Italian Crime

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other infamous strategists. The 48 Laws of Power will fascinate any listener interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story? But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.

Count Falier urges his Venetian son-in-law Guido Brunetti to investigate, and preferably intervene in, the seemingly innocent plan of the Count's best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodriguez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under arcane Italian inheritance laws this man would then be heir to Gonzalo's entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo's friends find appalling. Then Gonzalo unexpectedly, and literally, drops dead on the street, and his good friend Berta Dodson, just arrived in Venice for the memorial service, is strangled in her hotel room.

In 1997 a six-year-old boy questioned by authorities relayed disturbing stories of abuse. The more he talked, the more people were implicated in his shocking revelations. And he was only the first child to come forward. Within a year, fifteen more children with similar tales were transferred out of the Bassa region of Italy to protected locations. Their parents were accused of belonging to a satanic sect that performed sex rituals under the aegis of beloved local priest Don Giorgio Govoni. With each child’s confession, the network of monsters grew.

Morris Duckworth teaches English to the pampered rich of Verona, and Morris is not pleased. Living a meager existence in a squalid apartment, he regards his privileged students with envy and disdain, first wreaking revenge by petty theft and then, like all good criminals, graduating to grander larceny. When one of those students, a beautiful but vapid heiress named Massimina, falls in love with him, Morris can almost smell upward mobility.

When Liliana is kidnapped and beaten by a rival mafia family, Nicholas will stop at nothing to rescue his wife and exact vengeance. Aiding in her daring escape is Jocelyn, a captive woman Nicholas promises to free along with her daughter. But the mission to save them becomes complicated when Detective Samuel Turner reveals there is a mole in the police department working for the nefarious Bianchi family. As Nicholas and Liliana fight to protect their family empire, they uncover secrets that make them question whom they can trust. Long-buried truths about Liliana’s own mother’s ...

Marked by vengeance, branded as mine—Lucia Terlizzi will be the key to my revenge. Dante Terlizzi has to pay. Two years ago, he broke his betrothal to my sister. Two months ago, his brother stole the bride meant for my best hitman. There’s an unwritten rule about family members and children… But f*ck the rules. Lucia is the baby of the Terlizzi family. Now I’m going to put my baby in her. We’ll see how Dante likes it when I take what’s his. I’ll dress his pretty little sister in the finest clothes. I’ll shower her in diamonds and jewels. I’ll make Dante regret ever double ...

I was born to inherit the family business. Father braided darkness into my soul before I spoke my first word. Adalina Martinelli is collateral. At first, I take her because her father is in debt to mine. But after one night together, she becomes my prisoner. Locked in a gilded cage, I set forth to transform her. Father wants me to marry, and I've found the perfect wife. She may be younger than me... She may be the daughter of our enemies... She may need stern convincing... But I will bend and break her until she agrees to my twisted guarantee of safety. Tropes: Age Gap, Captive Heroine, ...

In Windy City Mafia: The Chicago Outfit, retired detective and Gangland Wire podcast host Gary Jenkins dives into his extensive audio archives to bring readers some of the most captivating stories from over 300 episodes. Jenkins recounts notorious tales such as "Al Capone on the Golf Course" and "The Trial of Al Capone," revealing lesser-known details like Al Capone's golf games with Machine Gun Jack McGurn and Fred "Killer" Burke. The book also covers more recent figures in the Outfit, including Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo's rise from Frank Nitti's enforcer to the boss of the Chicago ...

I'm a mafia man who lives for power and family. My past has made it so love isn't an option. Which is why some say I don't have a heart. A client who owes a substantial debt to me has disappeared. Sitting in his restaurant, I'm greeted by a woman who's a real spitfire. She doesn't care that I'm Franco DeLuca a made man. After a few more verbal exchanges things take a dark turn. She becomes my captive. During the time spent under my roof together the lines get blurred. Because of my dark past I keep telling myself I don't want anything to progress between us. She's testing my limits. She ...

I’ve always gotten what I wanted—by force if necessary. Five years ago, I took Valentina’s virginity and left her behind, never looking back. She was just a means to an end, or so I thought. Now, our families are forcing us into an arranged marriage, and I’ll finally make her mine. But Valentina’s hiding more than just her defiance. There’s a secret she’s kept—a child I never knew existed. When I find out she’s pregnant again, my world shifts. For the first time, I want something more than power. I want her and the family she’s kept from me, and I’ll do whatever it ...

Auntie Poldi, sassy, brassy, and 60, moves to Sicily for a quiet alcohol-fuelled retirement. A murder spoils her plans. This is the first novel in a charming new mystery series set in Sicily and laced with Italian sensuality and humor. It features an amateur sleuth, the sassy and foul-mouthed Auntie Poldi. Recently widowed Poldi moves to Sicily in order to quietly drink herself to death with a sea view, but fate intervenes. When she finds the corpse of a young man on the beach, his face blown off with a sawn-off shotgun, she becomes a potential suspect in his murder case.

My first husband died under mysterious circumstances. Some might call it bad luck. I call it survival. Now, I’m arranged to marry Antonio Bianchi, heir to a mafia empire and a man who could destroy me if he learns the truth. Antonio is everything I fear: ruthless, unrelenting, and dangerously irresistible. When I crash his bachelor party to uncover what kind of man he truly is, I think I’m a step ahead. But he catches me. And instead of punishing me, he stakes his claim in ways that leave me breathless. He says I belong to him. That he’ll strip me bare until I have no secrets left. ...

The Don's Enemy Within I witnessed a mob execution by the man I slept with…now I’m having his baby. At an elite charity gala, I clumsily bump into Matteo De Luca, baptizing his suit with champagne. Cool as a cucumber, He flashes his billion-dollar smile, leaving me wet as his shirt. The look of dominance and danger in his eyes is hypnotic. I know whatever he asks of me, he can get it. With the gift of gab, he teases my ears, Caressing my thoughts with mental foreplay. At his hotel, he shows me how a real man handles a woman’s body, Until gunfire interrupts our bliss, and he rushes out...

I got pregnant after a sizzling one-night stand. I didn’t know then he was the son of a billionaire mafia Don. He walked over to me as if he owned the world. The dim light dancing over his sculptured face, Teased me with a glimpse of perfection. His deep baritone voice vibrated thru my core, and before I knew it, we were back at my place, thrusting into ecstasy. For hours he took me to heaven and back, But on earth, he became cold as ice. Then, without so much as a name, He walked out the door and out of my life. I tried to forget him, Until I got unexpected news from my doctor weeks ...

An arranged marriage to the Russian hitman... and his twin brother? It's an outrage! Mafia princess Marie Lauro always knew that duty to the family was worth any sacrifice, but she never believed her father would order her to be married against her wishes. Roman and Alek Borosliev are new pawns in the ongoing turf war between the Russian Mob and Italian Mafia. Twenty years of peace is nearly shattered when Roman receives orders that he is to take the Mafia princess as his bride. But the Russian twins have ideas of their own about what kind of bride they really want, ideas that would shock ...

My one-night stand has me on the run from a deadly hitman. Now is not the time to find out I’m pregnant. The Chicago mafia does not take arranged marriages lightly. So when my father promises me to the son of a powerful Don, I know my fate is sealed. I needed one last night of mindblowing passion. That’s when I met him. He had the body of a Greek god, And could charm the panties off any woman. I didn’t care what his name was, Chances are, I’d never see him again. Or so I thought... Because a few weeks later, that stranger turns out to be the man I’m engaged to. Anthony Giovanni: ...

È tutto vero. È tutto rimasto finora nell’ombra. 1992: la mafia attacca il cuore dello Stato. 2022: trent’anni dopo, una ricostruzione inedita su quelle terribili stragi. Perché quella che fu una vera e propria guerra allo Stato è stata ideata con il contributo di una mafia segreta e intoccabile. Non solo: la strategia stragista di Cosa nostra servì al giovane boss Matteo Messina Denaro per attuare un ricambio generazionale e prendere il comando dell’organizzazione, facendo compiere un salto di qualità alla mafia e trasformandola in maniera profonda, con conseguenze che riusciamo a capire solo oggi.

My main priority as the mafia boss is protecting my queen. When I first laid eyes on Lexis as a boy those dark brown eyes and her pretty brown skin drew me in. I had to meet her. Get close to her. Remain close to her. We became best friends. I consoled her when she felt abandoned by her mother. My father dropped a bomb in my lap when I was sixteen. I learned I’d become the next mafia boss of the Esposito’s. Dad said I needed to let her go. Her grandmother told her to run away from me and don’t look back. She had no idea I sank my teeth into the mahogany beauty a long time ago. She’s...

One unforgettable night left me pregnant by a mobster. Leo’s the type of man momma warned me about. The one that makes me lose all self-control. The night we met burned with stolen glances, a silent language understood by no other. His scent invaded my senses, beckoning me like a siren’s call. With eyes blazing with masculine strength and raw temptation, I needed to taste him. Back at his place, he snatched my soul with each thrust, leaving sweat dripping off every inch of my body. As I came down from the high, If he asked for my very being, I’d give it to him. Fearing the intense ...