Great Reviews for GANGSTERS DON’T DIE!
The third installment of Tod Goldberg's Gangsterland series was released about six months ago on 9/12/23 and has been accumulating some exciting praise and recognition, including:
Amazon, A Best Book of the Month Sept. 2023
The Washington Post, A Most Anticipated Title
Deadly Pleasures Magazine, A Best Book of the Year
CrimeReads, A Notable Book of 2023
Book and Film Globe Favorite Books of 2023
Today we want to share some of the best reviews here on the blog and encourage you to click over to Counterpoint's website where you'll find even more press coverage and information on how to buy the series. This is a unique contribution to crime fiction that you won't want to miss! On to the reviews:
Booklist
The third installment in the Gangsterland trilogy (Gangsterland, 2014; Gangster Nation, 2017) opens with a lengthy flashback to 1973, during Dark Billy Cupertine’s final hours alive. Sal, Cupertine’s son and the trilogy’s central character, was a Chicago hitman forced to assume a new identity as a rabbi and relocate to Las Vegas. Set in 2002, the trilogy’s final book finds Sal with a lot of problems. His identity is cracking. His enemies are getting closer. His family is hidden away in a witness protection program but nevertheless in danger. And Peaches Pocatillo, a Native American kingpin who has taken control of the Chicago mob, is hot on Sal’s trail, determined to get revenge for a past slight. No spoilers here, but the opening flashback proves vitally important to the plot and to Sal. Perhaps the most well-written of the trilogy’s installments, Gangster’s Don’t Die has a great story, exciting characters, and a few nifty surprises.
Publishers Weekly - Starred Review!
Goldberg concludes his Gangsterland trilogy in style, following up 2017’s Gangster Nation with a mesmerizing comic noir that’s fully accessible to series newcomers. After killing several FBI agents in 1998 Chicago, mobster Sal Cupertine hid in the back of a meat truck and reemerged in Las Vegas, where he assumed the identity of Rabbi David Cohen. In time, Sal grew into the role, providing genuine succor to his congregation and finding some satisfaction in doing so. But by 2002, the walls are closing in on him. Hospitalized after being assaulted—an attack that’s undone the plastic surgery he’s used to conceal his true identity—Sal is targeted by Matthew Drew, a former FBI agent who’s been framed for murders in Portland, Ore., and Peaches Pocotillo, a Native American gang lord who’s looking to take over Sal’s operations. Drawing his foes out to the desert, Sal prepares for a final showdown that will either end his life or free him for good. Goldberg keeps readers guessing whether Sal will again outsmart his foes and injects humor throughout (“The problem with being on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Matthew Drew realized, was the lack of dining options”) to keep the proceedings from growing too grim. This is a stellar end to one of the most inventive crime series in recent memory. Agent: Jennie Dunham, Dunham Literary.
Jim Ruland, Los Angeles Times
"Goldberg is charming and sharp, with a quip for every occasion . . . Although each book stands on its own, taken together, the Gangsterland novels read like a single sweeping story with a large cast and numerous storylines, which Goldberg compares to the slow-developing character arc over the course of several seasons of shows like Game of Thrones and The Wire. This gave Goldberg a great deal of latitude to tell the story in an emotionally satisfying way . . . Goldberg’s success in this anti-heroic mode is rare in the world of crime fiction. Where many writers emphasize the violence in their stories, Goldberg pays equal attention to its psychic aftermath."
The full article in the LA Times: The real spiritual journey behind Tod Goldberg’s fake-rabbi desert antihero
