John Paul Carinci
Better Off Dead In Paradise is the sequel to Better Off Dead, which told the story of Frank Granstino, the life insurance salesman from Brooklyn New York, who got trapped by the Vongemi Family Mob into writing life insurance policies on people who ended up dying mysteriously. Frank was in line to get killed to keep him quiet. The FBI managed to save him in the nick of time whereby he became an FBI witness and placed in the Witness Protection Program. The Mob leaders were sent to prison for life. Obviously, the powerful Mob leaders didn’t take up knitting in prison but continued to rule a ruthless mob world.
Better Off Dead In Paradise takes us to the pristine Cayman islands in the Caribbean, where Frank and Alicia, his girlfriend, a former FBI agent, believe they are safe to live in the Witness Protection Program.
Something goes terribly wrong when Frankie and Alicia’s witness protection location is compromised. The Mob associates are suddenly in the Caymans blowing up cars and shooting at Frank and Alicia. The story takes us through all three Cayman islands, to New York City, and back to the Caymans. All the while, lives are lost, bullets fly, and Frankie and Alicia are on the run for their lives, once again, from the ruthless Vongemi Mob Family.
Dramatic events keep unfolding chapter by chapter, which makes the exciting Better Off Dead In Paradise the page turner book of the decade!
John Paul Carinci has been a successful business owner for over 30 years. Currently, he is President of Carinci Insurance Agency Inc., with over 200 brokers. John, is also an author, songwriter, and poet. He is the CEO of Better Off Dead Productions Inc., a movie production company.
As a writer, some of John’s works include; “The Power Of Being Different,”“Better Off Dead,” “A Second Chance”, “In Exchange Of Life”, “Better Off Dead In Paradise”, and “Psychic Boy Detective”.
John, is also co-writer of the screenplay: “Better Off Dead,” which was adapted from his first novel, and may be produced as motion picture in the coming months.
John’s self-help book, “The Power Of Being Different”, has just been published, and will also be published in Indonesia and India in the coming months.
It happened so fast. An instant of insanity. Like a show from hell. First, the car, parked, the engine running, a man behind the wheel. Then a madman with a gun. I watched, while standing close by, as Bobby “The Bull Dog” Vongemi obliterated the driver’s side window with an explosive punch of his fist. Then, in the blink of an eye there were five blasts from Bobby's gun into the man's head. I felt horrified, unable to move. Then, Bobby’s voice, loud in my ear, “Frankie, get us out of here! Now!”
He pushed the dead driver out of the way to the passenger side. The dead man had both his eyes and mouth frozen wide open. Bobby quickly shoved me into the driver’s seat.
“Frankie step on it!” he screamed as he jumped into the back seat. I put the white Town Car in gear and drove. As I looked through the blood-spattered windshield trying to see, my hands were bloody from the steering wheel filled with pieces of the man’s head that filled the dashboard.
“Faster! Drive faster, I hear sirens!” Bobby shouted.
I could see the patrol cars closing in as I floored the pedal.
“I can’t! I can’t do this!” I shouted as I made a sharp right, causing the dead man to lean against me. “No! No!” I screamed and cursed.
“Welcome to the Mafia, Frankie!” Bobby laughed in a sick sinister roar.
As the car went out of control and spun, I slammed into a telephone pole. Everything suddenly went black.
My eyes quickly opened and I studied the room. I slowly realized that it had been a nightmare. One of those dreams that leave you stunned for a full thirty seconds. The kind that convince you that you really had been killed. The kind of dream that leaves you soaked with perspiration that could easily pass for blood. I knew it to be a nightmare when I saw my nightstand. My eyes focused on the bed, the dresser, the clock radio—then I felt the rapid beating of my heart.
I looked over at Alicia, a beautiful woman even as she slept. I called her my Angel on earth. The clock showed 3:20 A.M., so I made no movement to disturb her.
I saw in the dim light of the nightlight the newspaper—the one I had been reading before I fell asleep, the one I’d read just before my nightmare. It all had to do with two Mafia brothers. As I looked at the paper, my breathing finally slowed to its normal rate. My turmoil started when I read about Tony Vongemi and his brother Bobby “The Bull Dog” Vongemi, the same Mafia family Alicia and I had escaped from almost two years earlier. Coincidentally, the story appeared on Saturday, August tenth, the first anniversary to the day of the sentencing of the Vongemi brothers. The same brothers who tried to kill me when they thought I would rat them out.
I couldn’t go back to sleep. I couldn’t forget what I had been through. It all came rushing back to me, flooding my mind with very bad memories. During my insurance career, I met Tony Vongemi, the restaurant owner who fed me insurance leads, and how some of those people I’d sold life insurance to started mysteriously dying. I’d come to realize that Tony had something to do with the deaths and fraudulently collected on the policies. After finding out that Tony and Bobby were running one of the most powerful Mafia families in New York, I felt I had to do something before they knocked me off. I did something radical—I planned my fictitious suicide in order to escape, but the FBI stepped in and put them behind bars. That’s when Alicia and I entered the Witness Protection Program.
