This book is a novel based on true events and was an enjoyable read. If you can look past some historical inaccuracies, I recommend it. If you are one to nit-pick and not take it as fiction, I would skip it if I were you.

This is a great read about the early life and rise to the top of the New York mafia of Carlo Gambino. It's also a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Mob's early years in America. I loved it. I couldn't put this book down. It is a great read for anyone with an interest in mafia life. I would like to read more by this author and would love to see a part 2 chronicling the rest of Gambino's life. Thank you to #Netgalley for the opportunity. #Gambino

This should be made into a movie! It's the story of Carlos Gambino, head of the Gambino family of the La Cosa Nostra. His beginnings, how he came to America, and his rise to become one of the major organized crime figures in America. And of the various "gangsters" he was involved with.
It flows along very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As to those who are trying to diminish the author through the leaving of negative reviews.....it's a novel! It states that right on the front cover! So the author made some mistakes, having people traveling on the interstate instead of a highway. So what? Go with the story, which was the rise of Gambino. Quit being so negative.
I, for one, cannot wait for the next installment of the author's story. I hope it comes out soon!

Definately gives you look into the life of crime. This book pulls no stops. From rags to riches, it gives you an inside look at the rise of an immigrant to a very powerful man.

I really enjoyed this book and was happy to see author James Pierre is working on the second installment, As the title suggests, this is a novel based on the the early life/career and rise of Carlo Gambino. I think Pierre did an excellent job setting the scene and giving a sense of the inner workings of the crime families in and around New York. Gambino's careful and intelligently planned maneuvers leave no doubt as to how he rose to the top. An engrossing story well told.

I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Wow, this book is really good. Very well written. The author brings everything together like he was there for all of it. Carlo Gambino is brought to life in this book. I am a little obsessed with Mafia and like to read about it. No, I'm not Italian but but you don't have to be to enjoy this book. I give it a 5+. I received this book from Net Galley for an honest review and no other compensation. The words and opinions are my own.

I've been an avid reader since my mid-teens but prior to that I virtually never read a book for pleasure. At my mother's urging to pick any subject that interested me to read about, I found a series of biographies to read about a variety of Italian, Jewish and Irish gangsters from the turn of the 20th century through the 1950s, and from that point on I became hooked on reading. To this day, both fiction and non-fiction books about The Mob make me...well, fuhgettaboutit!!!

So, when I received an ebook of Gambino:The Rise (a novel based on the true story) from NetGalley and the publisher to review, I started reading it immediately and, upon finishing it, consider it to be a reading "trifecta." That is, I found it to be entertaining, interesting and informative from beginning to end. Pierre writes in a style that kept me so engrossed that I felt that I was right there with Carlo Gambino during his childhood in Sicily in which became a teenage hitman and a "made" man, during his entering the U.S. illegally and becoming a small time Mafioso in the Masotto-Castellano gang in Brooklyn, NY, during his associations with many Mafioso whose names will be very familiar to many readers, and during his rise up through the ranks to eventually become the head of his own crime family, which became the most powerful of all the crime families.

It's important to remember if you decide to read this book that while it is based on the true story of Carlo Gambino's life and the time in which he lived and operated, it is fiction; so the reader must keep in mind that the author has taken several liberties in telling his story, and has chosen to exclude from his book some things that occurred during Gambino's career (one thing being the almost two years he served in federal prison in the 1930's for running an illegal liquor still, the last time he would ever serve time behind bars).

I was able to overlook author Pierre's liberties and exclusions since this book is, as said, a work of fiction. However, I deducted one star from my overall rating of this entertaining book due to some faulty research Pierre did leading to some errors in accuracy for which there is no excuse, even in a work of fiction. For example, Pierre has Gambino being told by a politician during WWII that Al Capone is going to be sent to jail for tax evasion, when in fact Capone began his prison sentence in the early 1930's. Also, Pierre has Gambino moving into an apartment in Brooklyn shortly after coming to the US that has stainless steel kitchen appliances which, in fact, hadn't been introduced until many years later.

Hopefully, it wont be too much longer before James Pierre's next installment in the crime family saga is published, as I am looking forward to reading it.

A good story that takes you from Sicily to New York. You follow the rise of Carlo Gambino first in his home land and then with the rise of Mussolini he needed to leave. Arriving in New York he would need to star over and work he way up once again. Once again in this book like many others the author takes you back with the Giuseppe Morello, who really was the first boss. It then split to Masseria and Maranzano, with even Abe Rothstein for a while where Luciano and Lansky would really learn their business side. He then takes you through the rise or creation of the five families and where Carlo Gambino would fit into all of this. How his money making ideas would hold up and when the FBI began to follow him and even try to record him they could not. Most of the tales in this book I have read in other books, and over the course of years most of the stories are becoming the same so most must be true. The author will lead you up to the day where he becomes leader of his own family and is able to sit at the table as one of the five families. A good story.

This a book of a very powerful family. Although there morals don't agree with mine I felt they were above the law and had a lot of greed. Luckily I was raised by a loving family. I felt there was none displayed in this family.

I really liked this book. It was really well written and easy to read. Plus, the storyline about Carlo Gambino was very enjoyable to read. In fact, I could easily see this book become a movie. Carlo Gambino is really high profile already, but this book told me more of his story than I previously knew. I found it hard to put down. I think anyone who likes to read about organized crime, especially about the 5 families in NY, will really like this book.