The Good Guys

Rating:
Summary: ABSORBING STORY READ BY "THE GOOD GUYS" THEMSELVES
Review:
Eye witness testimony, first-hand reports - nothing grabs us much more quickly than someone who can tell it like it actually is or was. When it comes to the mob, few are willing to talk about it. Bill Bonnano and Joe Pistone are more than willing and they do talk about it in absorbing detail with "The Good Guys."

More reliable sources couldn't be found. Bill Bonanno is a former chief in the Bonnano crime family, and the author of "Bound By Honor: A Mafioso's Story."

More widely known as Donnie Brasco, Joe Pistone was an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the mob. His daring eventually led to the New York crime prosecutions that ripped apart that city's top five crime families. What a pair!

"The Good Guys" takes place in, where else? New York City. It's the 1980s and a Russian language professor at Columbia University has disappeared. He may have ties to a burgeoning Russian mafia syndicate. Little Eddie LaRocca and Bobby San Filippo (not good guys) are dispatched to find him. They soon find out they're not the only ones searching - the FBI is also chasing down leads.

Listeners will enjoy meeting FBI agents Connor O'Brien and Laura Russo. Those who have followed The Sopranos will be familiar with characters similar to the lethal Bobby Hats, and his stop-at-nothing attempts to rise higher in the mob.

Good listening for those who enjoy prime crime.

- Gail Cooke




Rating:
Summary: Underwhelming, But Never Boring
Review: "The Good Guys" is a flawed, but entertaining story written by retired undercover FBI Agent Joe Pistone and coauthor Bonanno, former head of a well-known New York crime family. Pistone, better known by his alias Donnie Brasco, runs into Bonanno during the investigation of a fuel-oil scam supposedly operated by the Russian mafia. Overall, this book based on real events that make it believable, but not essential.

Rating:
Summary: A crisp, tightly woven story told at a brisk pace
Review: Americans love the Mafia. It's an odd sort of affection, given our reported high regard for moral values. But if actions truly speak louder than words, then we have a serious wise guy addiction. Consider the popular success of HBO's "The Sopranos," the return of "Growing Up Gotti" for another season on A&E, and the fact that Mario Puzo's GODFATHER saga no longer sleeps with the fishes, thanks to the efforts of author Mark Winegardner. So let's be stand-up guys and dolls and own up to it: we can't get enough badda-bing badda-boom.

So who better to fill our minimum requirement of whacking and wisecracking than a couple of guys with explicit knowledge of the life? Bill Bonanno is a former high-echelon member of the Bonanno crime family. Joe Pistone is a former FBI agent whose undercover exploits as Donnie Brasco made their way from the page to the big screen. This unlikely pair constitutes a kind of mob fiction dream team, the product of which is THE GOOD GUYS.

Bonanno and Pistone, along with co-author David Fisher, have crafted a surprisingly entertaining mystery that manages to combine insider knowledge of the mob and the FBI with well-drawn characters (including several large, dangerous men with interesting nicknames like "Tony Cupcakes"), frequently hilarious dialogue, and enough gunplay and violence to add a satisfying edge.

The story revolves around the search for the missing Professor G, a Russian language educator. He's simultaneously being sought by FBI agents Connor O'Brien and Laura Russo, and by Mafia career climber Bobby San Filippo, aka Bobby Hats, aka Bobby Blue Eyes. The trail to the missing professor leads through the Slavic Studies department at Columbia to the Russian mob in Brighton Beach and on to the trunk of an abandoned car into which is stuffed the enormous and grotesquely mangled corpse of 320-pound Skinny Al D'Angelo.

THE GOOD GUYS rewards readers with a crisp, tightly woven story told at a brisk pace. It isn't Tolstoy, but then it doesn't have to be. It's solid entertainment that will provide a lasting wiseguy fix for even the most rabid Mob-o-phile. It's a good read, pally. Caspisce?

--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart