I love mafia movies and was expecting something along the lines of The Godfather. While it has mob killings and rats, it is more a love story of two people in a difficult setting finding each other. Her husband pulls her into his world with varying results.įorgive me for quoting so much of the book but the language used is part of the charm of Lowdown. Eventually, she marries a made man and they have children. Milena rebels against this stereotype by making poor choices in men and getting involved in crime. Against the background of notorious NYC serial killers and the Vietnam war, her role is to get married and have children. She is an Italian teenage girl in the 1970s. Milena is only thirteen when her story begins. You’re fifty-eight years old and a newborn.”īut this is not just Jimmy’s story about reinventing himself after being a stand-up guy for twenty-five years, it also the story of young Milena. Jimmy, a made man, is finally getting out of prison. That’s what twenty-five years in the calendar shop does to you.” You’re not even sure if you hate it anymore. Freedom is just a dream, something you imagine often but incompletely. People have died, gone to prison, disappeared. You know you want to be on the other side, but you don’t trust your memories. You want to get laid more than you want to get even. The next seven years you crave freedom and things you remember from before. “The first seven years you’re in the can, all you can think about is revenge. Lowdown, a romantic thriller set in the world of New York City’s mafia families, has the best first paragraph I’ve read in a long time: Rapid-fire and richly imagined… a deliciously addictive urban crime thriller with a dark, deep heart and soul.

Joanna Hershon, author of A Dual Inheritance Ed Falco, author of The Family Corleone and ToughsĪ suspenseful novel for all fans of organized crime stories but also for anyone who appreciates a tale of second chances, true romance and-ultimately-life’s elemental pleasures. If you like crime stories to ring true, with characters you can care about even if their moral compasses got shattered somewhere along the way, you’ll want to read Lowdown. Hannah Pittard, author of Visible EmpireĪ brass knuckle knockout of a gangster novel. It’s also a story of forgiveness, and the novel's final pages will leave you a little bit breathless, a little bit trying not to cry. A love story with a rugged sense of humor and a tender criminal at its heart. A worthy, character-driven crime novel.Ī novel to fall in love with. ® SEAHAWKS, SEAHAWKS LOGO, SPIRIT OF 12, WE ARE 12, BRING ON THE 12, LEGION OF BOOM, 12 and 12S are trademarks of the Seattle Seahawks.Schneider avoids pathos in this affecting tale of two star-crossed lovers as he paints a vivid picture of a crime family’s values, rules, and pecking order..

Lowdown by Anthony Schneider