3.5
Gangsterland
ByPublisher Description
"[An] exciting and darkly funny crime novel." —C. Moon Read, Las Vegas Weekly, 1 of Our 20 Favorite Books of the Past Twenty Years
Sal Cupertine is a legendary hit man for the Chicago Mafia, known for his ability to get in and out of a crime without a trace. Until now, that is. His first–ever mistake forces Sal to botch an assassination, killing three undercover FBI agents in the process. This puts too much heat on Sal, and he knows this botched job will be his death sentence to the Mafia. So he agrees to their radical idea to save his own skin.
A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament. Yet, as it turns out, the Mafia isn't quite done with him yet. Soon the new cemetery is being used as both a money and body–laundering scheme for the Chicago family. And that rogue FBI agent on his trail, seeking vengeance for the murder of his three fellow agents, isn't going to let Sal fade so easily into the desert.
Gangsterland is the wickedly dark and funny new novel by a writer at the height of his power—a morality tale set in a desert landscape as ruthless and barren as those who inhabit it.
Sal Cupertine is a legendary hit man for the Chicago Mafia, known for his ability to get in and out of a crime without a trace. Until now, that is. His first–ever mistake forces Sal to botch an assassination, killing three undercover FBI agents in the process. This puts too much heat on Sal, and he knows this botched job will be his death sentence to the Mafia. So he agrees to their radical idea to save his own skin.
A few surgeries and some intensive training later, and Sal Cupertine is gone, disappeared into the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. Leading his growing congregation in Las Vegas, overseeing the population and the temple and the new cemetery, Rabbi Cohen feels his wicked past slipping away from him, surprising even himself as he spouts quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament. Yet, as it turns out, the Mafia isn't quite done with him yet. Soon the new cemetery is being used as both a money and body–laundering scheme for the Chicago family. And that rogue FBI agent on his trail, seeking vengeance for the murder of his three fellow agents, isn't going to let Sal fade so easily into the desert.
Gangsterland is the wickedly dark and funny new novel by a writer at the height of his power—a morality tale set in a desert landscape as ruthless and barren as those who inhabit it.
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3.5

Lindsey Tosh
Created about 2 months agoShare
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“I have never liked mafia or mob stories or stories centering on organized crime. I've only seen about an hour of the first Godfather, zero minutes of Goodfellas, 10 minutes of one episode of the Sopranos. I tend to avoid this stuff like the plague but for whatever reason I thought this book sounded interesting so I picked it up. Super glad I did. One other reviewer said that this was the mob book for people who don't like mob books. Accurate. I raced through it. The story was compelling, the characters were so fully fleshed out, and I absolutely CHEERED for Sal/David. I want a sequel. And I want a movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.”

Dawnrenee0516
Created 3 months agoShare
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Diana
Created 8 months agoShare
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dana
Created 10 months agoShare
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Abby
Created 11 months agoShare
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About Tod Goldberg
Tod Goldberg is the author of more than a dozen books, including Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; The House of Secrets, which he coauthored with Brad Meltzer; and the crime–tinged novels Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Fake Liar Cheat, plus five novels in the popular Burn Notice series. He is also the author of the story collection Simplify, a 2006 finalist for the SCIBA Award for Fiction and winner of the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize, and Other Resort Cities. His essays, journalism, and criticism have appeared in many publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, Las Vegas Weekly, and Best American Essays, among many others, and have won five Nevada Press Association Awards. He lives in Indio, California, where he directs the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside.
Other books by Tod Goldberg
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