What do you think?
Rate this book
Black Widow: A Novel
The sensuality of Ellroy's L.A. Confidential meets the swagger of Top Gun in this riveting sequel to Mafia Summer , again based on true events from the author's life.
The extraordinary life of Vinny Vesta continues in this sexy, suspenseful follow-up to the unforgettable Mafia Summer , which New York Times bestselling author Jack Higgins called "one of the best books on the Mafia I have ever read."
Late summer, 1957, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. Seven years have passed since the events of Mafia Summer and Vesta, a dashing navy pilot in Fighter quadron 176, is living the bachelor life at an antebellum mansion he calls "The Snake Ranch." But when a torrid affair with his copilot's widow―the Hepburnesque Caitlin (Kat) Pennington―pulls him away from his beloved all-night revels, it pulls him, as well, back into the family business. Kat's father is the lawyer for the entire L.A. Mob syndicate, and he'd rather see his aspiring starlet daughter perched on the arm of Hollywood legend Victor Marino than holed up with some fighter pilot deep in the Florida bayou. Machinations to undo their relationship grow to involve the L.A., New York, and even Chicago Mobs. A gripping page-turner, Black Widow is at its heart a passionate and unlikely love story and an indelible portrait of an era.
The extraordinary life of Vinny Vesta continues in this sexy, suspenseful follow-up to the unforgettable Mafia Summer , which New York Times bestselling author Jack Higgins called "one of the best books on the Mafia I have ever read."
Late summer, 1957, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. Seven years have passed since the events of Mafia Summer and Vesta, a dashing navy pilot in Fighter quadron 176, is living the bachelor life at an antebellum mansion he calls "The Snake Ranch." But when a torrid affair with his copilot's widow―the Hepburnesque Caitlin (Kat) Pennington―pulls him away from his beloved all-night revels, it pulls him, as well, back into the family business. Kat's father is the lawyer for the entire L.A. Mob syndicate, and he'd rather see his aspiring starlet daughter perched on the arm of Hollywood legend Victor Marino than holed up with some fighter pilot deep in the Florida bayou. Machinations to undo their relationship grow to involve the L.A., New York, and even Chicago Mobs. A gripping page-turner, Black Widow is at its heart a passionate and unlikely love story and an indelible portrait of an era.
- GenresFiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 26, 2007
4 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 27, 2019
I've gotta be honest. In the midst of reading this book I underwent a relatively minor surgical operation (a follow-up from the more major one I had a few weeks ago), and so I wasn't in the best of humors at the time. Y'know: effing hospitals. That said, if ever you have to go under the knife and get given a choice about where the general carnage is to be administered, opt for the Morristown Medical Center.
It's the mid-1950s and US Navy flyboy Vinny Vesta, ex-Hell's Kitchen thug and Mafia protege, is given the task of escorting a fellow-flyboy's remains from Jacksonville, Florida, to California. There he meets the dead man's widow, rising Hollywood starlet Kat, and it's lust at first sight; immediately before jumping his bones, Kay explains that her marriage to Vinny's deceased pal had long been dead in the water. A few days and about forty couplings later, they decide to get married. Trouble is, Kat's control-freak daddy, high-powered LA lawyer Marion Pennington, is implacably opposed to the liaison. Other trouble is, ol' man Pennington is shoulder-deep in cahoots with the Mob. So Vinny is likely to get knocked off at any moment.
Was that what happened to Kat's first husband, Vinny's flyboy squadron-mate? It 's a legitimate question, I feel. Unfortunately, it's one that the novel declines to answer.
My main problem with Dark Widow (which is, to its credit, fairly fluently written) was that most of the principal characters made me want to upchuck. In the normal way I have no objections to novels focused on unsympathetic characters, but here I spent most of my time wanting to fling the book at the wall. Vinny and his flyboy pals belong to that school of fictional characters who seem to have unlimited financial resources (every now and then Vinny mentions that he's not as rich as Kat, but he merrily spends on fripperies the kinds of sums most of us would be glad to earn) and absolutely fantabulous sex lives: until Kat comes along, Vinny and his flyboy pals have been bedding, often enough in multiples, hordes of gorgeous females who daily throw themselves at the aw-shucks sexual-powerhouse guys.
Vinny thinks nothing, at one point, of using up galootles of taxpayer dollars so he can fly by Navy jet across the country to attend to a personal matter. I suppose anyone expressing outrage at this would be instantly labeled "socialist" by the people who move in Vinny's circles.
And let's not forget Vinny's mafia connections. Because of them, most of the people he regards as "family" (I tried to avoid the pun but couldn't) are multiple murderers, pimps, human traffickers (before the term was invented) and all the rest. Vinny doesn't seem to see much wrong in any of that. They're still, y'know, good people.
Virtually unlimited money? Virtually unlimited sex? Pardon my French, but Black Widow's what we call in critical circles a bit of a wankathon. It's not just the characters who're objectionable but the whole flipping ethos of the book. I'm sure there are fourteen-year-old boys who'll regard it as a masterpiece. I'm, alas, despite my inner fourteen-year-old, not one of them.
It's the mid-1950s and US Navy flyboy Vinny Vesta, ex-Hell's Kitchen thug and Mafia protege, is given the task of escorting a fellow-flyboy's remains from Jacksonville, Florida, to California. There he meets the dead man's widow, rising Hollywood starlet Kat, and it's lust at first sight; immediately before jumping his bones, Kay explains that her marriage to Vinny's deceased pal had long been dead in the water. A few days and about forty couplings later, they decide to get married. Trouble is, Kat's control-freak daddy, high-powered LA lawyer Marion Pennington, is implacably opposed to the liaison. Other trouble is, ol' man Pennington is shoulder-deep in cahoots with the Mob. So Vinny is likely to get knocked off at any moment.
Was that what happened to Kat's first husband, Vinny's flyboy squadron-mate? It 's a legitimate question, I feel. Unfortunately, it's one that the novel declines to answer.
My main problem with Dark Widow (which is, to its credit, fairly fluently written) was that most of the principal characters made me want to upchuck. In the normal way I have no objections to novels focused on unsympathetic characters, but here I spent most of my time wanting to fling the book at the wall. Vinny and his flyboy pals belong to that school of fictional characters who seem to have unlimited financial resources (every now and then Vinny mentions that he's not as rich as Kat, but he merrily spends on fripperies the kinds of sums most of us would be glad to earn) and absolutely fantabulous sex lives: until Kat comes along, Vinny and his flyboy pals have been bedding, often enough in multiples, hordes of gorgeous females who daily throw themselves at the aw-shucks sexual-powerhouse guys.
Vinny thinks nothing, at one point, of using up galootles of taxpayer dollars so he can fly by Navy jet across the country to attend to a personal matter. I suppose anyone expressing outrage at this would be instantly labeled "socialist" by the people who move in Vinny's circles.
And let's not forget Vinny's mafia connections. Because of them, most of the people he regards as "family" (I tried to avoid the pun but couldn't) are multiple murderers, pimps, human traffickers (before the term was invented) and all the rest. Vinny doesn't seem to see much wrong in any of that. They're still, y'know, good people.
Virtually unlimited money? Virtually unlimited sex? Pardon my French, but Black Widow's what we call in critical circles a bit of a wankathon. It's not just the characters who're objectionable but the whole flipping ethos of the book. I'm sure there are fourteen-year-old boys who'll regard it as a masterpiece. I'm, alas, despite my inner fourteen-year-old, not one of them.
own-these-books
May 14, 2020I wish that I would have read Mafia Summer first to gain the background for this sequel. That being said, there definitely was that "hot shot" depiction of the main characters leaving you with less than affection for them. One thing that hit me is was a reference to NCIS late in the book. That identification did not come until the early nineties. Why would a former naval pilot from the era of this book's setting make that mistake? Could it had been a publisher or editor thinking that the reader wouldn't have a clue of understanding of the NIS and only be able to identify by what is shown on CBS? Of course, the diehard watchers of that show would know of the name change early in Gibbs' career.
March 29, 2012
More than a little predictable... I am glad I only paid $1 for it at the dollar store; I might have asked for a refund.
Black Widow was a quick enough read, and I did need something light... something I didn't have to think over... the book did deliver on that score.
The book is well enough written and it is entertaining... kind of like reading People magazine while waiting for your doctor's appointment. There was just no mystery or suspense about it. Reading it was almost like always being several moves ahead of your opponent in a chess game... knowing what was going to happen and just watching it unfold as you turn the pages.
If I can find Mr Vincent's first book MAFIA SUMMER for the same price I paid for BLACK WIDOW, I may read it, otherwise...
Black Widow was a quick enough read, and I did need something light... something I didn't have to think over... the book did deliver on that score.
The book is well enough written and it is entertaining... kind of like reading People magazine while waiting for your doctor's appointment. There was just no mystery or suspense about it. Reading it was almost like always being several moves ahead of your opponent in a chess game... knowing what was going to happen and just watching it unfold as you turn the pages.
If I can find Mr Vincent's first book MAFIA SUMMER for the same price I paid for BLACK WIDOW, I may read it, otherwise...
August 5, 2008
Did not enjoy as much as Summer Mafia but still was interesting. I have always been interested in "the mob families" and after living on Long Island with a "mob" family across the street, my interest increased. There is a family loyalty that is missing in so many "normal" families today. Intriguing!!!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews