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    Gangsterland: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Gangsterland: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Gangsterland: A Novel
    Ebook429 pages6 hours

    Gangsterland: A Novel

    By Tod Goldberg

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "[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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCounterpoint
    Release dateAug 18, 2014
    ISBN9781619024083
    Unavailable
    Gangsterland: A Novel
    Author

    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 co-authored with Brad Meltzer; and the crime- tinged novels Living Dead Girl, an LA Times Book Prize finalist, 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, 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.

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    Reviews for Gangsterland

    3.5/5

    15 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Rabbi David Cohen used to be Chicago Mafia hitman Sal Cupertino. When he is caught up in a drug deal gone wrong and kills several undercover FBI agents, he knows big trouble awaits him. But the Mafia has a plan and, after several surgeries and some rigorous training, he emerges as Rabbi Cohen and becomes the leader of a congregation in Las Vegas. But a rogue FBI agent is after him, determined to avenge the deaths of his three colleagues. And the rabbi misses his family. The book, filled with believable, well-developed characters, offers readers an interesting [if absurd] premise, and spins a dark tale of mayhem and lessons learned.
    • 3/5
      Sort of a Pygmalion-meets-Lillehammer-and-Dexter story in which a Chicago Mafia hitman is forced to go underground, reappearing in Las Vegas as a rabbi. He's not bad at the job, but his past follows him, as does the memory of his beloved wife and child--and an FBI agent he'd believed dead.It's an odd, mostly fun book, with some rather harrowing violence. I would give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. Not quite 4; there's a bit too much explanation, and a couple of strokes of luck and loose and abrupt ends that I didn't feel were completely convincing. But the characters are interesting, and I liked very much that the reader doesn't get to know everyone's secrets, and doesn't need to.