Oh ragazoo!

Lowdown was sort of a letdown. This story has so much potential and all the makings of a good mob story. But the execution was rough, choppy, confusing and kind of bad. I don't often come right out and call a book out like that. But this was not good....

This story mainly revolved around the lives and experiences of Jimmy and Milena. These are our star crossed lovers of the story. We get insight into their younger selves and their older selves (mid-fifties) and journey with them through three decades of existence. And what a thrill it was....oh wait...

First of all, the timeline in this story is incredibly confusing. We get insight into the past and present with Milena and Jimmy. Milena's chapters go in chronological order. It was never confusing and made sense. Which makes it hard for me to understand why Jimmy's chapters are all over the place? There was literally a chapter where I couldn't tell what moment of time we were reading about until the last few lines of the chapter. The execution of Jimmy's past and present was done poorly. And to be frank, it was annoying trying to figure out what year I was in with each chapter of Jimmy because it was a crap shoot.

Next issue, how many inconsequential people do we need to talk about? I understand connections and the intricate family dynamics that go along with the mob. But aside from Jimmy, Milena, and Vinny, Schneider names so many different Italian names that any supporting characters are hard to recognize because you've had 1000 different women and men names with thrown at you. Now if you are Italian, no problem. But for others, it truly was too hard to differentiate associates and acquaintance of Jimmy's because it was just too busy in that regard.

Moving on, all of the chapters are told from a point of view of a certain character. I understand Jimmy and Milena's view. But there were many chapters like Paul, Molly, Molly's baby brother, Cathy and Tom that simply could have been done without. Furthermore, they didn't really add much to the story. For example, Cathy has chapters where she complains about the convict living in her house. And that is about the sum of it. There is no additional plot, she just doesn't like it. And that is pretty much that. Or how about Paul's one chapter. He sees Mikey in another country and tells Mikey his brother is Jimmy. Ughh...okay? A whole chapter for that? No. Just no.

Let's chat about Jimmy getting out of prison. Much of this story talks about his time following his release. What is exciting about following an ex-convict do things we all do daily? Like getting an expresso machine? Or having a steak dinner? There is nothing exiting about it! Not a thing!

Milena's portion of the story was much better in my opinion. The relationship added value to this novel. But I think that aspect is over marketed. Their "love" story is very minimal overall. I am not really a fan of the marketing and genre being pushed for this novel. In my opinion, it is way off.

Overall, I am going to rate this story with 2 stars. I very much felt bored, disengaged and at times had no damn clue what was going on. This story had me counting down the pages to the end. And that certainly is not a good sign.

Thank you NetGalley and The Permanent Press for an advance copy.

Fifty-eight-year-old Jimmy Piccini has just been released from prison after serving twenty-five years for numerous felonies including racketeering, tax evasion, and the worse, conspiracy to commit murder.

He does have a place to stay, but still, how will he get by? Going straight will be difficult. There’s not much that the Ruggiero family can do for him now. The FBI is smarter and better equipped than before and there are fewer corrupt cops in Brooklyn. This means that mob profit margins have gone way down.

He knows who snitched on him for the murder of a Philadelphia crime boss. In fact, he’s been seen around town. Will he try to kill Jimmy to ensure his own protection? Jimmy is a different person now than when he went in. He doesn’t care to be rich or have a lot of women. He only wants to be happy and free.

However, the biggest blow is when he discovers the obituary of the love of his life, Melina.

The story isn’t just about Jimmy, where we flashback between life before, during and after prison. It also centers around Melina, the wife of another mobster who Jimmy fell in love with. The story goes back and forth between different periods of her life and her and Jimmy’s life together.

Lowdown relies on its deeply flawed characters, and the reader becomes invested in their lives. It also uses the physical and cultural settings of Brooklyn and Sicily to enhance the story.

This novel could have gone in so many different directions, and you’ll never guess which way it finally does go. I’ll just say that it has a satisfying conclusion.

Those who read character-driven crime novels, with a strong plot will enjoy Lowdown. After it all, it has revenge, lust, forbidden love and most of all, hope.

What a fantastic story! A mafia story with romance mixed in. I really enjoyed seeing into the mob world and following Jimmy’s journey. It’s tough, made me feel, and I found it very intriguing and interesting.

I liked this story. I didn't love it. The main character, Jimmy, was involved with mob activity and was jailed. Upon his release, he begins to understand what forgiveness really means.

I liked the "back and forth" of the chapters, with some about Jimmy, some about Milena, and some about peripheral characters.

I liked that the story was more about a relationship than the mob activity.

And finally, I liked that the ending was satisfying.

Twenty five years is a long time to be in prison. Jimmy could only think about revenge, getting back at Mikey who turned traitor and put him there. After a few years, you're just waiting to get out, be free.
Jimmy thinks a lot about Milena. No she wasn't his, she belonged to a "made" man in the mafia, Vinnie. That didn't stop them from falling for each other. Sneaking around. There may have been a future for them. She would have had to escape the clutches of Vinnie. Who knows. Then, Jimmy finds out Milena has died in a car wreck. Jimmy was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. The family he worked for, the Ruggiero's couldn't get him out of prison. He did occasionally receive care packages.
Now he is finally free. What can he do with his life. Revenge? Find Mikey make him pay. Jimmy is 57, 58. What to do with his life...
This was not you every day mafia read. It looks more into the character of the people involved. Who they really are. What they really feel. It includes being a wife of a mafioso. How that relationship works. The characters are strong and you actually get to like them, or hate them whatever the case may be. I enjoyed this book. The Author did a terrific job!

This fast paced novel was an enjoyable read. The main characters, albeit criminals, endeared themselves to me. Counterintuitive to my rational mind, who knows right from wrong, why was I rooting for the miscreants? The story spans 25 years and threads the lives of predominately two people with sheer narrative power. Well written with an inside look into organized crime families. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher Permanent Press, for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The book "Lowdown" had some very solid writing. I am a huge fan of Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" and I found myself constantly comparing Anthony Schneider's writing to that masterpiece. I am Italian American and unfortunately this book just rubbed me the wrong way in a strange way that "The Godfather" just didn't--I guess I just did not like the constant references to the main character's and their friends and families illegal activities not limited to heinous acts like heroin trafficking and murder. I still enjoyed the forbidden romance between the two major characters of Jimmy and Milena. I also liked that the story took us from Brooklyn to Italy. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading crime thrillers.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Permanent Press for the opportunity to read Lowdown by Anthony Schneider, recently published this November.

I always love the chance to read books that’s settings and characters are new for me. In this case, I got nice and cozy with the Brooklyn mob. A dynamic story that reaches across thirty years and two continents, I found this book interesting, gritty, sexy, and authentic.

Have you seen the episode of Inside the Actor's Studio that features Bradley Cooper? I’ve always remembered James Lipton asking him what his favorite phrase was, and Bradley answering in this stream of Italian. Of course, it turned out that every other word was essentially a swear, but I think we can agree that no one swears as beautifully as the Italians. Perhaps watch Bradley’s interview before you sit down for this gripping crime novel.

Jimmy Piccini is a part of the infamous Ruggiero family in Brooklyn in the late 1970s and throughout the 80s. Climbing his way up the ranks of the family, Jimmy is capable, intelligent, and reserved. He’s not afraid to complete the jobs he’s assigned, but he’s smart enough to do them in a way that utilizes the least amount of violence. In the mafia, a wrong move meant war. Discord amidst and between the five families was a recipe for not only a breakdown in the organization, but also for the wrong kind of attention from the federal government and men such as Rudy Giuliani, US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983-1989. At a time when RICO (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) cases are becoming more common and are crippling the mafia’s constructs, Jimmy has to be more careful than ever, working to legitimize the dirty money coming in to the family.

Milena Cossutta grows up in an Italian family, and she eventually marries into the family when she weds Vinnie DeNunzio at nineteen years old. For a few years, Milena lives her best life, partying and getting high and socializing with other members of the family. For what Vinnie lacks in big-picture scheming and tact, Milena is there to take up the slack. Never taking credit for her ideas, Milena secretly revels in several of the family's successes.

Milena and Jimmy become acquainted at a party, and they form an immediate attachment. He’s a part of the family, but he’s smart and he speaks kindly to her. As Vinnie’s temperament devolves, she finds herself looking to Jimmy for comfort and friendship, until a rainy night in 1985 when it becomes clear that there is more between them.

As the years pass, Jimmy and Milena remain close, often hypothetically discussing what it might be like to have a life together outside of Brooklyn.

But Milena and Jimmy don’t have the chance to explore any reality of a future together. Jimmy orchestrates the hit on the head of another family, but a rat within the families exposes the hit to federal intervention and recompense, along with all its conspirators.

Jimmy finds himself separated from Milena, their romance cut short by prison, secrecy, and an entire continent, as Milena and Vinnie are forced to flee to Sicily to escape the long reach of RICO, while also avoiding the imposing task forces of the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia.

Will Jimmy and Milena ever be reunited again? Will he ever have his revenge on the man who cut their time short? When he finally is free, what will be left remaining of his prior life?

What a thrilling novel! Suspenseful, gritty, romantic. It's a Brooklyn transformed into the time of the mobster. It's secret meetings at Casa Altobelli. It's a chaotic yet organized time of assassini, consiglieri, blow, and booze. It's made men on the run from Uncle Sam.

It's Sicily the way I have always pictured it, the Sicily I long to one day visit as another of my ancestral homes. It's Via San Luca and Taormina—stone buildings and cobblestone streets, gelateria, pasticceria, pizzeria, orange blossoms and olive trees, oleander and jasmine, churches older than our own country, and picturesque piazze.

Schneider has beautifully captured not only the settings, but also the attitude and essence of the Brooklyn mob during a time of change. The beautiful love story between Jimmy and Milena is an intertwining of their separate lives and the moments they are together, both romantic and melancholy.

With a 4 out of 5 rating from yours truly, I highly recommend you pick this one up and experience it for yourself!

And, my friends...stei sano come un pesce. Be as healthy as a fish.

A crime novel that is a story of the Mafia and characters who are a part of that life. Jimmy wanders in out of greed and being attracted to that life. He takes the fall for a crime and spends the next 25 years in prison for it. When he is released he has a lot of trouble trying to understand and adapt to this world that he has reentered. I liked this story. His life intersects with the wife of a mob boss who he had been in love with as young people. Milena wanted out of her poor and strictly traditional family she was looking for wealth and excitement and participated in a crime as well as a marriage. Jimmy and Milena meet up again and a love story begins. The back and forth in time sometimes doesn't work but Schneider is a master at it.
This is a crime and slow-paced thriller for the most part. But, more importantly, it is about forgiveness, love and the search for redemption.
All in all, a story that will hold your attention.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the Arc.

Very interesting detailed inside look at mob life and life in prison with a long term love story included. It holds your interest but you have to pay attention to each person's details to determine if they are speaking of the past or in the present. I have never been a great fan of the 'Godfather ' but it held my interest. Fair amount of profanity and sex scenes but not to excess or overly detailed. Slight hint of benefits of redemption,forgiveness and going straight, but they don't quite get there. If you like mob stories then this book is for you!
I read this book as a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.Thank you for allowing me to read this book.

The storyline follows the life of a man sent to Prison for twenty-five years for a life of crime as a member of a New York crime family. For the twenty-five years he is in prison he never gives us any information about the crime family to authorities. Thus that makes him somewhat a "hero" to the family, or at worse one of the most loyal members of the family.

The story is about his reintroduction into civilian life after prison. It's about love had, love lost and love found. It also gives an interesting look into the life of a crime family and in particular one individual.

While interesting it didn't grab me the way most novels do. For me it is probably the look at a life style that I am unfamiliar with and thus not drawn to.

The back and forth between characters and between era's was a bit hard to follow.

,This book is really great! It grabs you from the very beginning and never lets go. Jimmy keeps his head down and tried to stay under the radar but he gets sentenced to fifty years for planning a hit on a mob boss. In the meantime other gangsters are rounded up while others leave the country. Including Milena,his bosses wife and the woman he is in love with. The story plays out over twenty five years and had a bittersweet ending..

Lowdown was different than I expected. I definitely wouldn't call it a thriller. The story was more character-driven and slow paced, following both Jimmy and Milena from when they were young to when they were old and their life both together and apart.

For me it's a hard to classify novel because the focus was so much on their lives, the decisions they made over time, and how everything turned out for them as time went on. There was no overarching goal. The novel was like someone telling you the story of their life - which was both interesting, because both Jimmy and Milena were smart and likable characters who I was curious about; and boring, because some of it was uninteresting and seemed to meander without a larger purpose.

Normally I'm irritated by the divergence between what I expected to read based on the description and the novel I actually read, but this was a pleasant surprise. No, it's not a fast-paced thriller, but Jimmy and Milena had unique lives and viewpoints involved with the mob, and a beautiful love that's a rare find, even in novels.

I received a review copy.

This is a thrill a minute romantic adventure. A well researched mob storyline. Will look into reading more from this author. Very entertaining. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving this review

This book is a mixture of mobster life, both real and fiction. It’s also a love story that shows a lot of reality in the life of a mobster wife. It’s well researched and takes place of a period of over twenty-five years, both in the US and Sicily. The characters are very complex. I thought it was a good read, a bit different from others I’ve read in this genre.

I usually post reviews on B&N and Kobo as well, but was unable to locate the book on those sites.

"A romantic crime thriller" is the description and that is usually the exit sign for me but I was pleasantly surprised with Jimmy and his life of prison more than crime(25 years) !!!!

Anyway I enjoyed the love triangle and the originality of the story. Original , how rare is that is the digital doldrums. Good job Mr. Tony!

Anthony Schneider's Lowdown, while seemingly a mob novel, is really a wonderful love story about forbidden fruit. Set in the waning days of the NY mob, as the feds were putting Gotti and others in jail, the tale moves back and forth between Milena, a poor but beautiful Italian girl who marries into the mob, and Jimmy, a made man who has just been paroled when the book starts. It goes back and forth to his and Milena's youth, then to the present in New York and Sicily. Wonderfully drawn complex characters, where good and evil are often mixed, makes for an entertaining but slow moving read. Worth the time.

I, like many moviegoers, have seen all the films about mob figures. I'm sure I've seen The Godfather more than twice. I even grew up in an area of New Jersey where those guys, in real life, aspired to be cool 'made' men like Jimmy Paccini. I remember the slicked down hair and the black leather jackets. I only knew them from afar as I came from the other side of town, the side that was not on the border with Newark.

Many years later, my husband and I lived on the Upper East side of Manhattan. The man who ran the parking garage in our building told us we were safe (this was during the dangerous era of the eighties) because the small businesses in the area paid for protection. He pointed out that once a week a guy in a black Cadillac idled on the street while another guy visited all the bars and pizzerias in a two-block area. It made me feel both safe and afraid. The eighties in New York were so different than the city of today.

I enjoyed Anthony Schneider's take on the mob lifestyle. He added Milena Cossutta to the narrative. Milena was beautiful and smart. The novel was suspenseful, but with the extra twist of a love story that lasted many years and added a heart-wrenching element to the violent lifestyles of criminals.

As I have never been to Sicily, I enjoyed the scenic descriptions and a taste of the lifestyle. Milena is a feminist character in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world. She deserved much more than what she got from her husband, Vinnie DeNunzio, and as I read what happened after the many years that separated Milena and Jimmy, I was satisfied in the end. Lowdown is a unique novel in the genre, and I highly recommend it to all readers.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

From the very first page to the last, Lowdown is a well-crafted, finely-tuned mafia novel. Spanning decades, the novel follows two intersecting narratives. One is the mafia tough guy -Jimmy- who joins the Life and ends up doing a lot of time -25 years to be precise, returning to a world that barely seems like the one he left. The other is the young Italian girl -Milena- who marries a mafia prince, a ruthless streetfighting prince.

There are , of course, many echoes of The Godfather and Goodfellas, even to the extent of some goombah quoting lines from the movies, to the exile to Sicily, and the furious attempts to escape the law when it all begins to fall apart. But, this novel is not another copycat. It captures a time and place and attitude so well.

And, it’s not just about tough guys but also about a star-crossed romance that has few peers in literature.

In a nutshell, this book is an extremely satisfying read. Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

I enjoyed this classic crime/mafia story centered around the Brooklyn mob with Jimmy Paccini falling in love with Milena Cossutta who happens to be married to Vinnie DeNunzio. Their love affair spans 30 years and 2 continents. The story begins with Jimmy's release from prison after 25 years for ordering the murder of a rival mob member. The story alternates between going back to the beginning of his mob career and now as he tries to adjust to life on the outside. I would not call this book a thriller but it is more of a romantic mystery in my opinion. There were some places where it was rather tedious reading; however, it is an overall good read. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this very interesting book.