Book Talk

Bad good guys and good bad guys 

There is a never-ending fascination with all things mafia. You would think it had all been said, but this month there are two new books on the subject. 

The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and the Birth of the American Mafia, by Mike Dash, traces the rise of the Morello Family from the 1890’s to the 1920’s. This syndicate predates the more well-know Five Families. Giuseppe Morello was known as “Clutch Hand” and began his reign in the Italian neighborhoods of New York later coordinating with other Sicilian crime families to spread terror beyond the Hudson. 

Crime families are not limited to those of Italian heritage as Kevin Pappas shows in Godfather of the Night: a Greek Mafia Father, a Drug Runner Son, and an Unexpeceted Shot at Redemption. Growing up in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Kevin Cunningham watched Lukie Pappas,  the “nounos” (godfather) receive respect and homage from the local townspeople. On his father’s deathbed, when Kevin was seventeen, he learned that his real father was Lukie himself. Lukie rejected Kevin, and full of rage, Kevin started out on his own criminal career. 

If you think that prices of goods and services have gotten unacceptably high, we have two books for you. The first is Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell. She feels that our fixation on a cheap price has had effects on all aspects of American culture. The assembly line and the industrial revolution made us value low price and convience over quality and durability. The results? Vacant factories, mounting debt, and fraying communities.  

And if cheap is too expensive for you try Free: the Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson. He points out that tradition views of markets and scarcity don’t apply to our current markets. The costs of the online economy are trending towards zero. Intel’s latest chip is too cheap to price. The reputation economy is growing. 

Enjoy the last of your beach reads with some good escapism. For me, that’s mystery and suspense. 

Lauren and Roger Heller are having dinner out when they are brutally attacked. Twenty-four hours later, Lauren wakes in the hospital and her husband has vanished. Luckily she can turn to her brother-in-law Nick, formerly of the Special Forces, now the owner of a private intelligence firm. Nick uncovers surprising secrets about his brother and the defense contactor he works for. Read Vanished by Joseph Finder. 

In this third Volk book by Brent Ghelfi, Moscow police arrest Alexi Volkovey, a Russian Army agent and a player in Moscow’s underworld, for murder. The victim is a well known Hollywood cinematographer who had in his possession an intercept from The Venona Cable, about a WWII Russian spy known only as Source 19, and a photograph suggesting Volk’s father was a traitor. 

In 1987, entrepreneurial spirit was enough to get Alex Konevitch thrown of Moscow University. In 1991, Alex is worth $300 million, a supporter of the new government, and a very large target.  Executives in his company start getting murdered and Alex hires a former KGB agent to handle security. A bad mistake. Alex is kidnapped and beaten, just barely escaping to the U.S. The Hunted by Brian Haig tells the tale of a man with no country and a price on his head.

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian