Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal from Organized Crime

By: Willis, Clint

Book Overview

Adrenaline Books' search for the world's best and most exciting stories has taken readers from the peaks of Everest to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea to the battlefields of World War II. Now, the editor of publishing's most successful adventure literature series takes readers into the heart of organized crime. Some of our culture's greatest literary talent has been drawn to this topic, which taps into our culture's deepest preoccupations -- greed, violence, desire. Mob features work from best-selling writers such as Peter Maas, William Kennedy, Martin Cruz Smith, and Mario Puzo; from acknowledged masters of the genre such as Nicolas Pileggi (Wiseguy, Casino) and Joseph Pistone (Donnie Brasco); and from law enforcement insiders and mobsters such as Sammy Giancana and Joseph O'Brien.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156025324X
• ISBN13: 9781560253242
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

MOB is the best book I've ever read.

This book is great,it is what got me hooked on stories about the mob and mafia. I would recomend it to any one who is intrested in organized crime.

A realistic, thrilling story

Overall, I think that this book was exceptional. The stories contained are, for the most part, gripping and real. I couldn't put the book down when I read the story by "Joey", the anonymous hitman. The most exciting thing about this book is the reality of it. The mojority of stories contained are about real people and real things. I recommend this book to everyone

Read it or else....

Fans of The Sopranos, the Godfather, and mob/crime fiction/nonfiction will find this Clint Willis-edited book a virtual Hometown Buffet of delicious crime treats. If you like mob fiction/nonfiction and don't read this you deserve to wake up with a horse's head in your bed.A sign of this book's huge success is that it truly leaves you wanting more. You'll be so fascinated that you'll DEFINITELY want to go to each of the primary sources and read them too. It's a fast, fascinating read: chapters comprised of well-edited excerpts from books, magazine articles and two works of fiction.I was especially fascinated (and motivated) by the excerpt from the fictional (I think) Godfather. I read the book when I came out, saw the flicks a zillion times but realized in reading this excerpt how great the original book was and how it differs from the movie (the Michael character actually seems stronger in the original story). I'll be re-reading that book soon.Every chapter is a gem and there are too many to go into here. My favorites included Peter Maas' excerpt from Underboss, the story of Sammy the Bull Gravano; an excerpt from mob hitman "Joey's" book Killer (the code of honor, precisely how he makes a hit with such efficiency and low risk); part of Nicholas Pileggi's Casino, describing how a horrified businessman one day found himself cemented to mob-connected business partners; Defending the Mafia, the eye-opening and ultimately sad story of mob lawyer Gerald Shargel's use of his considerable talent to keep mafiosos out of jail; part of Boss of Bosses, the bittersweet saga of aging Don Paul Castellano, eventually murdered by ambitious John Gotti's skilled associates; and the saddest and most poignent piece of all, Jeffrey Goldberg's The Don Is Done, about the lives of children of bigwig mafiosos.This book MOVES. And it'll send you scrambling to read more. A MUST to read or to gift.

A Fine Collection

This is, for a "fan" of the Mafia, is almost a must own. It is filled with book excerpts and magazine articles and 2 works of fiction, the rest is all "true". Or at least as true as Mafia stories go. My favorite excerpts from this book were the brief portion of Donnie Brasco. It showed just how mundane going undercover in the Mob can be. I also quite enjoyed the section from "Killer". We get to see the mob through a hitmans eyes. He tells you how cold he is and how after the first couple of hits, he could murder someone then go spend a quiet evening with his family. He never felt remorse because in his mind "You must have done something pretty bad to bring em to your door." Also the excerpt from "Boss of Bosses" is comical in the sense that the Mafia Don of the Gambino crime family convinced the 2 FBI agents that had him in custody, to take him out to lunch. All in all this a fascinating collection that shows the dark side of the mob that tends to get glossed over by the Hollywood productions. Thanks for your time.T

Strong Addition to a great series.

Clint Willis has stuck with the formula that propelled this series to success by locating writings on Organized Crime that we probably would never see otherwise - and it's all great stuff. It would have been easy to pull excerpts from sensationalized tell-alls on the True Crime shelf, but luckily that's NOT where Mr. Willis takes us. The writing of Peter Maas takes us into a money-making scheme gone bad, "Joey" explains how to set up a hit. For the story of Donnie Brasco, instead of going the easy route and plugging in an action chapter, the editor took an opening section from the book, on the mundane things that the FBI agent had to do to be accepted in his undercover role - fascinating. A mafia wife gives us a look from her perspective. The chapter from Casino avoids the casino itself and shows us instead how organized crime launders its money through semi-legitimate sources to get control of the casinos. One chapter discusses the tightrope relationship of a Don and his lawyer, another one shows the interplay between a mob informant and his FBI handler. It's all great stuff that you probably haven't seen before, and will likely motivate you to buy some of the source books. Only two excerpts are fiction and one, from the Godfather, is from a pivotal movie scene. This book is a great gift for any true-crime reader.