A lackluster portrait of an indefatigable Italian-American detective and his attempts to quash the spread of the Black Hand society in New York City. If this could have been more fleshed out into a detailed biography of Joseph Petrosino I think it would have been a far more interesting book. As it is, the exploits of the Black Hand in this story, while atrocious, become tedious and repetitive. I found the descriptions of the Italian community in America to be the most engaging and insightful of all Stephen Talty's research presented here. A worthy subject, indeed, but a compelling read it is not.

Boring and repetitive.

boring

Crazy good story! Amazing that it's all true.

This is a fascinating and compelling look at the Black Hand, early organized crime in New York, and the man who made it his life’s work to shut the crime down. Joseph Petrosino was one of the first Italian detectives and worked tirelessly to end the Black Hand. The book also looks at the prejudice against Italians that was so prevalent at the time. A good look into people and a period of time about which little is known today.

Very engaging story of the very early twentieth century in NYC, and the roles of both police and criminals. Detailed in the life of the era, though it was not exactly a page-turner... it dragged a bit.
I recommend not perusing the photos in the center of the book before getting to the end, because there is a major spoiler there.

It’s probably not fair of me to review this because I didn’t finish it. I got about half way. I wanted to love it because its about such an interesting time in history, but I’m a character person and this was written like facts, not a story.

This is blasphemous... but I think the movie will be better 🙈