Customer Reviews

The Good Guys

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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

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

"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.

Some of the previous reviews seem a bit harsh, as if the reviewers were expecting a sparkling literary achievement. If that's what you want, keep looking; but, on the other hand, if you are interesting in a fast paced, highly entertaining story with a bit of everything from sex, violence, murder, revenge, suspense, and a satisfying conclusion, you should give this book a whirl. I have just finished listening to the abridged audio cassette version (6 hours on 4 tapes) and loved every minute of it. As one reviewer has already mentioned, Bonanno and Pistone read their parts like first graders, but if you are willing to tolerate the juvenile delivery and concentrate on the story they are telling, it is well worth the effort. Whether the portrayals of the relationships between the FBI and the Mob, between the Mob and the Russians, or between the various Mob members is realistic or not seems irrelevant since this is, after all, a work of fiction, but presentation of those relationships seemed consistent with other novels I have read, thus they are quite believable in the context of the story. All in all, the language is crude, the violence is over the top, the characters are interesting, and the plot has enough twists and turns to satisfy most mystery lovers. In a post-story interview, the authors say that they intend to write more novels about the primary characters and I, for one, am looking forward to the sequels.

This is a high-interest, easy-reading commercial crime novel with a hint of romantic tension, some nice mob atmosphere and a gruesome act of revenge that ties everything up.

The disconcerting narrative style has the authors speak in the first person at times, to reinforce the plot with anecdotes from their personal experiences. Stranger still are second-person segments in which the reader is admonished ("you should always..").

Those quirks aside, this is a pretty fun read.

I liked Pistone's other books and picked up this one used. I was not expecting much and was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a page turner. I am about half way thru it and I cannot put it down.

They novel is a pleasant quick read, a little repitious in places to be sure due to switching narrators, but that is fine. What ruins the book is that the entire premise of the Russian organization's scheme is flawed by the authors' lack of knowledge of what home heating oil really is. They think that it is gasoline. What a shame!

I bought "The Good Guys" assuming that it actually might be a "good" mafioso read. However, I decided to dump the book about 100 pages into the story. The writing was lousy and the characters were annoying. There are no Tony Sopranos, Micheal Corleones, or even Paulie Walnut type chacters. There is just a bunch of Fredos. If you are looking for a good book with a Mafia undertone/theme try "The Gold Coast" by Nelson Demille. It was excellent.

This book was everything the seller said it was. Made a great Father's Day gift for my husband. Thanks for shipping it so quickly!

This is a very unique book as it was authored by a mob guy and an fbi agent , describing scenarios from their own point of views. The story is fast paced and well conceived.