Heather’s Bookshelf: Tony Accardo is Joe Batters
Author: Neil Gordon
Released: 11/08/18
Genre: Historical Fiction
“Tony Accardo was not like anyone else. Spending every waking moment plotting and conniving, he was only tolerable when his endorphins were elevated from feeling the thrill of screwing someone over.”
“Tony Accardo is Joe Batters” takes place in 1920s America and introduces the title character, Tony Accardo, a brutal associate of Al Capone and notorious hired killer for the mob. The story follows Accardo in his role during this especially violent time in the USA.
The story gives insight into who Tony Accardo was: his background, motivations, and role within and then leading Al Capone’s notorious Outfit. There are depictions of famous events including the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Then there are stories about those around him including countless mobsters, politicians, and celebrities.
Tony Accardo was ruthless, violent, and driven. He was also quite the entrepreneur. His ideas of how to expand his empire and the ways that he achieved his goals were dirty but also creative and ground breaking. I truly learned a ton about the mob boss.
Trigger Warning: violence, murder, adult and racist language, pictures/images of violence and death, torture
Overall, this story had me torn. The author pitches this story as a non-fiction. However, from the beginning there are portions of the story that consist of multi-perspective dialogue that there is no conceivable way the author would have access to. Furthermore, there are several stories that could be considered in the conspiracy realm of historical events. Therefore, I chose to review this a a historical fiction novel. As such, this is still a bit of a frustrating book. Clearly the author did a lot of research as there are countless interesting details, references, and tales sprinkled throughout the story. I really enjoyed all the anecdotes and interesting stories. However, I found the structure of the overall tale to be a little confusing at times. Portions would follow the title character but others would flash through time to explain previous events, subsequent historical characters, or future consequences. The sheer number of individuals mentioned in this book is absolutely overwhelming and hard to keep up with. I did really enjoy learning so much about Tony Accardo and appreciated the photos and the glossary of gangster slang that was included at the end of the book.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A story filled with mobsters, celebrities, big ideas, and a whole lot of violent tendencies. Unfortunately, the structure of the book left me flipping the pages back and forth.
Want to learn more about the author? Check out my interview with Neil Gordon:
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