What an interesting book about a love story that spanned over a long time and much more. This book was a romantic thriller. It was interesting to read about the mob and learn more about the violence and dangers that can come with it. I especially enjoyed reading about Jimmy and getting to know his character more. Thank you for the ARC copy.

This book grabbed me at page one and didn't let me go, as it was well written. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

Jimmy served his time, a LONG time, abd kept his mouth shut. Now he's home and trying to figure out what comes next. Milena is a mob princess looking for love. This is a gritty story about loss, love and redemption. Well done.

This novel had all the elements of a good read. There was a promise of an interesting story, there were good guys and bad guys (both well delineated), the prose, itself, grabbed me and kept my interest.

There was so much that was enjoyable about this book that I hate to bring up the negative which was all the jumping around in the time line. As well as it was written, it was impossible (for me, at least) to have any sense, at all, about the sequence of events. If each chapter had been headed with a character’s name and year of the flash back, it would have helped. I read about 1/3 of the book before realizing that I had no idea what was going on. It had become a muddle of memories. After setting the initial scenes, it seemed that the whole book was a series of flashbacks to different time periods about different characters.

I received this Kindle edition as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Permanent Press. I’m sorry I was not able to follow the story and finish it.

I LOVE THIS COVER! Something about it gets me. Very criminal minds/godfather! I loved this one - The dialogue was so well done, I thought I was watching a film! Not just that but the plot was madness! I totally recommend this!

I LOVED this book! I am about the same age as Jimmy Piccini, the protagonist, and wow, what memories of living in and around NYC in the 1980's this has brought back. Great writing!
What a well rounded novel - the setting is so realistic, you feel as though you are right there, the story is so compelling, who hasn't wondered what it would be like to serve time in jail, then be released 25 years later back into a world that is at once foreign and familiar? The characters all have depth, especially, Jimmy and Milena, both flawed people, but you root for them anyway. Even the people we don't know personally, just by the other characters interacting with them, makes each one whole and interesting.
From Brooklyn to Sicily, the descriptions of the landscape and social customs of the people were so vivid, I found myself thinking about them often during the day.
I had no idea how this was going to end, and I like that - I hate it when I have already figured out everything by the middle of the book. The flashbacks were very well done, not confusing, very enlightening, and the ending was the best!

Interesting inside look at mafia crime family, traced through an illicit romance that survives decades of separation and countless obstacles.

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.

We also follow Milena’s story. Her and Jimmy’s meeting, her involvement, their connection, and their lives.

Anthony Schneider gives a story of the reality of the mob world and the families and criminal activities. His writing captivates you and you find yourself caring for these characters. I enjoyed the back and forth of past and present and being able to see into how everything develops and unfolds. It’s gritty and real.

This suspenseful story of survival, second chances, and hope gripped me from the start.

It is a tale as old as time: two star-crossed lovers are separated after an intense affair. One is a Mafia henchman, the other another mobster's wife. The guy serves 25 years in prison for a hit he orchestrated. She is stuck with an unfaithful and inattentive husband and has to flee to Italy to avoid prosecution. The characters are drawn very humanely: you'll think about the ones famously enshrined on The Sopranos.. The settings are realistic enough to want you to take a trip to Brooklyn and Sicily where the major plot points unfold. I highly recommend this book.

This is a romantic thriller. The setting is in New York City’s mafia families. It’s a love story, with tough guys and murder and mystery; part crime thriller and part romance. It includes gangsters, gambling, crime families and general mayhem. It was an ok read for me. Advance reader copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

Great mix of mobster life and love story. Slow start but picks up. .

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

Review:Lowdown by Anthony Schneider. Well written with a decent storyline but I was expecting a thriller or mystery. I would categorize this as Adult fiction. The story focuses on the JIMMY before and after his 25 year incarceration and involvement with the Mafia. ⭐⭐⭐3 stars.

Remarkable in many ways; an intimate look inside the East Coast mob, an insightful look at a man's quarter century in prison, a picturesque look at a stay in Sicily, a look at expatriot life, and a tale of a romance, both illicit and proper. The character development is superb, the prose subtle, intelligent and absorbing.

Wow. What a well-written book. A quiet story of youth and maturity, impulse and restraint, violence and tenderness, Lowdown will be added to those very few books that I will read again and again.

Anthony Schneider created characters very different from me, yet he lured me into believing them, caring about them, and rooting for their unlikely success. His dialogue is natural and authentic. The story is built slowly and skillfully, layering the bits of knowledge he shares with readers about each character and each pivotal event.

Others have called this book a romantic thriller, but it transcended either genre. Jimmy Paccini, a former Brooklyn mob figure, is released from a 25-year prison sentence as the book opens. Milena, married to another mobster, loved Jimmy when he was a young man. Both Jimmy and Milena have a quiet intelligence and a savvy discretion, and both are capable of violence and criminality.

Taking us both backward and forward in time, the author puts organized crime in a personal context. This is not a gangster book -- this is a story about complex human beings working out how to survive, set amidst the Mafia of the 1980s and onward.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

First let me say that I love anything about the mob. Casino, Goodfellas and The Godfather saga are my favorite movies. This book really tells of the life of organized crime and all it entails. It was part crime thriller part romance and the combination of the 2 is what kept me reading. At times I wasn’t going to finish this book because of all the characters to keep track of and I really thought it was way too long, but in the end it turned out to be a pretty good book. The ending was wonderful and heartfelt. Thank you netgalley for letting me give an honest review of this book.

Two main characters created by author Anthony Schneider make his novel, “Lowdown,” shine with originality. Although neither are exactly paragons of virtue, their story is told with a dramatic patina that makes them lustrous and memorable.

Told by two protagonists, Jimmy Piccini and Milena Cossutta, both Brooklyn natives with mob leanings, who find early romance amid tangled mob operations. Jimmy eventually gets time in prison for assisting in a mob hit while Milena settles, in his absence, for a marriage to wealthy Vincent DeNunzii, a high up in the Ruggeiro crime family, who she believes can provide the security she craves in her life. But the two ill-fated lovers never forget each other.

Schneider uses flashbacks to tell his two-pronged story. Jimmy spends a quarter- century behind bars, keeping his mouth shut and earning respect from other mobsters for his loyalty. Milena finds her marriage a prison of its own, under the emotional control of Vinnie who turns vicious in his relationship with her. The author is adept at telling their stories as each life unfolds under totally different circumstances. Jimmy’s life behind bars is the usual mix of subtle threat and violence that, somehow, he manages with a cool-headed style that keeps him safe.
Milena finds herself becoming more involved with criminal activity as a means to neutralize the ineptitude of her booze and drug-swilling husband who sinks ever deeper into despondency that threatens both her and their two children.

So what’s the result here? As you read the book, and you should, these disparate difficulties will merge together with a surprising outcome. You will find yourself becoming more intrigued with Schneider’s work as the book progresses. There is clear writing, good dialogue, and clever characterization. Even the abundance of Italian names never got tedious or cumbersome for me. The atmosphere was realistic, perhaps assisted by the beautiful language adaptations.

Lowdown, a romantic thriller set in the world of New York City’s mafia families, has the best first paragraph I’ve read in a long time:

“The first seven years you’re in the can, all you can think about is revenge. The next seven years you crave freedom and things you remember from before. You want to get laid more than you want to get even. After that you’re not so sure. You know you want to be on the other side, but you don’t trust your memories. People have died, gone to prison, disappeared. Places you remember have closed down. Freedom is just a dream, something you imagine often but incompletely. Part of you is scared of it. Prison has become your life. You may hate it, but it’s home. You’re not even sure if you hate it anymore. That’s what twenty-five years in the calendar shop does to you.”

Jimmy, a made man, is finally getting out of prison. He states:

”You are outside the prison gates. You’re fifty-eight years old and a newborn.”

But this is not just Jimmy’s story about reinventing himself after being a stand-up guy for twenty-five years, it also the story of young Milena. Milena is only thirteen when her story begins. She is an Italian teenage girl in the 1970s. Against the background of notorious NYC serial killers and the Vietnam war, her role is to get married and have children. Milena rebels against this stereotype by making poor choices in men and getting involved in crime. Eventually, she marries a made man and they have children. Her husband pulls her into his world with varying results.

Forgive me for quoting so much of the book but the language used is part of the charm of Lowdown. While it has mob killings and rats, it is more a love story of two people in a difficult setting finding each other. I love mafia movies and was expecting something along the lines of The Godfather. This is similar to the life story of Kay Adams-Corleone (Michael’s wife played by Diane Keaton) written after divorcing Michael. It is definitely more of a romance than a mafia book. It is recommended for readers who want an original perspective on mob life. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Permanent Press, and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lowdown by Anthony Schneider is a wise guys best dream book.
If you're into old time. gangsters, gambling, crime families and general mayhem, this is the book for you!
I, personally, never could get into the storyline at all, but then it’s not my favorite genre of writing.

No, I don't really know what mobsters are like but I FEEL like I do after reading this book. The characters are very realistic without being caricatures, and the story is surprisingly sensitive and appealing. This is a book that will stay in my mind.

Lowdown by author Anthony Schneider is a gritty look into the lives of a mob family and forbidden love. It's running from the feds and loving someone locked up in the federal penitentiary. I absolutely loved this book as well as characters in it! I greatly recommend this novel!!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of Lowdown in exchange for an honest review.