cover image Illusions of Privacy

Illusions of Privacy

Seven Major. Propeller Publishing, $14.95 trade paper (356p) ISBN 978-0-692-73021-8

This edgy first novel about a former mafia princess atoning for a lifetime of lies deftly blends elements of pop culture and gangster caricature. When Cici Russo is five years old, she’s snatched from her mother by her father, Sal Russo, a gun runner. She and her brothers grow up in a wealthy home ruled by Sal’s iron fist; he displays kindness, too, but less often. As a rebellious teen, Cici ends up on the receiving end of Sal’s bad temper when she’s drugged, kidnapped, and sent to a farm for wayward girls run by fetishy Vladimir, a Russian mobster and family friend. In her early 20s, Cici is ordered by Sal to “earn your keep” by taking someone out. It’s a botched hit, and Cici goes into hiding, having her face surgically altered and emerging as Brooke, a confidant’s recently deceased sister. The dupe lasts into Cici/Brooke’s middle age; this story is her confession to Brooke’s family and to her friends and family for decades of deception. The novel is colorful and inventive until it becomes burdened with Cici/Brooke’s midlife financial and marital problems, drug dealing, and bland, random characters. (BookLife)