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A review by lissi
The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History by Stephan Talty
3.0
What I enjoyed about this book:
- Discovering the Black Hand society, it's crimes, tactics, sheer ruthlessness, and shocking follow-through
- Learning, through specific stories, about what life was like for Italian immigrants at this time in history
- Of course, the accounts of the brave and ceaseless Detective Joseph Petrosino
What I didn't enjoy:
- I think it's important to note that the bio for this book is false advertising (the descriptions say "gripping true story" "rich story" "fast-paced narrative")
- It read like a history book. A lot of the accounts of what happened were very similar, and rather than going deep into a few rich examples, the book told a seemingly unending number of repetitive stories. By the halfway point, I found myself saying, "we get it! what else happens?"
- The writing, right off the bat, was pretty surface level
- Discovering the Black Hand society, it's crimes, tactics, sheer ruthlessness, and shocking follow-through
- Learning, through specific stories, about what life was like for Italian immigrants at this time in history
- Of course, the accounts of the brave and ceaseless Detective Joseph Petrosino
What I didn't enjoy:
- I think it's important to note that the bio for this book is false advertising (the descriptions say "gripping true story" "rich story" "fast-paced narrative")
- It read like a history book. A lot of the accounts of what happened were very similar, and rather than going deep into a few rich examples, the book told a seemingly unending number of repetitive stories. By the halfway point, I found myself saying, "we get it! what else happens?"
- The writing, right off the bat, was pretty surface level