This is a comprehensive narrative of the machinations of the mob and the story of Victor “Little Vic” Orena, a prominent mob boss of the Colombo crime family. The book details the ruthlessness and depravity of mob thugs who turn on themselves to gain control of the “ family” by any means necessary, including testifying against each other as the once close-knit mob community implodes from self-inflicted wounds. This is quite an interesting and intriguing read, detailing numerous mob hits, prosecutions, and a possible rogue FBI agent. A must read for mob aficionados. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn’t my favourite mafia book, unfortunately. It was all over the place and you need to have a significant amount of knowledge about the New York mafia before reading in order to keep up, IMO. It felt like it jumped around from event to event with very little cohesion. I found many stories within the book interesting but with little explanation or context, it fell flat for me overall.

This really worked as a biography of a mob boss that I really didn’t know anything about. It was written well and was engaged with the story being told. Larry McShane has a great writing style and thought it researched well.