Omerta

Read by Joe MantegnaThree Cassettes, Approx. 5 hoursThe final chapter in Mario Puzo's landmark Mafia trilogy about power and morality in America.Mario Puzo spent the last three years of his life writing Omerta, the final installment in his legendary Mafia saga.  In The Godfather, he introduced us to the Corleones.  In The Last Don, he told the wicked tale of the Clericuzios.  In Omerta, Mario Puzo chronicles the affairs of the Apriles, a family on the brink of legitimacy in a world of criminals.Don Raymonde Aprile is an old man, wily enough to retire gracefully from organized crime after a lifetime of ruthless conquest.  His three children have grown up to become respectable members of the establishment.  To protect them from harm, and to keep an eye on his group of international banks, Don Aprile has adopted a "nephew" from Sicily, Astorre Viola, whose previous legal guardian made the unfortunate decision of committing suicide in the trunk of a car.  Astorre is an unlikely enforcer--a macaroni imposter with a fondness for riding stallions and recording Italian ballads with his band.Don Aprile's retirement is viewed with suspicion by Kurt Cilke, the FBI's special agent in charge of investigating the Mafia.  Cilke has achieved remarkable success in breaking down the bonds among families, cultivating high-ranking sources who, in return for federal protection, have violated omerta--Italian for "code of silence"--the vow among men of honor that, until recently, kept them from betraying their secrets to the authorities.As Cilke and the FBI mount their campaign to wipe out the Mafia once and for all, Astorre Viola and the Apriles find themselves in the midst of one last war, a conflict in which it is hard to distinguish who is on the right side of the law, and whether mercy or vengeance is the best course of action.Rich with suspense, dark humor, and larger-than-life characters who have turned Mario Puzo's novels into modern myths, Omerta is a powerful epitaph for the Mafia at the century's end and a final triumph for a great American storyteller.