Interesting idea and well executed. Excellent use of multiple POVs. Grabbed me from the start. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Another take on the mystery of Jimmy Hoffa which sees Max, in the 1980s, trying to find the truth about the death of his father Sam in the 1970s. Sam, an FBI agent turned PI, saw the kidnapping of Hoffa and out of fear of retribution did not speak up but then he died anyway-was he murdered? Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a bit muddled but fans of historical mysteries might want to give it a try.

I really wanted to like this book, but I struggled to get into it. The mystery surrounding Jimmy Hoffa initially drew me in, as it's such a fascinating historical event. However, I found it difficult to connect with the writing style and the way the story unfolded. The pacing felt slow at times, making it hard to stay engaged. While the details about Hoffa’s disappearance were intriguing, the narrative didn’t hold my attention the way I had hoped. I kept waiting for a moment that would fully pull me in, but it never quite happened. Ultimately, it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

I really enjoy historical fiction novels and this one even had some thriller elements. The author took a lot of time researching and it gave a lot of background knowledge, which added to the storyline. I did feel like there was a lot of fluff and it dragged on, which made it feel hard to get through at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for giving me an ARC in return for my honest review!

i am a fan of true crime so as soon as i heard of this book, I knew I had to read it. i want to know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa and this was a fun fiction story to explain what happened. We will probably never know the truth but this was fun to read and imagine if it was true.

Intrigue and Mafia stories go hand in hand. And this does not disappoint!

Lawyer, Max Silver's father, Sam, passed away in a boating accident not long after Max left for college. Sam was a retired FBI agent turned PI, who was tasked to follow the ever-notorious Jimmy Hoffa in the time shortly before and until his disappearance. And it turns out that he was one of the last people to have seen Hoffa alive.

Ten years after Sam's passing, his lawyer reaches out to Max to deliver a letter per his dad's instructions. All it does is create more questions for Max, and makes him wonder if his dad's boating accident was actually foul play and perhaps mafia related. Max just can't leave it alone, but what will peeling this particular onion cost him?

Dual time-lines are well done, though this book starts with SO many characters and mafia-type terminology. I think a print copy would be helpful if only for the legend of sorts in the first pages. These events predate me, and it was super interesting to read even though it was fiction. I did have one of the "bad guys" figured out before the end, but not much before. Definitely no absence of twists and turns, and I was mostly kept guessing!



Thanks to NetGalley, Level Best Books and Lew Paper for the eARC.

Pub Date Mar 18 2025
#LegacyofLies #NetGalley

I love Historical Fiction, Mysteries, and Thrillers, and this was billed as a "Historical Thriller" and was about a part of history I lived through but was too young to pay attention to, so my curiosity was piqued. It has a dual timeline going back and forth between the early 70's (with a few dips into earlier history) and and the mid-80's. A young man (Max) is trying to figure out how his father died. The father (Sam) was a former FBI agent who opened his own investigative agency after leaving the Bureau. Sam had been asked to follow Jimmy Hoffa and was one of the last people to see him alive on the day he disappeared.
This was slow to get going and remained slow in the middle. There was a lot of "telling" vs. "showing" and some clunky dialogue. Max comes across as unbelievably naive. In the final 1/4 of the book, the pacing finally picks up, but I would not call this a thriller. Historical mystery would be a more apt description. That said, I did find it interesting once I set my expectations aside.

I loved the concept, love the historical point. I did find it hard to read. I had a hard time getting into and staying with the story. .

Max Silver has a lot going on with the 10 year anniversary of his father's death when he receives a letter left by his father. Max seeks answers to his father's death and stirs up quite the hornets nest. Follow Max as he untangles a few long ago mysteries and disappearances.
It took me a bit to get into the characters and storyline but once I was engaged, I didn't want to put it down.

Had a hard time trying to read this book and connect to it, had to re read several pages trying to understand what I had just read. I do not recommend this book to anyone, and will not be reading anything from this author again.

This was an interesting read, but honestly difficult to follow. It felt somewhat all over the place, and I had a difficult time keeping track, but it could’ve also been the grammar used. I found myself trying to reread several parts, and/or searching names to try and keep up with it all. Overall though, it wasn’t a bad read at all, it could just use a little adjusting is all.

I was intrigued by the concept here unfortunately the execution left a little to be desired... It idn't help that my digital file contained several lines of run-on text with no spaces every couple of pages, which made the somewhat dry and convoluted story even more difficult to read.

Legacy of Lies by Lew Paper is a historical thriller that delves into the enigmatic disappearance of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. Set against the backdrop of the 1970s, the novel explores the intricate web of political vendettas, organized crime, and personal ambitions that may have contributed to Hoffa's vanishing. The narrative weaves together real historical figures and events, offering readers a suspenseful journey through a pivotal moment in American history.

While an interesting read and well researched, the execution is not there.

I had a hard time getting in this book. I remember some of the Hoffa story but this really isn't about that. It's about Max and his dad Sam. who is dead. I was interested in the story about Max and Sam and thought all the Hoffa references just made the story too diluted. I also am not a fan of over describing things and this book definitely does that. I skimmed a lot of the book as it just didn't seem relevant to the story I wanted to read.

A historical thriller, Legacy of Lies (2025) by Lew Paper is a dual-timeline story. In 1975, Private Investigator Sam Silver is hired to tail Jimmy Hoffa and witnesses him being driven away. Eleven years later in 1986, Sam’s son Max is a lawyer, who is given a letter from his dad, on the tenth anniversary of his fatal boating accident. An entertaining action-adventure tale unfolds, as the narrative discourse alternates between these two events, and includes anecdotal comments on historical figures from the 1960s and 70s, such as the Kennedys, Mafia and Nixon. Whilst interesting, this mystery thriller is foremost an engrossing read with plenty of action and twists that is a four star rating. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given. With thanks to the Head of Zeus and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes.

I am having a hard time connecting with the characters and the story. There is way too many characters at the beginning and then for some reason the format of the book is hard to read on my kindle, like 3 words are stringed together every page and it’s hard for me to break up the words and try to figure out what’s being said…

3.5🌟
This book is a story of "What If's" surrounding the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa 50 years ago. Following an ex FBI agent searching for answers regarding his father's death... was it really an accident or did the Mafia put a hit out?? This is perfect for any historical or crime fiction lover who is interested in Mafia stories, Jimmy Hoffa, and the JFK assassination. At times it does get a little text bookish and was hard to stay engaged, but you can tell this was incredibly researched.(check out the authors note at the end for sources) There's lies, deception, and murder.... all things to keep you on your toes and help balance out all the facts.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lew Paper’s Legacy of Lies is a fictional dual-timeline historical suspense that captured me from the first page until the end. It has a what-if alternative vibe, which only adds to the suspense. The story follows the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, whose vanishing remains unexplained. It is a fascinating, well-written read with vivid settings, details, and characters I could easily relate to.

Jimmy Hoffa is dead. The FBI agent, Sam Silver, who was assigned to him, had just lost his wife and did not want to add any more angst and trauma to his son Max’s life.

But what if he had? This is the burning question I had as I read through the story. The book drags a bit in certain chapters, bogged down by the many details, but it is worth staying with it and meandering the timeline shifts. It requires the reader to pay close attention, as the author’s dual-timeline narrative style can add confusion to the storyline.

There were a few chapters I had to go back and reread to eliminate confusion in the plotlines. But mostly, the book is an intriguing historical fiction novel about a headline-worthy event I remember from newspaper headlines in 1975.

The author writes good historical suspense and offers readers a good bit of history of the era between the Kennedy administration and the Nixon Watergate scandal. I learned a great deal about the Mafia and the Teamsters Union battles. I had to do a fact-check occasionally to ensure I remembered the details correctly. The story made me wonder, "What Really Happened to Jimmy Hoffa, and Why?"

The author does a great job keeping the plot twists coming, but it isn’t a quick beach read. It requires readers to pay attention as it flips back and forth between timelines, which offers a backstory but pulls the reader out of the story because of the dual-timeline writing style.

This is a 4.5-star read. I love historical fiction, where I am entertained and educated. I want to thank Net Galley, the author and the publisher, for the opportunity to read this as a free ARC. This review is voluntary and is mine alone.

It was a struggle to read this book because of the words that ran together because there were no spaces. There were quite a few and it was hard to keep attention while reading those lines.

However, the book itself was pretty good! It grabbed my attention and held it pretty well. I appreciated the list of characters and explanation of each one at the beginning of the book. The author did great with the words that flowed well.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of this ARC. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I became fascinated with the lore of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance after reading “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt and watching the movie adaptation “The Irishman” by Martin Scorsese. I thought “Legacy of Lies” was a good supplementary read, and another interesting albeit fictional account of similar events surrounding Hoffa’s disappearance.

The author did a great job building up the suspense, and switching between flashbacks and present events to propel the story forward. However, some chapters seemed a bit lengthy description-wise, I would have appreciated it if the concluding chapters were less expository in nature and allowed more “showing” and less “telling” / “explaining” as I feel that readers already have enough details to form their own ideas of how the conflicts were resolved.

I still think this is an interesting read for fans of Mafia-themed fiction / historical fiction.