When Lucky Luciano was deported from New York to Italy in 1946 he took upwards of $100,000 with him – today about one and a half million dollars. Responsible for the formation of the five New York crime families and organised crime in America as it is today, Luciano was a career criminal – and that career continued after his deportation.
Maintaining control over his various interests in the States, at the same time he enlarged his portfolio. Casinos in Cuba (in association with then President Batista) and the importation of opium base from Turkey and Afghanistan and the export of narcotics through Naples to the USA became big business and by the time he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1962 Charlie Lucky had accumulated vast wealth.
So what happened to the money – and what is the connection with the murders of an old lady and her corrupt lawyer half a century later in London?
In Detective Chief Inspector Mike Gregory’s most challenging case we find him liaising with the FBI as he endeavours to establish the links between the New York crime world of a half century before and violent death and torture in present day London. Himself under investigation for perjury and conspiracy, Gregory unravels the complexities of Luciano’s involvement with both deaths at the same time uncovering a series of long-hidden secrets.
A master of the roman a clef, JOHN RIGBEY has come up with yet another Mike Gregory page-turner. This author, himself a former Scotland Yard officer, has truly been there, done most of it and got a lot of T shirts – many of which he admits no longer fit! But that apart, he knows how to charm and to thrill, how to take us to the edge of the cliff and back again - and his books are essential reading for devotees of crime fiction.
By the same author: The Strange Michael Folmer Affair
From the Beatles to Blair (and some of the bad behaviour in between!)
Maintaining control over his various interests in the States, at the same time he enlarged his portfolio. Casinos in Cuba (in association with then President Batista) and the importation of opium base from Turkey and Afghanistan and the export of narcotics through Naples to the USA became big business and by the time he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1962 Charlie Lucky had accumulated vast wealth.
So what happened to the money – and what is the connection with the murders of an old lady and her corrupt lawyer half a century later in London?
In Detective Chief Inspector Mike Gregory’s most challenging case we find him liaising with the FBI as he endeavours to establish the links between the New York crime world of a half century before and violent death and torture in present day London. Himself under investigation for perjury and conspiracy, Gregory unravels the complexities of Luciano’s involvement with both deaths at the same time uncovering a series of long-hidden secrets.
A master of the roman a clef, JOHN RIGBEY has come up with yet another Mike Gregory page-turner. This author, himself a former Scotland Yard officer, has truly been there, done most of it and got a lot of T shirts – many of which he admits no longer fit! But that apart, he knows how to charm and to thrill, how to take us to the edge of the cliff and back again - and his books are essential reading for devotees of crime fiction.
By the same author: The Strange Michael Folmer Affair
From the Beatles to Blair (and some of the bad behaviour in between!)
