Spanning half a century, Crooks by literary crime writer Lou Berney (Double Barrel Bluff; The Long and Faraway Gone) examines the criminal tendencies of one family in a novel that is as much a character study as it is an adventure through various demimondes of the United States.
Crooks begins in the shiny new mob-controlled Las Vegas of the early 1960s, where low-level gangster Buddy Mercurio falls in love with Lillian Ott, a beautiful petty thief. The two marry, have children, and continue to hustle until a death threat forces them to skip town and move to Oklahoma. There, Buddy opens the first disco in the state and makes a killing, not least from the funds he skims off the top. The narrative then shifts to the five Mercurio children and examines the ways in which their criminal DNA influences their lives. Jeremy, the favorite son, becomes a well-paid gigolo in 1980s Hollywood; Tallulah gets involved in human trafficking in 1990s Moscow; Ray, a mob muscle man in Las Vegas, attempts to leave violence behind; Alice, considered the family's genius, fails in her attempts to stay clean in her work at an East Coast law firm; and Piggy, the youngest, documents the family saga as a writer.
Berney's trademark humor and insight into the human condition are on display here as the Mercurios find themselves caught in both perilous situations and moral dilemmas while they struggle to reconcile family loyalty with a life on the straight and narrow. Despite their failings, the Mercurios are relatable, even charming, and they make Crooks an engaging and lively read. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor