Customer Reviews

Prizzi's Money

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What happened? That was my reaction to this pitiful excuse of a book. Mr. Condon has succeeded in doing the impossible: he made the Prizzi crime family into something ridiculous. I loved the other Prizzi novels; "Prizzi's Honor" remains one of my favorite organized crime novels. That makes Prizzi's Money all the more intolerable. In this story, the Prizzi's are portrayed as bumbling, brainless oafs, easily deceived and utterly incompetant, both at crime and at legitimate business. WHAT?! Condon's first three novels introduced us to a vicious, professional, criminal family that had risen to the top of their world. Suddenly, they devolve into a pathetic cliche. Essentially the novel can be summed up as follows: woman steals money from Prizzi family, Prizzi attempts to get the money back are (repeatedly) foiled, woman gets away. I could've liked this story, but the Prizzi's here bear no resemblance to the ones in first three novels. Read and enjoy the first Prizzi novels. Try to forget this one was published.

good entertaining book but would like to note the environmental gaffe about shawtoosh.

In October 1999 celebrities joined TRAFFIC and WWF India in calling for an end to the shahtoosh trade which drives a large-scale poaching of Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii (chiru) on the plateaux of China. A TRAFFIC East Asia and TRAFFIC India review summarised the latest information about the status of chiru and illicit trade of shahtoosh. It also served as the foundation for a successful campaign against shahtoosh trade in India, Hong Kong, Europe and the USA, gaining wide attention by the media and consumers worldwide.

International trade in shahtoosh, which is a luxury fibre made from the wool of chiru, has been prohibited under CITES since 1979. The only notable exception is the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where the chiru wool is woven into shahtoosh shawls and scarves to be smuggled to consumer markets worldwide. Shahtoosh shawls range in price from USD1000 to USD5000. An estimated 20,000 animals have been killed each year to obtain the wool for the consumer market. The wild population is now estimated to be 70,000.

The summary report titled Fashion Statement Spells Death for Tibetan Antelope recommended, among other actions, that all the countries should stop all internal trade, export and import of shahtoosh products whilst consumers should refuse to buy and wear such products.

In India, the campaign spearheaded by TRAFFIC India and WWF India, with a helping hand from celebrities and politicians, has been the biggest success to date. Prominent adverts in newspapers urged people to "Say no to shahtoosh" and warned of the penalties of possessing a shawl or engaging in the illegal trade. The campaign, which was backed by the Delhi Government, also appealed for information about those flouting the law. As a result, an anonymous phonecall resulted in a raid on an exclusive auction held in a five-star hotel in Delhi. A shahtoosh shawl was seized from the auction and two persons, including the organiser of the auction, were arrested.