Mafia Fiction

About Face, by Donna Leon (2009)

At the request of a carabinieri investigator, Commissario Guido Brunetti looks into illegal garbage hauling that has resulted in a murder, while Brunetti's father-in-law asks him to investigate a potential business partner with a mysterious wife.

Act of Revenge, by Robert K. Tannenbaum (1999)

Marlene Ciampi finds herself involved in an organized crime plot, while her husband, Butch Karp, supervises the investigation into a Mafia don's murder and their daughter Lucy witnesses a murder.

Billy Bathgate, by E.L. Doctorow (1989)

Young Billy Bathgate witnesses atrocities of the crime world in his introduction to a brutal and unsparing life that takes him through the heart of the city and the rural underworld in Depression-era America.

Casino Moon, by Peter Blauner. (2009)

Anthony Russo, an ambitious young man from Atlantic City, New Jersey, finds out how difficult it is to realize his dream of getting out of the violent family business and becoming a legitimate businessman.

The Client, by John Grisham (1993)

Eleven-year-old Mark Sway accidentally witnesses a murder and becomes the target of relentless prosecutors and the mob, and the only person who can save him is Reggie Love, an attorney barely out of law school.

Criminal Conversation, by Evan Hunter (1994)

An ambitious district attorney wiretapping conversations between a top mobster and his mysterious mistress records incriminating evidence about a murder but also learns that his wife is that mysterious woman.

The Firm, by John Grisham (1991)

Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law graduate, becomes suspicious of his Memphis tax firm when mysterious deaths, obsessive office security, and the Chicago mob figure into its operations.

Gangster, by Lorenzo Carcaterra (2001)

Fleeing his father and a shadowy past, Angelo Vestieri finds a second family in early twentieth-century New York's mob, where he encounters dangerous betrayals and an abandoned boy in need of a father figure.

Gas City, by Loren D. Estleman (2008)

In the wake of a serial killer's brutal rampage, a power struggle between a police chief, a powerful Mafia boss, and media reporters in search of a big story turns a city dominated by an oil company upside down as greed, corruption, and ambition spiral out of control.

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo (1969)

A fictional portrait journeys inside the world of the Cosa Nostra and its operations to chronicle the lives and fortunes of Mafia leader Vito Corleone, his family, and his underworld domain.

Godmother, by Anthony Mancini (1993)

Maria, the "Godmother" of Little Italy, rules with diplomacy backed by the threat of violence and sires an illegitimate son who becomes a priest.

The Good Guys, by Bill Bonanno & Joe Pistone (2005)

In collaboration between the former head of the Bonanno crime family and a former undercover FBI special agent, a member of the mafia and a police officer who has infiltrated its family embark on a high-stakes adventure from alternating perspectives.

I Don't Want to Go to Jail, by Jimmy Breslin (2001)

Chronicles the fictional life of a mob family trying to survive in modern-day New York.

The Last Don, by Mario Puzo (1996)

Determined to see his heirs established in legitimate society, mafia boss Domenico Clericuzio finds his vision threatened by secrets from his family's past that spark a vicious war between two cousins.

Stiletto, by Harold Robbins (1960)

A young Italian aristocrat and member of the mafia, Caesar Cardinal is out to kill four men awaiting trial, but Special Agent George Baker has his own motives for wanting them alive, and so the cat-and-mouse game between the two men begins.

The Take Down, by Mark Anthony (2006)

FBI agent Jessica Jackson goes undercover to investigate Gun Clap Records, one of the industry's most successful music labels, and discovers a link to Angela Calvino, the daughter of New York Mafia boss Paulie Calvino, who plans to build a hip hop record label with money from the Calvino family rackets and with help from the Gun Clap CEO.

Tishomingo Blues, by Elmore Leonard (2002)

Warned by the local Dixie underworld to keep silent after witnessing a murder, daredevil diver Dennis Lenahan is recruited by Detroit gangster Robert Taylor for a showdown that takes place during a Civil War reenactment.

White Shadow, by Ace Atkins (2006)

A tale based on a true story finds 1955 Tampa, Florida, rocked by the surprising murder of mob boss Charlie Wall, whose demise sparks a scramble among local cops, reporters, and former associates to discern the truth about his death and the many secrets that marked his life.

7/10

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