Born in New York City, Giancarlo Lo Manto is a cop in Naples, Italy. His mother moved him and his sister to Naples after their father was killed by a don of the Camorra, a powerful criminal organization with operations in Naples and New York, when Lo Manto was a teenager. He vowed to avenge his father’s death.

One of only a few honest and dedicated Neapolitan officers, he works alone to stop the illegal trafficking of drugs and similar crimes and save other families the grief the Camorra brought his. He has been so successful that the organization cannot permit him to continue. Pete Rossi is the don of a Camorra branch in New York; he had been groomed to assume the position following his father who ordered Lo Manto’s father’s death. Rossi decides that Lo Manto should be brought back to the city of his birth to die.

Lo Manto’s sister comes to him for help. His niece Paula, who has been in New York for one month as an exchange student, is missing. With the assistance of his supervisor, Lo Manto verifies his sister’s information. It appears that Paula has been kidnapped, probably with the intention of luring Lo Manto to the United States.

Jennifer Fabini is a New York detective. She is annoyed to have been assigned to escort Lo Manto around the city believing that she is just babysitting a visiting officer. She soon discovers that far from being removed from the action, she is now right in the middle of a firefight.

Lo Manto is one of those characters a la James Bond who seems to have a vast network of sources able to tip him off to impending action. Some of his contacts reach back into his childhood. This guy is never clueless, and at times it seems improbable that he could always know exactly the right person to tap for specific information and could always be so informed.

The author throws in a completely superfluous (and unconvincing) romance between Jennifer and Lo Manto to demonstrate that Lo Manto’s got a fully functioning Y-chromosome. His relationship with Felipe Lopez, a homeless teenager, is a better demonstration of his humanity and does more to advance the plot than the romance.

Author Carcaterra is a writer and producer for the TV series Law & Order. Some of the narrative reads like a TV script. Extensive background information is supplied for multiple characters, most sections are brief with the emphasis on action, and many end with an irreverent snappy quip ... usually by the always-savvy Lo Manto.

After the lengthy buildup to the inevitable showdown between Lo Manto and Rossi, the ending is something of a letdown. Besides its extreme implausibility, the finale just doesn’t ring true. A whole team of players make their appearance at just the perfect moment then a plot twist turns the tide. Readers who have hung in through all the misery, blood and gore deserve a more believable outcome.

If this novel is ever turned into a made-for-TV movie, the producers would be advised to budget for gallons and gallons of fake blood. The GV for graphic violence is well deserved. After a while, it raises the question of why so many Camorrista wannabes are trying to sign on with the mob. When a single failure inevitably leads to a gruesome death, why isn’t that a deterrent to recruitment?

--Lesley Dunlap