Book Nook: This reviewer’s three favorite crime novels from the summer

Buddy works for mobsters in Las Vegas. As he meets Lillian he observes her working in a clothing store. He notices when a client is in the dressing room Lillian rifles through the customer’s purse. Initially Buddy wasn’t attracted to Lillian but when he realized her larcenous proclivities his heart went boom, boom.

Not long after they married they had to leave, as there’s a contract out on Buddy. They went to a place where they could hide; Oklahoma City. It is the mid 1970s and Buddy has a genius idea, to open a disco. His family helps out. Jeremy makes a TV commercial showing off his disco moves, bruiser Ray becomes their bouncer, brilliant Alice keeps the accounting books; both sets.

After that we move along in time and drop into key periods in the lives of the four oldest siblings. Jeremy is stunningly handsome and seems to lack any moral fiber whatsoever. He’s also incredibly lucky. He moves to Los Angeles to become a movie star. He ends up becoming a gigolo, ripping off rich older women.

Next we have Tallulah. It is now 1994 and she is living in Moscow right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She’s an acrobat by day and a cat burglar by night. She ends up trying to rescue a little girl who has been abandoned. She is the Mercurio with the biggest heart. We love her.

Then there’s Ray. Big dumb Ray became a mob enforcer in Las Vegas. He is also the emotional center of this novel-he really isn’t dumb and he doesn’t like killing people; although he is rather good at it. Ray wants to change-we are hoping that he can. It is still the mid 1990s and in Ray we also get some wonderfully humorous moments.

Finally we get to Alice. It is 2006-she has distanced herself from her family, living an honest life as a high-powered New York attorney. Then she gets sucked down into a bizarre gopher hole: her boss is being blackmailed-she directs Alice to go to Arizona to obtain compromising photos from the blackmailer. Eerily hilarious.

“Crooks” is Lou Berney’s masterpiece. Legendary crime writer Don Winslow stated it “stands with some of the finest crime novels ever written.” I agree. It was the most entertaining book I read this summer.