Italian organised crime is the backdrop for the latest suspenseful page-turner from Gerald Seymour, still on top of his game 40 years after the publication of Harry’s Game. The main players in the novel - Jago Browne, a moral, ordered and honourable young english banker based in Berlin, and Marcantonio Cancello, the ruthless grandson of a Mafia Boss - cross paths and Jago’s life is profoundly changed when he witnesses the futility of pursuing people like these through normal legal channels. Innocent and unworldly he may be but he can’t just walk away and determines to try and make a difference, unaware of how his actions will affect situations and people all over Europe. Colour and context are brought by a panoply of characters and you, the reader, are quickly submersed into all their lives as you get dragged towards the thrilling conclusion.
Two young men - Jago and Marcantonio - both studying business and finance: Jago is a kid from a rough part of London who has worked hard to get a job in a bank and is now on a fast-track secondment to the Berlin office. Marcantonio is one of the new generation in the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria, Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses all over Europe. When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault and the police seem uninterested, the Englishman refuses to let the matter drop. But by pursuing the gangster to his grandfather's mountain lair, Jago is stepping into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation, which sets alarm bells ringing in Rome, London and Berlin. It also leads him to Consolata, a young woman who sees in Jago the chance to turn her non-violent protest campaign against the crime families into something altogether more lethal... NO MORTAL THING is novel of relentless power and mounting suspense, a brilliant portrayal of organised crime in Europe and the under-resourced men and women who fight it.
