The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide

The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide is the first book of its kind in any language: the ultimate Cosa Nostra experience. Since 2006, author Carl Russo has photographed Mafia landmarks on the Italian island of Sicily: where the murders happened, where the godfathers lived, where their victims are buried. From the sunbaked fishing villages of the Mediterranean to the darkest alleys of Palermo, western Sicily is the exotic backdrop for more than 100 meticulously researched tales of murder and mayhem, packed with 200 photographs of the actual locations.

The book's historical sweep covers 150 years of revolutions, world wars, politics and popular culture—all inextricably bound to Cosa Nostra. They include the childhood home of gangster Lucky Luciano, the hideouts of the fearsome bosses of Corleone, the tombs of the "Robin Hood" bandit and the legendary dons, the roots of the American and Canadian mafias, the Allied landing, pistol-packing priests, political assassinations, playgrounds of the new Mafia and the anti-Mafia movement.

Each site and association is depicted in sharp prose and revealing images, bringing many stories to English for the first time. Whether you're planning a trip to Sicily or sticking to the comfort of your armchair, this provocative book will take you closer to the Sicilian Mafia than you dared to think possible.

"Every stone you turn in Sicily reveals a violent history. With Russo's informative guidebook in hand, the traveler will no longer stroll innocently through its streets. Crammed with fascinating facts." — Clare Longrigg, author of Mafia Women and Boss of Bosses: How Bernardo Provenzano Saved the Mafia

"A seminal piece of work that manages to bridge the gap between John Dickie's Cosa Nostra and Lonely Planet Sicily." — Crozier Green, author of The Fratellanza Contract and Gladio Resurrection