Meh. It was ok. It would have been a lot better as a straight history of the mafia rather than focusing on one Italian American detective. There was too much detail about this one detective's life - like the author felt compelled to include all his research into the final book. I didn't need to read an entire chapter about his funeral. Yawn. Two or three paragraphs would have been plenty. I would not recommend this book to anyone. The only positive thing I got from reading this book was a desire to read Mario Puzo's The Godfather.