The Confessions of Al Capone
From the always reliable Estleman comes this involving novel in which a low-level employee of the FBI is given a plum assignment: infiltrate the inner circle of Al Capone—recently released from Alcatraz—and get as much information as he can about Capone’s fellow criminals. Peter Vasco is picked for the job because he has an entrée into Capone’s world (his father once did some odd jobs for Capone’s gang), and posing as a priest, he quickly gains Capone’s confidence. He expected to get some good dirt on the man, but one thing Vasco didn’t expect was that he would like Capone. This is really two books in one: the story of Vasco’s relationship with Capone, and Capone’s own story, told in his own (fictionalized) words. Estleman looks at the gangster with a compassionate eye, revealing him to be ruthless and violent, of course, but also to be a devoted family man with a deep, albeit ambiguous, moral core. We’ve seen Capone before, in movies and in books, but we haven’t seen him like this—a textured human being for whom crime is a career but isn’t necessarily what defines him. --David Pitt