The End of Our Thing

In the mid-20th century, the American Mafia operated under a shield of secrecy so profound that its very existence was a matter of debate. To its initiated members, it was a sacred brotherhood, a family, a hidden nation with its own laws and rituals. They called it Cosa Nostra—Our Thing. And for a time, under the quiet, corporate leadership of Frank "The Prime Minister" Costello, their thing was more peaceful and profitable than ever before. But that peace is shattered when Vito Genovese, a man of raw ambition and unparalleled brutality, returns from exile to claim the throne he believes is his. So begins a decades-long war for the soul of the organization, a struggle pitting Costello's modern, diplomatic approach against Genovese's old-world philosophy of terror and violence. This is the definitive story of that rivalry, a conflict fought not just with guns in back alleys, but with strategy in boardrooms, testimony in televised hearings, and betrayal in the deepest corners of the federal prison system. It details how the ambition of these two titans led directly to the Mafia's most public humiliations: the farcical Apalachin summit, where the organization's national scope was laid bare, and the subsequent Valachi hearings. Based on extensive historical fact, this novel reveals how Vito's relentless paranoia inadvertently created Joe Valachi, the man who would stand before the world and give their secret society its name. This is the story of how the personal war between two dons became the reckoning for the entire American underworld, arming the government with the knowledge and the laws to hunt them to near extinction, and bringing about The End of Our Thing.