The Jewel Heist That Brought Down a Chicago Crime Syndicate
The mob is back in bestselling author Chuck Hogan’s new thriller, GANGLAND. But this time, instead of the Irish in Boston, it’s the Italian Mafia in Chicago.
Hogan’s previous bestseller, Prince of Thieves, was made into the movie The Town starring Ben Affleck about an Irish thief in Boston who wanted out of the life but couldn’t pass up one last glorious score.
Now Hogan spotlights the Italian Mafia in Chicago—the Outfit—based on the true story of crime boss Tony Accardo and the “Chicago gangland purge of 1978”—likened to another St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, but in slow motion, one by one.
Seemingly trivial, the bloodshed all began with a jewel heist that wasn’t cleared by the Outfit boss. When Accardo discovers the robbery, he sends his loyal warrior, Nicky “Pins” Passero (owner of the local bowling alley), to collect the jewelry. But it was tech-smart Johnny Salita’s score, and he resented both Accardo’s lesson and losing the take.
Salita and his crew shock the underworld when they avenge their loss by breaking into and ransacking Accardo’s house, with Salita leaving a calling-card of piss on the carpet. Accardo can’t accept the disrespect of the brazen act and obsesses over revenge, with Nicky Pins as his executioner.
Besides Accardo’s deadly assignment, Nicky has his own problems. He must protect a secret that only Nicky’s former cellmate and the FBI agent Gerald Roy know about. Although Roy blackmails Nicky into cooperating with the FBI, Nicky has clandestine plans of his own.
GANGLAND is a novel filled with emotional turmoil, regret, and the will to survive. Can anyone leave the Outfit behind?
Read the rest of my review and interview with Hogan in The Big Thrill.
