I both read and write a lot of crime fiction, but organized crime is an aspect that I find fascinating. More than gangs of criminals, less than families, but still somehow very similar… I did a lot of research on real organized crime and re-read some of my favorite fiction pieces when I first had the idea for this novel and along the way, I realized that family is what you make of it and these people—and these characters—are yearning for a place to belong – something that really speaks to me, and has made me a fan of this kind of fiction.
Al Vacarro is a made man, with all the honors and responsibilities that entails. But after a literal lifetime of violence in service to the Castella crime family, Al’s past is catching up with him and neither his present nor any future he can imagine seems to hold any hope for salvation.
For the sake of his family and his very soul, he needs out of “the life.” But how does a man escape the only world he’s ever known? This is a story of blood and desperation, and these are the last twenty-four hours of life as Al knows it.
An aging, low-level figure in Boston's Irish mob, Eddie Coyle is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of hijacking a truck. While he considers his options, his many friends and acquaintances consider what to do about him.
This novel is about seventy-percent dialogue, and it's all legitimately excellent and absolutely authentic. True to life, the way many people speak is annoying and imprecise – they meander, they tell stories that have nothing to do with what's going on, they forget what they were saying – but it ads a sense of realism that is extremely rare in novels.
It's a very good novel and the most realistic one I've ever read, but it's not an easy novel to read as it's sometimes frustrating – just like real people are. It is, however, a very rewarding novel if you like crime fiction and particularly the interactions between people in that strange netherworld of friendship/brotherhood/coworkerhood that entails being in the mob.
Eddie Coyle is a small-time punk with a big-time problem - who to sell out to avoid being sent up again. Eddie works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is onto Eddie, and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. These and others make up the bunch of hoods, gunmen, thieves, and executioners who are wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing in the underworld of Eddie Coyle.
The classic, quintessential Mafia novel – and with good reason. The first in a trilogy about Corleone crime family, it features a romanticized look at organized crime but is notable both for the sweeping scope of the story, as well as the fact that it introduced mainstream America to such now-familiar words as caporegime, Cosa Nostra, and omerta.
While not especially realistic compared to some works, I enjoyed that The Godfather is a crime fiction reader's power fantasy dream – there are only bad guys here, so there are no consequences for anything that happens to them. And because of that, Puzo does a lot of terrible things and we, the readers, cheer all along the way.
_________________________________ The classic novel that inspired 'the greatest crime film of all time'
Tyrant, blackmailer, racketeer, murderer - his influence reaches every level of American society. Meet Don Corleone, a friendly man, a just man, a reasonable man. The deadliest lord of the Cosa Nostra. The Godfather.
But no man can stay on top forever, not when he has enemies on both sides of the law. As the ageing Vito Corleone nears the end of a long life of crime, his sons must step up to manage the family business. Sonny Corleone is an old hand, while World War II…
Michael O'Sullivan, a brutal, but honorable, enforcer for a midwestern mob syndicate keeps a strict line between his work and his home life to the point where his children have no idea what he does for a living, only that it's "important." When Michael's twelve-year-old son stows away in his father's car to see what his father's work entails, and witnesses him committing a murder, all hell breaks loose and the pair travel around the country waging a guerilla war against the mob and trying to find a way to save themselves.
This is one of my favorite Max Allan Collins novels because you really get the depth of feeling Michael O'Sullivan has for his family, the guilt he carries, and the determination of spirit he exhibits all along the way. He isn't a good person, but that doesn't mean he can't do right by his family, and that really strikes a chord with me. It's something I've tried to imbue some of my own characters with. That devotion to family and doing the right thing for them even if everything else you do is wrong. I also really enjoy the depiction of loyalty turned against itself – Michael O'Sullivan was completely loyal to his organization until they turned on him and then his vengeance is practically Biblical.
First there was Max Allan Collins' legendary graphic novel...then came the Academy Award winning movie and his bestselling screenplay novelization. Now Collins presents an epic new novel, combining and expanding upon all that came before, to create the ultimate version of his unforgettable story.;
Depression-era Chicago is awash in liquor and blood, ruled by guns, graft, and gangsters like John Looney. His most feared enforcer is Michael O'Sullivan, known as the "Angel of Death." But when O'Sullivan's twelve-year-old son witnesses a gangland murder committed by Looney's brutal son, O'Sullivan's entire family is marked for execution to cover up the crime.…
Charley is a member of the Prizzi crime family, an underboss and top hitter, whose just done the family a good turn by killing a traitor who stole three-quarters of a million dollars from the family. That's nothing new for Charley, just a day's work, but he discovers, first, that his new girlfriend was the dead man's wife, and second, that she's a contract killer for the mob and has just taken a contract out on him.
Richard Condon is notable for his satire novels, particularly The Manchurian Candidate which Hollywood stripped of its humor, both political and crime, but always focusing on greed and corruption, both political and moral. This humorous novel about a mob hitman is one of my favorites because it gives us something to laugh about when, really, there's not usually anything funny about murder and violence. The novel treats a heavy subject cheerfully, with a quick pace and quicker wit. Maybe it's not realistic, like some of my other favorites, but everybody needs a laugh – even Mafiosi with prices on their heads.
A darkly funny novel of mobsters, murder, and marriage: “The surprise ending will knock your reading glasses off.” —The New York Times
Charley Partanna works as a hitman for the Prizzis, New York’s most dangerous crime family. When he meets Irene Walker, an LA-based tax consultant, it’s pretty much love at first sight.
But Irene also moonlights as a hit woman—and had a hand in a big-money heist in Vegas. Now Charley has been told that she’s got to go. Faced with divided loyalties, he must make a choice—between the only family he’s ever known and the woman he loves.…
Professional thief Parker claws his way back from vagrancy and single-handedly takes on "The Outfit," a sub-syndicate of the national Mafia, in order to get revenge on the man who shot and robbed him – and used his own wife to help him do it.
This wasn't the first Parker novel I read, but it was one of the books that made me truly love the character. Parker is an outsider, but he has ties to the mob, and they first close ranks when he threatens one of their own. But when Parker's target is shown to be weaker than he's presented himself, the sharks smell the blood in the water and begin circling, seeing opportunities to rid themselves of dead weight and maybe promote themselves within the organization, until it's a matter of letting Parker have his way or his destroying them all.
"Family" and "honor" and so forth are common subjects in mob fiction, but it can be truly cut-throat, as well, something I think we sometimes forget. It's something that really resonated with me as I read it and something I try to keep in mind when writing.
You probably haven't ever noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.They're thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They're pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you're planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is…
I have been a writer for more than twenty years and have favored pursuing “truth in fiction” rather than “money in formula.” I also spent over thirty years in the corporate world and was exposed to many situations reminiscent of those described in my fiction and in these recommended books. While I support enterprise, “enlightened capitalism” is preferable to the bare-knuckle type we have today, and which seems to resurface whenever regulation weakens. I also find writing novels closer to my lived experience connects me intimately with readers who are looking for socio-political, realist literature.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis.
His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election. Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian beekeeper living on Vancouver Island hold the key to Avery’s recovery, a man holding secrets that put lives in jeopardy? Avery races across the country to find out, with crooked bosses, politicians, and assassins on his tail. Joseph spins a cautionary tale of corporate and political greed that is endemic to our times.
Avery Mann, a retired pharmaceuticals executive, is in crisis. His wife dies of cancer, his son’s marriage is on the rocks, his grandson is having a meltdown, and his good friend is a victim of the robocalls scandal that invades the Canadian federal election.
Throw in a reckless fling with a former colleague, a fire that destroys his retirement property, and a rumour emerging that the drug he helped bring to market years ago may have been responsible for the death of his wife, and Avery’s life goes into freefall.
Does an octogenarian bee keeper living on Vancouver Island hold…
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