Pesos: The Rise and Fall of a Border Family

La Greca recounts his chaotic upbringing as the son of Pietro La Greca Sr., a con man dubbed Mexico’s “real-life Don Corleone,” in this diverting memoir. “Jefe,” as La Greca calls his bossy dad, an Italian from Caserta, opened a high-end Italian clothing store in Tijuana in the 1960s. He made his first million by burning it down, one of several insurance frauds. When the Mexican peso was devalued in 1982, Jefe began a foreign exchange empire along the border, supported by a loan from a U.S. bank funneled through a Las Vegas casino. When that scheme fell through, he cut the currency exchange rate at his money-changing outlets, setting off a panic and running afoul of the Mexican government, and later the cartels, which sent his family on the run. La Greca and his mother, Maria, enjoyed Rolexes, Rolls-Royces, Vegas vacations, and polo games with royalty, but were frequent targets of Jefe’s rages. Though greed tore the family apart, Maria and La Greca’s grandfather offered him love, loyalty, and a path to a stable adulthood. He even forgave his father, who he sees as an insecure man. La Greca proves a snappy raconteur of this turbulent tale. Fans of true crime and epic family sagas will not want to miss this one. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Nov.)