World Gone by

LoveReading Says

Maxim Jakubowski's May 2015 Book of the Month.

Set during WW2 in Florida, this is a an epic recreation of Mafia life witnessed through the eyes of an Irish mob 'consigliere' whose loyalties are caught up in the territorial wars of the Italian gangs he once presided over. Although the main character is as much a ruthless killer as the thugs he now advises, Lehane wonderfully manages to draw the reader into evoking sympathy for Joe Coughlin's meticulous planning and strategy and his protective feelings for his own partly orphaned son as a ferocious net closes around him that leads to a bloody conclusion.

A gallery of vividly-etched characters embraces kingpins and henchmen alike and strikingly brings the protagonists and the period to life, together with the vivid southern landscape that extends to Cuba and beyond. Not just another version of The Godfather from a different point of view but an acute vision of the mechanisms of evil and Lehane's best and most exciting novel since Mystic River and his Kenzie and Gennaro series. ~ Maxim Jakubowski

Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
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About World Gone by

'The best gangster novel since The Godfather' Stephen King Joe Coughlin is untouchable. Once one of America's most feared and prominent gangsters, he now moves effortlessly between the social elite, politicians, police and the mob. He has everything he could possibly want; money, power, a beautiful mistress, and anonymity.

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