The Godfather Returns Series by Mark Winegardner

THE MISSING YEARS FROM THE GREATEST CRIME SAGA OF ALL TIME Thirty-five years ago, Mario Puzo's great American tale, "The Godfather," was published, and popular culture was indelibly changed. Now, in "The Godfather Returns," acclaimed novelist Mark Winegardner continues the story-the years not covered in Puzo's bestselling book or in Francis Ford Coppola's classic films. It is 1955. Michael Corleone has won a bloody victory in the war among New York's crime families... moreTHE MISSING YEARS FROM THE GREATEST CRIME SAGA OF ALL TIME Thirty-five years ago, Mario Puzo's great American tale, "The Godfather," was published, and popular culture was indelibly changed. Now, in "The Godfather Returns," acclaimed novelist Mark Winegardner continues the story-the years not covered in Puzo's bestselling book or in Francis Ford Coppola's classic films. It is 1955. Michael Corleone has won a bloody victory in the war among New York's crime families. Now he wants to consolidate his power, save his marriage, and take his family into legitimate businesses. To do so, he must confront his most dangerous adversary yet, Nick Geraci, a former boxer who worked his way through law school as a Corleone street enforcer, and who is every bit as deadly and cunning as Michael. Their personal cold war will run from 1955 to 1962, exerting immense influence on the lives of America's most powerful criminals and their loved ones, including Tom Hagen, the Corleone Family's lawyer and consigliere, who embarks on a political career in Nevada while trying to protect his brother; Francesca Corleone, daughter of Michael's late brother Sonny, who is suddenly learning her family's true history and faces a difficult choice; Don Louie Russo, head of the Chicago mob, who plays dumb but has wily ambitions for muscling in on the Corleones' territory; Peter Clemenza, the stalwart Corleone underboss, who knows more Family secrets than almost anyone; Ambassador M. Corbett Shea, a former Prohibition-era bootlegger and business ally of the Corleones', who wants to get his son elected to the presidency-and needs some help from his old friends; Johnny Fontane, the world's greatest saloon singer, who ascends to new heights as a recording artist, cozying up to Washington's power elite and maintaining a precarious relationship with notorious underworld figures; Kay Adams Corleone, who finally discovers the truth about her husband, Michael-and must decide what it means for their marriage and their children and Fredo Corleone, whose death has never been fully explained until now, and whose betrayal of the Family was part of a larger and more sinister chain of events. Sweeping from New York and Washington to Las Vegas and Cuba, "The Godfather Returns "is the spellbinding story of America's criminal underworld at mid-century and its intersection with the political, legal, and entertainment empires. Mark Winegardner brings an original voice and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters while creating several equally unforgettable characters of his own. "The Godfather Returns "stands on its own as a triumph-in a tale about what we love, yearn for, and sometimes have reason to fear . . . family. "From the Hardcover edition." less

The third, and final, installment in Mario Puzo's epic chronicle of the Corleone crime family-one of the most enduring lineages in American literature and cinema-achieves a stunning crescendo with a story that imagines the role of the Mafia in the assassination of a young, charismatic president. It's impossible to overstate the influence of Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which has become an essential part of our cultural lexicon... moreThe third, and final, installment in Mario Puzo's epic chronicle of the Corleone crime family-one of the most enduring lineages in American literature and cinema-achieves a stunning crescendo with a story that imagines the role of the Mafia in the assassination of a young, charismatic president. It's impossible to overstate the influence of Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which has become an essential part of our cultural lexicon. Puzo's novel about the secret world of organized crime became a megabestseller and an instant classic. The book inspired the Francis Ford Coppola films-unprecedented successes in their own right-and launched a national obsession with the Mafia that continues unabated today. In The Godfather's Revenge-again authorized by the Puzo Estate-Mark Winegardner moves the Corleone family onto the biggest stage of all: the intersection of organized crime and national politics. A subordinate to Michael Corleone, New Orleans underboss Carlo Tramonti is publicly humiliated when the U.S. Attorney General-President Danny Shea's brother-has him arrested and deported to Colombia. Tramonti eventually returns, hell-bent on settling scores, and triggers a series of events destined to change the course of American history. Corleone, though haunted by the death of his brother Fredo, knows that this is no time for weakness-and so, with fearless consigliere Tom Hagen leading the way, a new path for the future is forged. As the dramatic twists of The Godfather's Revenge take the reader from Las Vegas to Miami to New Orleans, from the power alleys of Washington, D.C., to the remote jungles of Colombia, the puppet master behind the curtain remains Michael Corleone, the tortured prodigal son who is determined to redefine his family's legacy and make his father-the original Godfather-proud. less