The Honoured Society

Book excerpt: "This is the scarcely credible story of the anarchy which followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, when the 'men of respect' of the Mafia got their grips on aristocrats, politicians, policemen, doctors, tradesmen, peasants, and even monks. Don Calo, the last of the traditional capo-mafias; 'Lucky' Luciano, the American gangster repatriated; Giuliano, the young bandit 'King of Montelepre', who ended by massacring peasants with machine-guns; the depraved and murderous monks of Mazzarino; these and an ugly gallery of other characters crowd the pages of Norman Lewis' vigorous account and vividly evoke the crushing squalor and misery of Sicily"--Back cover.