Ballantine, Sep 2002, 25.95, 336 pp.
ISBN: 0345410963
In 1943 Italy, three GIs are sent to Naples to investigate the disappearance of two fellow Americans working with the resistance who failed to show up when the allies pulled out of the area. Corporal Steve Connors is separated from his two companions, but meets up with an underground army of two hundred orphans, whom are the only local occupants of the eerily deserted bombed out Naples.
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Steve and his new allies begin fighting the much more powerful German Panzer Division led by Colonel Von Klaus. The battle is intense as lives are lost on both sides. The outcome should be obvious, but is not possible for an army of children and an American law student turned Commando to hold back the mighty Nazi war machine, but at what cost and for how long?
The action never slows down as STREET BOYS matches pace with the blitzkrieg of France. However, the characters including the hero, some of the resistance who kind of stand out in the crowd, and Von Klaus seem like one dimensional depictions of Captain America vs. the Red Skull. Still, fans of World War II action dramas will enjoy Lorenzo Carcaterra's tale, but wish the heroic Connors was developed as much as Lee-Kirby did Rogers.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner