The Palucci Vendetta

From the timeless beauty of rural Sicily to the glamour of English high society and the violence of Prohibition America, *The Palucci Vendetta* traces the fortunes of a family whose lives are irrevocably altered the day a tragic accident occurs in the forest near their Sicilian farm. Giuseppe Palucci has worked hard all his life to achieve his ambition − to become the owner of the land he tills. Now, in his twilight years, his dreams are realised: by buying up parts of the estate on which his family live, he has gained independence from his overlords, the aristocratic d'Abrizzio family. Giuseppe is well respected by the tiny community to which the Paluccis belong, and his eight children are good-looking and strong − a credit to Giuseppe and his wife Maria. But Giuseppe is blind to the flaws in his children: he cannot see the growing discontent in Mario, his most handsome son, who craves the excitement of a big city; he cannot see what longing eats at his daughter Francesca − her infatuation for the son of the Duke d'Abrizzio. Giuseppe loves to tell his friends he is the happiest man in Sicily − and so he is, until the fateful day when his dreams are shattered, and the Palucci vendetta is spawned… Severed from their life of happiness and prosperity, the Paluccis swear revenge on the family which has caused their ruin. But this bloody vendetta will reach far beyond Sicily… to a manor house in the English countryside… and to the gangster-run Chicago of the 1920s, where old debts must finally be repaid. −Dust jacket flap of hardcover edition