Omerta

By Mario Puzo

Omerta - Mario Puzo
  • Release Date: 2000-07-05
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4
4
From 119 Ratings

Description

“A splendid piece of crime fiction . . . a fitting cap to a tremendous career . . . Through it all, Puzo keeps the heat on and keeps the reader enthralled with his characters and his story.”—The Denver Post

To Don Raymonde Aprile’s children, he was a loyal family member, their father’s adopted “nephew.” To the FBI he was a man who would rather ride his horses than do Mob business. No one knew why Aprile, the last great American don, had adopted Astorre Viola many years before in Sicily; no one suspected how he had carefully trained him . . . and how, while the don’s children claimed respectable careers in America, Astorre Viola waited for his time to come.

That time has arrived. The don is dead, his murder one bloody act in a drama of ambition and deceit—from the deadly compromises made by an FBI agent to the greed of two crooked NYPD detectives and the frightening plans of a South American Mob kingpin. In a collision of enemies and lovers, betrayers and loyal soldiers, Astorre Viola will claim his destiny. Because after all these years, this moment is in his blood. . . . 

“In Omerta (the Sicilian code for silence), Puzo sements his reputation as a page-turning storyteller.”—Detroit Free Press

“More tasty twists than a plate of fusilli . . . Cunning entanglements with an FBI gangbuster, crooked cops and strong women sauce up this deft and passionate last novel by the Balzac of the Mafia.”—Time

Reviews

  • Omerta

    2
    By DmgofPa
    Not up to his standatds
  • Great book, but leaves a little to be desired

    4
    By Quwaitzp
    This book was great, don't get me wrong. It was easy to pick up and hard to let down. Puzo does a great job of cinematically telling a story. This book could have easily been turned into a movie. The characters are all introduced in a way which give you the feeling of future importance to the story. Very seldom are characters introduced and not tied into the final chapters. Puzo seems to be a master at creating character sub-plots. My only problem with the book was the feeling of a rushed ending. All the sub-plots were built so elegantly, I was hoping for a longer and more detailed conclusion to the story. I felt that there were many holes in the final chapters and important details left out. To me, it felt like a writer experiencing summit fever in the literary sense. Puzo was so close to the finish line and perhaps just wanted to get it all over with. The lack of dialogue in the climax was one of the reasons I feel this way. Admittedly, this is my first read by Puzo, so maybe I am not one to judge. This could just be his method of writing a story's climax. I'm being picky however. This was a great book with great characters and I would highly recommend it to anyone, no matter what taste in genre. Great purchase!