Crooks: A Sweeping Crime Thriller Saga of Four Mafia Siblings Navigating Secrets, Betrayal, and the Dark Side of Family Bonds

No one is born a criminal, but a majority of the Mercurio Family have larcenous hearts. Patriarch Buddy Mercurio was a Chicago Outfit button man living in Las Vegas, where he met his future wife, Lillian, while she was engaged in picking someone’s pockets. The treacherous machinations of life in the mob forced the Mercurios to flee Las Vegas and settle in Oklahoma City. Through the years, the Mercurio children grew up and would take paths of their own, some legitimate, while others would make their parents proud. Jeremy went to California, where he uses his looks to seduce older women out of their wealth. Tallulah lives in Russia, where she is an acrobat by trade, but she is also a member of a team of thieves. Alice walks the straight and narrow until her job forces her to compromise.

Lou Berney (“Double Barrel Bluff”) is a fantastic crime writer with an innate ability to create roguish yet immensely likable characters. Crooks differentiates itself from Berney’s previous efforts in its focus on seven characters(Buddy, Lillian, Jeremy, Tallulah, Alice, Ray, and Piggy) and allows their narratives to captivate and entertain the reader. Berney’s bibliography is impressive, but Crooks may be his finest yet.