Omerta is the final novel in a trilogy about the Mafia. It was written during the last three years of Mario Puzo's life. The first novel in the trilogy was The Godfather in which Puzo introduced us to the Corleone family. The second novel, The Last Don, is about the rise and fall of the brutal Clericuzio family. Omerta concludes the trilogy by depicting the Aprile family who struggle to escape the stronghold of the Mafia way of life.
The book is fast paced and takes the reader through many twists and turns. As with all of Mr. Puzo's books, they are full of drama, betrayal, and intrigue. Mario Puzo became famous in literature and in Hollywood for his stories of the Mafia. I have always enjoyed his stories and will sorely miss him.
Here is the summary of the book as it is written on the book jacket:
Don Raymonde Aprile is an old man wily enough to retire gracefully from organized crime after a lifetime of ruthless conquest. Having kept his three children at a distance, he's ensured that they are now respectable members of the establishment: Valerius is an army colonel who teaches at West Point, Marcantonio is an influential TV network executive, and Nicole is a corporate litigator with a weakness for pro bono cases to fight the death penalty. To protect them from harm, and to maintain his entrée into the legitimate world of international banking, Don Aprile has adopted a "nephew" from Sicily, Astorre Viola, whose legal guardian made the unfortunate decision to commit suicide in the trunk of a car. Astorre is an unlikely enforcer--a macaroni importer with a fondness for riding stallions and recording Italian ballads with his band.
Though Don Aprile's retirement is seen as a business opportunity by his last Mafia rival, Timmona Portella, it is viewed with suspicion by Kurt Cilke, the FBI's special agent in charge of investigating organized crime. Cilke has achieved remarkable success in breaking down the bonds between families, cultivating high-ranking sources who in return for federal protection have violated omerta--Sicilian 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, if anyone, 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 the larger-than-life characters who have turned Mario Puzo's novels into modern myths, Omerta is a powerful epitaph for the Mafia at the turn of a new century, and a final triumph for a great American storyteller.
October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999
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