Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Berney (Dark Ride) shines in this enthralling epic, which covers more than 50 years in the lives of the Mercurio crime family. In 1961, patriarch Buddy, a low-level member of the Chicago mafia, is 22 and living in Las Vegas. His life changes when he meets beautiful swindler Lillian Ott. The two hit it off from their first conversation, and immediately jump into a relationship and start planning a family. When Buddy is tipped off that his boss has discovered his side hustles and ordered him killed, they flee to Oklahoma. In the following years, Buddy and Lillian have five children--Jeremy, Tallulah, Ray, Alice, and Piggy--each of whom inherits some aspect of their parents' criminal tendencies. The action then shifts to the children's triumphs and failures, including Tallulah's time in 1990s Moscow, where she gets involved with human traffickers; the hyper-meticulous Alice's failed attempt to go straight as an attorney at a white-shoe law firm in New York; and favorite son Jeremy's rise and fall in 1980s Hollywood. The tone is lighter than in Berney's previous books, but the episodic structure and focus on character over action charms. Fans of Elmore Leonard will eat this up. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Berney's (Dark Ride) 1960s-set crime novel takes a deep dive into the lives of the Mercurio family. Patriarchs Buddy (a low-level mob wise guy) and Lillian (a pickpocket) flee Las Vegas for Oklahoma City, when the heat from the criminal underworld gets to be too much. However, the average suburban life, centering around kids and regular jobs, just isn't for them. Buddy and Lillian do have kids, five of them, but they chafe at the mundanity of it all. It's only when they open a nightclub that they finally start to feel like themselves, crooked and bent as they are. Just as the elder Mercurios wish for more, so too do their children: Jeremy, who grows up and heads to Hollywood; Tallulah, off to Moscow; Ray, back to Vegas; Alice, to NYC; and Paul, who wants his family all in one place. Along the way, they'll face morally gray situations and use their Mercurio wits to survive. VERDICT This is a character study as much as it's a crime novel, and the personages are so well-drawn and specific they could each have their own novel.--Jane Jorgenson
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The misadventures of a crime family forged in Las Vegas in the 1960s, with a focus on their five children in the '80s, '90s, and 2010s. "Mercurios don't play by the rules." So says small-time criminal Raymond "Buddy" Mercurio as he rises through the ranks of the Vegas mob and courts and marries Lillian Ott, a glamorous salesgirl and nimble pickpocket. Ten years and four kids later, they're on top of the world when Buddy gets a midnight phone call: "Go." They escape a shootout and retreat to Lillian's hometown of Oklahoma City. With another baby on the way, it seems like a place where they can lie low "till [they] get back on [their] feet." Then, a comedy of errors during a restaurant robbery elevates Buddy as a local hero, and he capitalizes on his celebrity by opening up a disco that becomes a surprising hit. Gangsters be gangsters, though, and when one of his investors discovers Buddy's skimming from the profits, it looks like it could be time to cut and run--until he realizes it's his wife behind the takedown. After a chase, a gunshot, and a heavy kiss in the freezing rain, they make up (in full view of the children). The rest of the novel follows each of the five children and the effect of their unconventional upbringing on their own choices and paths in life. From beautiful idiot hustler Jeremy to restless adrenaline chaser Tallulah to staid and earnest mob enforcer Ray to tight-laced strategic planner Alice and lonely writer Piggy, they're all shaped by their criminal parents in different ways. They also move in and out of each other's stories in appealing ways, emphasizing their loyal bonds even as they keep getting pulled back into their own versions of criminality. As is almost always true in anthology-style works, some stories are more engaging and effective than others, but Berney continues to expand the genre of Western noir with style, humor, and a deep understanding of human frailty and flaw. Another original from the prolific Berney. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
