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Bloodline
A gritty historical novel about the Mafia in 1920s New York, from Edgar Award—winning author Warren Murphy
The Falcones are an immigrant family living in New York City in 1920. Their patriarch, Tony, is a respected policeman. His sons, Tommy and Mario, both served in the Great War and are now upstanding citizens—a cop and a priest. But their cousin Nilo has a dark past, and he fled to America after causing several deaths in a fight in Italy.
Nilo soon falls in with Don Maranzano, a Mafia boss who comes from his hometown in Italy. Maranzano grooms Nilo as a “real estate broker,” but after a few months, Nilo is offered the chance to do some serious work. He becomes a useful still-wrecker, assassin, and skilled criminal. The papers give him the name “Kid Trouble.” Tommy and Mario try to turn a blind eye, but it’s hard to hide his underworld affiliations.
As conflicts in the city begin to erupt into a violent war involving gangsters from all parts of the country, Tommy and Mario struggle to stay out of the dark world into which Nilo has dragged the family. But when things take a turn for the worse, the Mafia may be the only place for them to go.
The Falcones are an immigrant family living in New York City in 1920. Their patriarch, Tony, is a respected policeman. His sons, Tommy and Mario, both served in the Great War and are now upstanding citizens—a cop and a priest. But their cousin Nilo has a dark past, and he fled to America after causing several deaths in a fight in Italy.
Nilo soon falls in with Don Maranzano, a Mafia boss who comes from his hometown in Italy. Maranzano grooms Nilo as a “real estate broker,” but after a few months, Nilo is offered the chance to do some serious work. He becomes a useful still-wrecker, assassin, and skilled criminal. The papers give him the name “Kid Trouble.” Tommy and Mario try to turn a blind eye, but it’s hard to hide his underworld affiliations.
As conflicts in the city begin to erupt into a violent war involving gangsters from all parts of the country, Tommy and Mario struggle to stay out of the dark world into which Nilo has dragged the family. But when things take a turn for the worse, the Mafia may be the only place for them to go.
- GenresThriller
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 10, 2015
3 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Warren Murphy
294 books123 followersWarren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.
Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.
His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.
He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.
He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.
Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.
His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.
He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.
He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 16, 2022
This was so good and it’s based off of real people which made me love it even more. The story is set in 1920 and of course the women were treated like shit. Nilo was the worst one, at first I thought I could like him but he just slowly kept becoming more and more evil. The way he just thinks women are placed on this earth for his pleasure and he can just do whatever he wants with them disgusts me, but most of the men in this book were just like him. Nilo sacrificed his whole life and did so many horrible things, ruining the lives of everyone around him to gain all this money and power and he was never satisfied, he always wanted more until the end where I think he finally realized that none of it mattered. But that’s just Nilo, read the book because the other characters are way more interesting, I loved Tommy and even though Luciano was bad I still liked him.
March 15, 2018
What is bloodline? Well to start, this book is a immensely suspenseful mafia epic! Warren Murphy tells Nilo Sesta’s story, how he went from a underpaid young fisherman in Sicily to an extremely feared prohibition era mobster in New York.
The story begins with Nilo being driven out of his home town in Sicily due to a set of gruesome murders he was involved with, Nilo found himself America bound to pursue the good and easy life, the American dream! Nilo was quickly presented with the true colour’s of prohibition era America for an illegal Italian immigrant, it was not what he expected, he was still stuck working in hard labor with measly pay and a challenging lack of motivation, this would eventually cause Nilo to be quickly and easily absorbed into the intense and gruesome life of a New York prohibition era mafia enforcer, and eventually shot caller. This book Is essentially a down to earth representation of a classic mafia family, it properly depicts all the aspects of a life of crime, loyalty and backstabbing, even love and hate, the storytelling style used in this book ended up having an unexpected amount of appeal to me.
Warren Murphy’s writing style is truly compelling and ultimately a roller coaster of emotions and surprises, the book has a very exciting dark and grimy undertone, it easily provides the reader with an overwhelming drive to find out what’s going to happen next, it properly proves to be a very on edge, yet easily understood and satisfying read! I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the crime, action, and suspense genres, it is intense and extreme but all the while an easily followed and proper interpretation of an prohibition era Italian crime syndicate, the first chapter easily ropes the reader in and truly sets the mood for the rest of this exciting book, Warren Murphy truly succeeded with this novel, I'd say it's one of, if not my favorite book, I strongly recommend giving it a read!
The story begins with Nilo being driven out of his home town in Sicily due to a set of gruesome murders he was involved with, Nilo found himself America bound to pursue the good and easy life, the American dream! Nilo was quickly presented with the true colour’s of prohibition era America for an illegal Italian immigrant, it was not what he expected, he was still stuck working in hard labor with measly pay and a challenging lack of motivation, this would eventually cause Nilo to be quickly and easily absorbed into the intense and gruesome life of a New York prohibition era mafia enforcer, and eventually shot caller. This book Is essentially a down to earth representation of a classic mafia family, it properly depicts all the aspects of a life of crime, loyalty and backstabbing, even love and hate, the storytelling style used in this book ended up having an unexpected amount of appeal to me.
Warren Murphy’s writing style is truly compelling and ultimately a roller coaster of emotions and surprises, the book has a very exciting dark and grimy undertone, it easily provides the reader with an overwhelming drive to find out what’s going to happen next, it properly proves to be a very on edge, yet easily understood and satisfying read! I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the crime, action, and suspense genres, it is intense and extreme but all the while an easily followed and proper interpretation of an prohibition era Italian crime syndicate, the first chapter easily ropes the reader in and truly sets the mood for the rest of this exciting book, Warren Murphy truly succeeded with this novel, I'd say it's one of, if not my favorite book, I strongly recommend giving it a read!
August 28, 2021
Definitely trigger warnings for violence, rape, incest, abortion, alcohol, drugs... but WAY better for a writer to address those issues than to glamorize them like most do.
January 12, 2016
This is a good mafia story that starts at the beginning of WW1, with the Falcones, whose father is a police detective and one son goes to war and the other becomes a priest, and they have a daughter who is a singer. Their cousin Nilo comes over from Sicily after he was in trouble and needed to get away. What they did not know is that Nilo would be the destruction of everything that they thought was good. He takes away their family with the passion and hatred that is born in him. He also becomes a started solider and captain of a crime family but since he cannot control his hatred he destroys that part as well. A very well written book with good characters and a good history of the Mafia and its growth from the 20’s and how it not only effected a city but also the people who were trying to take down the Mafia as well. It also reminds me a little of a story no one talks about, and that is a police detective named Petrosino, who was in charge of the Italian squad because of his ability in solving crimes and also being able to speak the different dialects of the Italian language. In 1909 he made a trip to Sicily, Palermo and was looking for criminals who were from their and had taken residence in the United States. He was shot while waiting for an informant, and the day after his shooting the New York detectives branch received a letter stating that the Black Hand was behind the killing. It was said that Giuseppe Morello was behind the killing along with some others but nothing was proven. This was in 1909 and though this story starts during WW1 you must know that the Black Hand came to New York before that and that there was a group of Italian detectives who believed if they were not stopped they would take over the city and the country. This is exactly what happened especially when prohibition started and because they were able by then to corrupt some of the officials. You get some of this in this book. Overall a good book and good characters. I got this book from net galley. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
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March 25, 2016Had to quit this as it was just not doing it for me.
February 5, 2017
This book read like a 600+ page screenplay. I felt this was a fail screenplay that was quickly published to a book. Its to bad, it was a great story, but a terrible novel.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews