous situation himself (maybe he used the "find and insert" function in Word).

I would not recommend this book to anyone. I would, however, suggest the Kuklinski/Dietz DVD or another of the books written on the subject by any one other than Philip Carlo.