Gangster Nation

Gangster Nation by Tod Goldberg              AudioBook:  11 hours, 25 min.  357 pages              

Great book – well written and like a good Scorsese crime film plot it has all the old school mob and new school g’s.    Lots of plot twists, guilty and innocent fatalities, hitmen, FBI, surveillance, Quantico spying technology, and some of the best dialogue.    Like the hitman in Grosse Pointe Blank you get to know Sal the main character and hitman extraordinaire what has happened in his life up to 9/11, much of his murderous past, his love for his family and come to know that while his career is extreme, other than that he is a pretty honorable, nice guy that would make good friend material.   Hey, we all have our flaws, doesn’t mean underneath all that we aren’t good folks.   Like with the Red Baron, he was known as the Bloody Red Baron for all his kills but in his biography he says he didn’t go out seeking to kill anyone, actually he preferred just to down their plane and hope his opponents were able to survive.   He said he didn’t go out to kill but to perform his job to the best of his ability.    Sal Cupertine is like that, too.   In many places you will be reminded of the characters in Pulp Fiction or Casino with Las Vegas seeming not just the background but playing another character in this book.  I love Sal’s cover, too.  Bringing the Rabbi element in is such a clever touch.    Tod Goldberg brings a lot to this book and I thoroughly enjoyed the story from beginning to end.   Another of those you don’t want to put it down till the end books.   I did not realize until today that this book is part of a series and this is the second book in the series.   Now, I must go back and read the first and continue to the next volume because there is a real cliffhanger ending to this one and I am pleased to know the story continues and if you read it, you will be, too.     Kudos for Tod Goldberg this is a hit in so many ways and on so many levels.