This riveting mafia thriller set in New York is brutal and it is funny.

It unfolds with an expert insight into the history and inner workings of this society of gangsters that spilled over from Sicily to the USA. The Mafia is displayed with it's very own rules and unwritten decrees.(dishonesty among the dishonest is subject to zero tolerance) it's clan loyalties and betrayals and it's relentless turf wars and acts of revenge. One of the hardened Capos decides enough is enough. He wants to break with tradition and sends his son to England to become a gentleman. The British class society is lampooned mercilessly (I say old boy) and the similarities and differences between British aristocrats and Sicilian Mafiosi are outlined in hilarious dialogues. Unhappily the Capo father is gunned down in the street where he dies miserably after being attended to by the good padre who knows them all, and who renders absolution for his awful sins.

In England his son finds himself conflicted between honouring his father's wish not to become a member of the mafia, and the task of revenge transmitted to him by generations of blood feuds. Fate shows him the solution and his decision becomes the core narrative of this riveting tale which throws light into the murkiest corners of the human psyche. As the story unfolds the son comes to New York to find the killer. This cascades into a sequence of events which leaves the reader with not one dull moment. We encounter a typical Mafia funeral attended by the 'Dons', the 'Uncles' and the Godfathers. Then follows the son's wedding with a hardy mafia bride to whom he was betrothed without his knowledge. We meet the indispensable gangster types distilled into indiviuals such as Gino the Driver doubling as the fearful Bodyguard, Willy the Weasel who looks like his namesake in the fauna kingdom and is the informer who sometimes uses 'physical persuasion' but prefers others to perform this unpalatable task. Furthermore there is Mick the Motorman who can let a car appear or disappear without a trace, no questions asked.

Then there is the Reaper, whom we would not like to meet, on the wrong side of a sniper's gun.. Saul the gunsmith who can design a camera with a tripod that shoots and kills with deadly accuracy. Not to be forgotten are the bungling duo, Fat Freddie and Ratface Roger who don't always know what they are doing. Then there is the close lipped Doctor who patches them all up after their bullet-riddled skirmishes and can also administer to the birth of a very special Mafia baby, who seems to carry the DNA of future generations of 'whackers' racketeers and card cloners. We learn about the logistics of break-ins and the strictly kept code of silence. We get a detailed glance into the functioning of a bordello, a fixture that greases the inner workings of this lusty species of the human race.