Thank you to William Morrow, #partner, for the advanced copy of Crooks in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: September 9, 2025
Summary:
From award-winning author Lou Berney comes an electrifying new novel that follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.
You’ve never met a family like the Mercurios.
They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals?
For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City—a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime—until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.
Jeremy, the family’s Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s.
Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow.
Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he’s ever known.
Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life.
And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.
Crooks is an epic novel about a truly unforgettable crime family—and their lives across forty years of corruption, each Mercurio living with the weight of a dark legacy that ultimately threatens to destroy the whole family.
My thoughts:
Crime fiction is my sweet spot and this family saga about a crime family was unlike anything I’ve read…it totally consumed me. I’ve always loved family sagas, but I don’t think I’ve ever read one about a family so drawn to crime, always looking for that next scam or con. And I loved that we got to know each of the members of the family intimately, spending time with one family member before moving on to the next. It almost reads as short vignettes as we move from person to person and while we do spend quite a bit of time with each one, I found myself still wanting more — that’s how invested I became. This novel spans 40 years and yet it seems to fly by…I was so absorbed in the characters and what was happening that the pages just seem to flip themselves.
This is a must-read for anyone who loves to see in-depth character journeys happening across the pages, likes a little crime and just enjoys good storytelling!
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