This book is the start of a Godfather-like series about mob families based in New Orleans
headed mostly by women.
Single mom Derby Cain Casey is the head of a crime
family smuggling liquor and tobacco. Her longtime partner, Emma Verde left her
four years back. Cain has lost her parents and brothers in mob shoot-outs and
now her mentally-arrested sister, Marie, has been tortured, raped and murdered.
Cain knows what she must do next. However, life throws a zinger at her with
Emma wanting to meet their son, eleven-year old Hayden, and rebuild her
relationship with the boy. Emma and Cain were together for ten years before
Emma walked out on Cain. The reason? A very creepy cousin of Cain’s tried to
force himself on Emma. Cain sees red but Emma asks her to spare his life –
which Cain does, though she gives him a thorough beating. When Emma sees Cain’s
blood-soaked hands, she decides to walk away. Emma walks away with a huge
secret that she keeps from Cain – Emma was pregnant at the time she left. The book
deals with Cain and Emma finding their way back to each other while Cain
outwits the agents tagging her 24x7 and schemes with other mob families in the
city and in the country.
The characters just didn’t make sense. Emma was with Cain
for a decade which means that she knew what Cain is including her violent side.
And then suddenly, when they already have a seven-year-old son together and she is pregnant again, she decides
she can’t take it any more? She leaves one child, keeps the second child a
secret and is in cahoots with the FBI
to trap Cain and get her arrested? Cain makes as little sense. She is supposed
to be devoted to her family yet she seems to have left her extremely vulnerable
sister unprotected enough to be abducted and brutalized. The man that she let
go because of Emma is the one who tortured and raped Marie, yet she is
completely forgiving of Emma. With the way Cain is described, this makes zero
sense. Then there is Hayden – eleven going on forty. We don’t think we’ve ever
read a less convincing child.
This is a weird ass one without a single understandable or
likeable character.
⭐☆
